Pandion (Italy, 2010)

The Pandion is a compact sports car concept that is powered by a 4.7 litre, 450 CV 8-cylinder Alfa Romeo engine. It measures 4620 mm in length, 1971 mm width, 1230 mm height and 2850 mm wheelbase.

Bertone returned to the Geneva Motor Show in 2010 after an absence of two years, with this concept car for Alfa Romeo, in a tribute to the Italian brand's centenary.

Bertone’s concept car owes its name to the Pandion Haliaetus, the scientific name for an Osprey: a sea hawk that nests and lives in coastal areas. Bertone’s designers were inspired by the wings of the predator to create the door opening mechanisms and by the hawks’ facial markings to project the traditional Alfa family looks in a new design style.

The Pandion is based on a concept called “Skin & Frame” – an interpretation of the inherent duality in the 100 year old Alfa Romeo logo, with “Skin” refers to the snake in the logo, representing the world renowned Italian excellence in beautiful, seductive forms and “Frame” refering to the cross in the logo, representing the mechanical excellence in high performance Italian race cars.

In the Pandion concept car this is represented in the vehicle’s spinal structure (or ‘Frame’), crossing length of the car from the V-shaped grille in the nose of the car to the V-shaped bumper in the tail of the car, crossing the interior as a visually aesthetic structural element which supports the surrounding shell (or ‘Skin’).

The front end of the Pandion concept features a long and sculpted sloping bonnet that gives it the aspect of a mask, almost like the helmets worn by ancient warriors. It has the profile of a sports car with the passenger compartment positioned towards the rear of the car and the long bonnet pushing the car’s visual centre towards the back.

At the rear end the Pandion has an array of crystal-like blades which are scrambled in various widths and lengths. The rear of the car in fact is supposed to represent a tail-of-the-comet metaphor, intending go give the car the look as if it is moving even when it is standing still.

Another feature of the Pandion are the doors that open by rotating backwards. They end up at perfectly 90 degrees above the center of the rear wheel, which lifts up the entire body side of the vehicle, from the front fender to the rear fender.