AUGUST 2000

In August 2000, Stola s.p.a. acquired an important job for Renault’s commercial vehicle department through Gianfranco Ferrera, their commercial representative for France.
The project was known as X83-H2, and the goal was to engineer an additional high roof version of the upcoming Trafic second series, including the two rear swing doors.
It had to be considered that Renault required that these interventions would apply to two different wheelbases of the vehicles and therefore had to work with modularity concepts for the volume behind the cab.

An integral part of the project was the realisation of the technical validation prototypes that would be produced in Rivoli, and the assistance of the Stola technical team for the series production start which would take place at the Renault-Nissan production plant in Barcelona.

This second "base" series was to be marketed in September 2001 under the Renault brand, and would be followed with versions for Opel, Vauxhall and Nissan known as Trafic, Vivaro,Vivaro and Primastar respectively. Sales of the high roof version was projected for early 2003.
Gottardo Bustreo followed the X82-H2 not only as Stola engineering director, but also as project manager.
For good synergy, a Stola technical-management office was set up in France, in the IDVU (Ingegnérie Division Vèhicules Utilitaires) area, which dealt with Renault technicians on a daily basis.
Part of the engineering work, including structural calculations, was carried out in the Cinisello Balsamo offices. Work in progress was sent to Renault in Villars Saint Fréderic, a town a few kilometers west of Paris.

Every two weeks there was an alignment of work progress through a scheduled meeting between the Stola and Renault technical departments.
Following an agreement with the customer,Gianfranco Morlacchi, responsible for Stola's engineering systems, organised the data connection between the two sites aimed at transferring the mathematical models and drawings using the Odette protocol, guaranteeing data security.
The project was developed using Catia software. Mathematical models and drawings sent to IDVU were then converted into Euclid format and added to their database.
At the end of the design phase, as per the contract, Messrs Bustreo, Ramundo, Tonoli and Lelogeais moved to Spain for around a year in order to work in the Nissan / Renault factory, assisting in putting the vehicle into production.

March 2003 at the Renault / Nissan plant in Barcelona, the Stola designers follow the pilot line assembly phases of the first Renault Trafic raised roof vehicles.

March 2003 the first Nissan Primastar vehicle is at the Renault / Nissan plant.

The Stola team dealt directly with the Renault plant manager Stefan Mercier who was responsible for, among other things, coordinating suppliers.
These were weekly meetings and, for the first time for Stola, they were performed via video conference.
The Stola Team was composed of the technicians Ramundo Pietro, Alvaro Puglisi, Tonoli Mauro, Claudio Locati, Roberto Livieri , Lelogeais Yannick, Gianfranco Morlacchi, Carlo Cavaglià, Shosho, Carignano, Cisillino, Di Lonardo and Peccolo working for two and a half years with colleagues from the transalpine automotive company Simon Luque, Valèrie Ardouin and Stefan Mercier.

March 2003 Barcelona at the Renault / Nissan plant a part of the team of Stola designers: Claudio Locati, Gottardo Bustreo, Volérie Brusseau, Pietro Ramundo, Yannick Lelogeais, Stèfan Mercier.