Walter de’Silva is not a name one would immediately associate with a German car maker. But, alas, he is just that. de’Silva is an Italian who is Volkswagen’s design director. Previously at Audi, de’Silva is known for adding an Italian sports-car style to his designs. He reinvigorated Audi with sleek designs, and he has been exactly so for VW. The Scirocco, which is an Italian name, is a reflection of his dominance at VW and his craft.

The Volkswagen Scirocco

de’Silva stated, “We will create the iconic cars of the future” when he took over four developments at VW.

Besides his work for VW, de’Silva is quite active in design for the Bentley and the Lamborghini. Although, obviously, the latter two are in a stage of their own. Certainly the back-and-forth work between, say, the Lamborghini and the VWs must lead to cross designs. The Scirocco has a look that is not that far remove from some Lamborghini.

That is how good carmaking is done. Through the intermixing of design teams. VW will never be a Lamborghini, but it does only good for the brand if some Lamborghini dust rubs on.

It is this joint design effort across brands that GM and Ford are employing. Previously, both auto makers had independent design teams for all their brands. Besides being economically inefficient, it undermined creativity and lead to very similar designs for both, say, a Buick and a Lincoln.

VW is an open company where de’Silva has open range. Sometimes a design team will come up with a good idea, though one that would not be suitable for the car at hand. Instead of being lost, an open company may find a place for that idea else where.

That is what de’Silva does. He may see something in Lamborghini that could also work for VW. Or something in VW that may be too much for the VW, but could work for Lamborghini. With such fluidity, it is not surprising that he produces such great cars:

de’Silva with the Volkswagen Concept BlueSport roadster.

This is from de’Silva’s time at Audi. The Audi Nuvolari concept of 2003

The GTI.

The Volkswagen Up concept.

The best one is the Scirocco, unfortunately it will not be sold in America.