Italdesign to launch V10 supercar at Geneva

Legendary Italian design house Italdesign is set to launch a super-exclusive own-brand V10 supercar at the Geneva motor show next month.

 

The car, which introduces a new marquee called Italdesign Automobili Speciali, uses a 5.2-litre V10 engine shared with the top-end versions of the Audi R8. It also adopts Audi’s quattro permanent four-wheel drive system. Top speed is estimated at 330kph and the 0-100kph acceleration time will be just 3.2sec. The company’s engineers promise “racing car performance with type approval”, so the car can be used on normal roads.

 

Just five cars will be made, aimed at “collectors and visionary enthusiasts”, and Italdesign expects to deliver the first finished model before the end of the year. Individual owners will be offered a wide variety of trim, equipment and performance personalisation options.

 

“For the first time we can offer collectors the chance to order a true made-to-measure car,” said Filippo Perini, Italdesign’s supercar project chief and head of innovation design. Perini added that every year from now on, the company will develop a new car bearing its own badge, “always in a very exclusive number of examples”.

 

Sophisticated aerodynamics and lightweight construction will be major themes in Italdesign’s new supercar. The body panels are made entirely of carbon-fibre, and the car is expected to have a kerb weight which will undercut the Volkswagen Group’s other V10-engined supercar models – the R8 and the Lamborghini Aventador – which weigh 1,595kg and 1,575kg, respectively.

 

The new car’s engineers are revealing little about the provenance of their new car’s underpinnings, confirming only that it uses “a modular chassis in carbon-fibre and aluminium”.

 

There’s no suggestion that anyone but Italdesign created this car. However, company insiders say it is the work of a 60-strong band of designers, engineers, technicians and composite experts, brought together under Perini.

 

“This project is the result of almost 50 years’ expertise in design, engineering and construction of fully functional automobiles,” said Perini. “We are absolutely delighted to make our debut in this market.