The last time I compiled a photo gallery of vintage vehicles, I wrote about guys and their love of cars, more precisely, their love of their first car.
This time around, the story is about women and cars. Or, specifically, one woman who made history in the automotive industry.
In 1982, the Ford Motor Company knew that General Motors was getting ready to introduce the Pontiac Fiero, its first two-seat sports car in more than 40 years and the first mid-engine car produced in the U.S. Ford had developed its own two-seater (the first since the 1960s), the EXP, but it was a standard front-engine vehicle; Ford wanted a mid-entry “concept car” to use to tout its entry into the small sports car field, implying it too could produce a mid-engine sportster.
The company shipped a couple of EXP chassis to Ghia, at the time its European design center, with instructions to design a mid-engine concept car that appeared ready to take the road. Ghia’s managing director at the time, Filippo Sapino, gave the assignment to Marilena Corvasce, one of four designers he had on staff. The result was the Ghia Brezza, the first car designed from start to finish by a woman.
The task wasn’t simple; Corvasce cut one EXP chassis in front of the rear axle and the other behind the front wheels and then welded them together. But it worked. Unlike auto show concept cars that “cheated” by incorporating an electric motor to make up for a design that wouldn’t accommodate a normal engine, the Brezza used a stock EXP 1.6-liter four-cylinder and automatic transmission.
The car never went into production and Corvasce never got any acclaim at the time, but the Historic Vehicle Association, a 375,000-member group based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, recently chose to give the Brezza and designer Corvasce its HVA Heritage Award for the first car designed bumper-to-bumper by a woman.
Here is a link to the gallery.
Greg Hatala may be reached at [email protected].