On June 25, 1890, Ugo Zagato, one of the most famous Italian designers, was born. He started his company in 1919. At the beginning of his career, Zagato completed orders for small companies, but gradually established business relations with the automobile grand of that time — Alfa Romeo, and later -with FIAT and Lancia. Zagato’s focus was mainly in sportscar bodies. He had a hand in the best Alfa Romeo models of that time (6C 1500, 6C 1750 and 8C 2300), and Alfa Romeo 1750 and 1750 Gran Sport cars became the progenitors of a new class of cars — GT («gran turismo»). During the World War II the company’s factory was destroyed by bombing and in 1946 Zagato built a new one on which the production of sports bodies was resumed. Among the best works of Zagato of that time were racing cars Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 and 159 which won Formula-1 championship titles in 1950-51. The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of the company when the FIAT 8V Zagato, Lancia Appia Sport, Alfa Romeo — TZ1, TZ2 and Junior Zagato were created. At the same time, a corporate identity, called the “double bubble”, took shape — a bubble-shaped, convex roof and a truncated tail.
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