There’s a song that Irving Berlin composed for the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun called Anything You Can Do. A duet, the lyrics escalate competing accomplishments finally culminating in a climactic sharpshooting contest. While both the Broadway musical and Annie Get Your Gun are uniquely American, it’s pretty apparent that when it came to the styling of popular American car models, the design houses of Italy embodied the sentiments of that song.
Whether Corvette, Mustang (above), or others, there have been a plethora of American iron clothed in the finest of Italian tailoring. Most of these have been one-offs, although some – like the Pininfarina-styled Cadillac Allante – have been built in numbers. As most were show cars, many exhibited designs that were polarizing and unsuitable for American streets. Many were attempts for the design house to make its name better known in what for a long time was the most lucrative automotive market in the world. Almost all are provocative enough to be memorable.
But which is the most memorable? Or, more succinctly, which is the most impressive re-clothing of an American car by a notable Italian design house? That would be the biggies – Bertone, Pininfarina, Zagato and their ilk. Like an ugly duckling turned beautiful swan, what American car do you think had the most breathtaking reimagining by an Italian designer?
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