C SPORTCOUPE'
Styling models were the real reason for trying since 1988 to gain Mercedes as a customer for STOLA spa.
We did not think about Show Cars or prototypes, but only in proposing a different way to realize the conventional styling models as we had the first time with the SAAB 95 in 1987.
Peter Pfeiffer.It was known that the Sindelfingen Style Center modelled in Clay,We wanted to propose the "See Through" method in Hard Material in 7 Weeks. According to us it would be faster, cheaper, easily transportable around the world, more stable and above all more real at the time of presentation.
A process that involved the milling of the model from the customers mathematical surfaces, two weeks of manual changes on one side, followed by symmetrization through a final milling. The opportunity let them experience this method and allowed them to gain confidence gained in the process with the newly delivered Fcc Car Show.
A final challenge to ourselves was the offer to give them a model build , Mr. Bruno Sacco replied that it was not necessary for us to give them give a job, but only to convince his deputy Peter Pfeiffer with a demonstration.
In the spring of 1995 the mathematics were ready, this was an advanced phase of a C-Class Sport Coupé, a totally new segment for Mercedes. The test for Peter Pfeiffer would last about two and a half hours, just the amount of time needed for a dinner at the National Restaurant in Rivoli, together with Roberto and Alfredo Stola.
Pfeiffer landed in Turin Caselle from Stuttgart in the late afternoon after viewing the finished but un-painted model, he provocatively positioned various black tapes on the lower side of the door and sill.
A total distortion of style, but aimed at showing a very obvious change request.
His request was then to go to dinner and return to see the modelling progress in a couple of hours to see if the Stola modellers had been able to work the hard material as he would have been able to do with Clay.
The dinner, although pleasant, was a little tense, in those years mobile phones were not so widespread as to have some news of the work in progress. A complete menu was selected so as to gain as much time as possible, and for the return journey, the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio Verde with Roberto Stola at the wheel, never exceeded 50 km/h.
The test was passed with flying colors, following on from that evening we would go on to make about ninety styling models for Mercedes , exteriors, interiors and aerodynamic.
1995 In Stola spa in Rivoli, the first See Trough model in Hard Material is produced as a test.
The following autumn, the Sindelfingen Style Center commissioned 6 different models of the C Sport Coupé to be produced almost simultaneously and to be delivered in a week.
A seemingly impossible challenge that was overcome thanks to the courage of Roberto Stola, he accepted the proposal immediately under the incredulous gaze of the modelling technicians.
Rivoli 1995 Massimo Stola, with Carlo Mantovani, has been in charge of the CAD, CAS and CAM area of Stola spa since the early 1980s.
Carlo Mantovani.
And, if that were not enough, Mercedes also ordered STOLA spa to make all the CAS mathematics for these C Sport Coupés under the direction of their respective designers who would be resident in Rivoli for the duration of the work.
1996 in Rivoli in Stola spa six different style models of the C-Class SportCoupè are produced simultaneously.
The design is from the Mercedes Style Center and their stylists work together with the modelers of the Stola.
The directors Bruno Sacco and Peter Pfeiffer visit Rivoli every week.
STOLA spa had struck lucky as Daimler Benz were planning to build a brand new Renzo Piano designed styling center between 1997 and 1999, so it was that in 1996 the Mercedes management asked us to be their modeling shop for two years while the new facility was being built.
The work on the new style center was extended for another year, and the so modelling work also continued in Rivoli.
The experience for the Sindelfngen Style Center was so positive that they set up optional Italian language courses for their designers and STOLA spa did the same with English for its modellers.
1997 The Mercedes Style Center project.
1999 Work in progress of the Style Center in Sindelfingen.
2000 The creation of the Style Center strongly desired by Bruno Sacco is completed in Sindelfingen.