The Bertone Ramarro: When Italy Reimagined the Corvette

By the mid 1980s, America’s sports car was reaching its peak with the fourth generation of the Corvette. After a few years of disappointing powertrains and an aging C3 platform, Chevrolet had finally set the stage for modern Corvette engineering with the C4. The fourth-gen Corvette (1984–1996) was a “clean sheet” redesign. It dragged the model out of the muscle-car era and into the modern sports car world by pushing technology boundaries and prioritizing handling and aerodynamics over raw brute power.

With its digital dash, pop-up headlights, and sleek body lines, the new Vette captivated car enthusiasts worldwide, including Italy’s oldest coachbuilder, Bertone. With a team led by French designer Marc Deschamps, they created the Bertone Ramarro, a futuristic concept car based on the Corvette C4 chassis, unveiled at the 1984 Los Angeles Auto Show. Today, we look back at this fusion of American brawn with Italian flair.