Touring Superleggera

Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera is an Italian automobile coachbuilder. Originally established in Milan in 1925, Carrozzeria Touring became well known for both the beauty of its designs and patented superleggera construction methods. The business folded in 1966. In 2006 its brands and trademarks were purchased and a new firm established nearby to provide automotive design, engineering, coachbuilding, homologation services, non-automotive industrial design, and restoration of historic vehicles.

Carrozzeria Touring was established on 25 March 1926 by Felice Bianchi Anderloni (1882–1948) and Gaetano Ponzoni. After achieving success through the middle of the 20th century, the business began to decline as automobile manufacturers replaced body-on-frame automobile construction with unitary design and increasingly took coachbuilding in-house.

After the original firm ceased production in 1966, Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni and Carrozzeria Marazzi preserved the "Touring Superleggera" trademark and used it on several occasions to support the company's heritage. The trademark was acquired by the current owner, a family business, which began conducting its activities in 2006 under the name Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera S.r.l.; the new firm is headquartered nearby Milan, its hometown.

At the 2008 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, Touring debuted the Bellagio Fastback Touring, based on the Maserati Quattroporte and the A8 GCS Berlinetta Touring, a concept car powered by a Maserati drivetrain. At the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, Touring Bentley Continental Flying Star premiered: a shooting-brake model based on the Bentley Continental GTC, coach built in limited series, with the endorsement of Bentley.

In 2011, it was followed by Gumpert Tornante by Touring, a superfast Grand Tourer commissioned by the German sports car manufacturer.

On the stage of the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Touring Superleggera showcased a static style model based on the space-frame chassis of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. It was a tribute to the C52 Disco Volante, a racing car with a Touring Superleggera designed body introduced in 1952. The name in Italian stands for “Flying Saucer”. It represents one of the most iconic cars of the history of automobile. The Disco Volante was very streamlined, wind tunnel tested and with the body built on a tubular space frame. The C52 shocked the crowd for its utterly out-of-the-ordinary design, influencing the automobile design for decades.

The style model gave birth, in 2013 to the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante by Touring, a bespoke car limited-series of eight units that won that year's Design Award at Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este .

Revealed in 2014, MINI Superleggera Vision is a concept car created in collaboration with BMW Group. It is an electric roadster blending British style with the Italian coachbuilding tradition. Anders Warming, head of MINI design and Touring Superleggera merged their teams to explore new design languages for the British brand.

The Touring Berlinetta Lusso appeared in 2015. It is a street legal 2-seater coupe featuring a three-volume form based on Ferrari F12berlinetta. Like all modern Touring Superleggera models, it combines hand-beaten aluminium panels with carbon fibre. The series will be built in 5 units.

At Geneva Motor Show 2018 Touring Superleggera unveiled the Maserati-based Sciadipersia coupe and in Geneva 2019 - Sciadipersia Cabriolet. At the 15th Annual Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance in London, the Italian coachbuilder presented a new model Aero 3 which is limited to only 15 units. In 2021 the company marked its 95th anniversary with the world premiere of Arese RH95 which will be created in 18 tailor-made examples.