Turin, Italy – Italdesign is best known for the automotive design projects it does for other car companies, but now the Italian firm, which also specialises in engineering and vehicle development, is building a supercar under its own brand.
The company, which was founded by legendary designer Giorgetto Giugiaro in the late ‘60s and bought by the Volkswagen Group in 2010, will be building its new supercar, under the new Automobili Speciali brand, in very limited numbers, with just five units planned between now and the end of this year.
Aimed squarely at avid collectors, it is built almost entirely out of lightweight materials, with the bodywork in carbon fibre and the modular chassis using a combination of the latter and aluminium.
That makes minimal work for the normally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 engine which is poached from the Audi R8. Outputs have not been disclosed as yet, but Italdesign reckons its supercar is good for a 3.2-second 0-100km/h sprint time and 330km/h top speed.
Clients will be able to customise their cars “to the utmost” thanks to numerous performance and trim packages, but this kind of exclusivity won’t come cheap, even by supercar standards, with prices reportedly starting at 1.5 million euro (R20.6m) before extras.