| At this year's Geneva auto show, Pininfarina, the design house famous for its longstanding, glorious relationship with Ferrari, unveiled its homage to its former leader, Sergio Pininfarina. The highly stylized barchetta concept simply known as Sergio is based on the utterly gobsmacking 562-hp Ferrari 458 Spider. The Sergio suffers, perhaps, from over-stylization, but that's just our opinion. Those who have opinions more valid than ours, in the eyes of Pininfarina, are the handful of Moneybags McGees who plunk down their hard-earned for limited-production specials. That collection of people seems to think that our opinion is rubbish, and they're lobbying the Italian design firm to take the Sergio from homage to a select few garages. Our sources on the ground in Italy have told us that the rumor of a limited-production run of Sergios has picked up some steam since the prototype was shown at both Villa d'Este and a recent celebration of Pininfarina in London. We're hearing that serious consideration is being given to a run of five Sergios being built in Turin by 2015 at a price of $2 million a pop. Should production occur, we imagine that the car won't be allowed on American soil. Why is the Sergio suddenly so producible when such prototypes in the past would typically remain one-offs destined to linger in the Pininfarina lobby? The design house has begun use of a highly refined 3D-modeling software from French aerospace-tech gurus Dassault Systemes, which has cut considerable time and cost from its projects. It's said that the Sergio went from idea to car in just four-and-a-half months, which is pretty nuts. By saving considerable amounts of time and money through its new process, Pininfarina would be able to produce limited-production cars for the handful of clients wealthy enough to afford them. Operations like Pininfarina have had their very existence threatened throughout the past decade because of the economic downturn, and a new revenue stream such as this would be a desperately needed shot in the arm.
The Sergio stays true to the 458 Spider's chassis dimensions in wheelbase, track, and essential interior dimensions, all of which further improves the business case for production. While the 458′s bodywork is made of aluminum, the Sergio's is comprised of carbon fiber, allowing it to weigh in at some 330 pounds less than the Spider. Will the trick center-locking 21-inch wheels survive a transition from one-off to production car? Only if prospective buyers are gluttons for punishment. Inherent losses in downforce because of the barchetta body's lack of a windscreen are accounted for by ducts located in the front wheel wells—a technique becoming common in supercars after being cribbed from GT racers. These ducts serve another purpose, too, as they direct air to the rear of the car to cool the engine as well. It will be fascinating to see if a business case can be made to produce more of these auto-show specials through advanced 3D prototyping and clever usage of existing architectural dimensions. It sounds a lot like Pininfarina has managed to do just that in this instance, and perhaps five wealthy connoisseurs of exclusivity could have an homage to Sergio in their very own garage.  from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|
No comments:
Post a Comment