In this specific project Giugiaro didn't have the chance to design a new car, but only to seek a new personality for what, as concerns design, was a simple restyling of the Maserati Bora. Just the rear end received significant modifications: in place of a high and powerful tail (Ghibli and Bora), Giugiaro designed a light rear where a thin pillar connects the far end of the roof to the tail section. This is a classic trait of the Turin designer: to heighten the structural member to a characteristic of shape. From the side, this graphic touch maintains the rear end's idea of continuity, while from behind it creates an unusual effect: the flat engine hood forms a right angle with the base of the rear window.

To support the introduction of the Alfasud to the Italian market in 1971, Giugiaro designed the Alfasud Caimano for the Turin Motor Show, using the sedan model's chassis and mechanical assemblies, but with the wheelbase reduced by 205 mm.

Giugiaro requested the Alfa Management's approval to experiment freely on the Alfasud platform. They agreed, but only on the condition that it was self-evident that it was a "dream car”, with no possibility of being put into production in the present or in the future.

This car, with its typical wedge-shaped outline, was much admired as a freestyle exercise. The large transparent dome/roof is the dominating aspect and the emphasis lies with the two rear pillars, which support a rollbar that also acts as a spoiler. The door forms a single whole with the roof/windshield, and it is hinged at the height of the valance. The zenithal form increased the originality of the project, enhancing the seating and the passenger compartment design. The car also features tub-shaped seats and a cylindrical-fashioned dashboard.

In 1967, Alfa Romeo's President Giuseppe Luraghi had come up with a plan on behalf of IRI, the postwar state-run Industrial Reconstruction Institute: it envisioned the creation of a new factory in Pomigliano d'Arco as a means of generating more jobs in the south of the country, where the industrial structures were weak. When Alfa Romeo President Giuseppe Luraghi made Rudolf Hruska responsible for the Alfasud project, discovering a lack of resources in Arese, the engineer found himself looking for an outsourced party to manage almost the entire order.

Hruska decided to place a number of orders relating to the concept and planning of the future factory in Pomigliano with Giugiaro's young Turin-based company, which was expected to coordinate its work with an Alfa Romeo office opened in the same city. These orders mainly concerned manufacturing methods, value analysis, and the construction of prototypes, but styling, model planning, and model making were also needed. The whole project was directly supervised by Hruska.

For the new compact front-wheel-drive car, Hruska had already finalized the overall dimensions, mechanical elements, luggage space, weight, and production costs, and these parameters could no longer be changed. Hruska's enthusiasm for motor racing was well known, and not surprisingly he kept a close eye on the aerodynamics of the new "berlinetta." It was not until much later that the Alfasud's anticipation of many future design trends became evident. The aerodynamics were convincing, as was the extremely generous interior space and the surprising boot luggage capacity.

Giugiaro is still very fond of Alfasud today: it's the first car he followed from A to Z; so it wasn't just a styling exercise like the ones he had created up until then, but rather a car to be invented and transformed, on his own, and accompanied to the assembly line.

With two- and four-door body styles, the Alfasud was first exhibited in Naples and then at the 1971 Turin Motor Show. The TI version followed in 1973 and the Alfasud Giardinetta (a station wagon) in 1975. The Alfasud Sprint Coupe was launched at the Paris show in 1976. The Spider, however, a highly interesting Giugiaro design, never reached series production. 900,000 cars in this model line were built between 1972 and 1984.

Shortly after its acquisition by Citroën in 1968, Maserati proposed a design for a two-seater mid-engine supercar similar to the Lamborghini Miura and De Tomaso Mangusta. Known originally as the Tipo 117 and only later as the Bora, Maserati began study of such a model in October 1968, and the prototype, in its final form, was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971: the first sports car in the history of the Trident with a central-rear engine (V8, 4719 cc, 310 bhp at 5000 rpm).

To create a new Maserati two-seater rear-engine coupe which the customer wants to be innovative but not revolutionary and therefore immediately acceptable by the market, Giugiaro started with the Ghibli Ghia, his successful creature.

The raised tail is softened by the elongated second window. The waistline rises towards the rear while the front wing crest has a sinuous silhouette. The low grill on the front refers to the theme of the Ghibli. The roof and windshield pillars are in brushed stainless steel. Although Giugiaro kept to a classic solution, he demonstrated that he did so with extreme professionalism and elegance. 550 models would be manufactured.