{"id":32467,"date":"2024-11-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/?p=32467"},"modified":"2025-01-03T09:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T09:03:23","slug":"have-you-ever-heard-of-the-autozodiaco-damaca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-autozodiaco-damaca\/","title":{"rendered":"Have You Ever Heard Of – The Autozodiaco Damaca?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can always rely on the Italians to bring a little bit of extra flair to the table. From simple pasta dishes to finely tailored suits, it’s pretty much a given that anything coming out of ‘Bel Paese’ will arrive with a drop of extra elegance, a pinch of added class and a dash more elan. Take this Autozodiaco Damaca for example. It may be a VW underneath but its creator and company founder Mario Zodiaco bucked the trend and danced to his own tune when it came to the design, taking the buggy in a different direction to the Meyers Manx styling that was popular at the time. Of course it was clearly influenced by the Manx but like we said, there’s a little more grace and refinement in the styling of the Autozodiaco Damaca, looking less like a bath tub on wheels and more like an actual car.<\/p>\n

\"Autozodiaco,<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of design, Zodiaco employed the services of the legendary Tom Tjaarda to style the Autozodiaco Damaca, who’s name may sound familiar due to his work on the De Tomaso Pantera, along with about a million other cars, and so the intent to create something a tad more special was there from the beginning, with said beginning being way back in 1968, when Zodiaco had a bright idea to start building dune buggies.<\/p>\n

Bit niche maybe but we all like what we like and Zodiaco was determined to make it work, so he forged ahead and started a company that would facilitate his desires, allowing him to put his own Italian stamp on the then burgeoning buggy business.<\/p>\n