Despite turning 67 last Sunday, celebrated designer Giorgetto Giugiaro isn't thinking about retrirement. Instead, the Italian design guru is working flat out on his latest concept, a sports car prototype that will crown a 50-year career as one of the world's most prolific car designers.
The concept will be unveiled at the upcoming Tokyo motor show, scheduled for October but so far Giugiaro is giving nothing away. "Wait and see," he said cryptically. "Otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise."
It's hoped that the concept will cause the same gushing reaction to his last major concept creation, a coupé concept for Alfa Romeo called the Brera (pictured), which was debuted at Geneva in 2002.
That design so impressed the Italian marque that it tailored its entire range to imitate its sleek lines, scrapping late stage designs for the GT replacement which had been undertaken by Giugiaro's chief rival Pininfarina - and also for the Alfa Spyder and for the 156 update.
It also asked Giugiaro to derive a new four-model range from the Brera concept. The first of these designs, the 159 saloon - the replacement for the ageing 156 - debuted at Geneva in March. The 159 wagon, the Brera Spyder, will be unveiled at next year's show in the Swiss city.
A career that started with Fiat before leading to Bertone and his own Italdesign company has seen the 67-year-old design some of the most iconic cars of any generation, the most recognisable perhaps being the VW Golf, which appeared in 1974 - the concept is still being perfected by VW.
The next major project to be unveiled by the designer is the latest generation Fiat Punto, which will be revealed next month in Frankfurt. But the bigger splash is likely to come in Tokyo a month later.