The 1970s was a rough patch for many in the automobile industry. Sure, there were a few iconic gems here and there—the Lamborghini Countach, Lancia Stratos, Lotus Esprit, and BMW M1 spring to mind—but rising fuel prices, tightening emissions, and fuel economy regulations contributed to what many think of as the automotive dark ages…and generally moribund engineering and design.

However, one country that mostly escaped unscathed, at least as far as design was concerned, was Italy. Italian cars are the epitome of style, with great taste (but sometimes funky engineering), and while many other car companies were making excuses, Italy was still producing cars that had panache in spades.

Petrolicious thought it pertinent to see what stylish Italian steeds from the ’70s might be crossing the block, and to make it interesting we purposely excluded Ferraris and Lamborghinis. We don’t want to make it too easy on ourselves, do we?

petrolicious alfa montreal petrolicious fiat 130 petrolicious Iso Grifo petrolicious maserati merak

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