AN ITALDESIGN ZEROUNO ROADSTER MIGHT JUST BE ON THE CARDS...
For those of you who have been pining for Italdesign to build production cars – you finally get what you want this year... but not enough of them.
The Italdesign Zerouno, which had its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March this year, features a carbon-fibre skin over a modular carbon-fibre and aluminium chassis and it powered by a 5.2-liter V10 borrowed from Audi.
The Zerouno is good for 610 hp and 413 lb-ft of torque, has a top speed of 205 mph, sprints from 0-60 in just 3.2 seconds – and is officially sold out! Italdesign Automobili Speciali, the boutique marque's full name, made only five of them, with a base price of about $1.6 million each.
However, not all is lost if you were sixth place on the buyer's list – Italdesign has suggested that it is considering a roadster version of the same supercar. This is not just because it would be a shame to let all the bespoke engineering be confined to only five cars. In fact, it appears that extra "collectors and visionary enthusiasts" who were in the market for the coupe are driving the debate about a roadster version, and with the Zerouno assembly process still warm, it may not be too difficult to build a few modified versions.
The coupe version of the Zerouno that had its debut this year made extensive use of lightweighting with the interior made of handcrafted carbon-fibre, composite doors, dash and transmission tunnel, aluminium alloy wheels, a titanium exhaust system and carbon-ceramic brakes.
We still don't know whether the roadster will be more expensive than the coupe, but it may be just a bit more due to the extra hardware and bracing required for a folding roof.
What we do know is that Italdesign plans to go with a very small production figure for any model that it offers to customers – and the Volkswagen-owned carrozzeria plans to release a new model every year.
To be sure, one new model per year is a pretty tall order for an operation that counts around 60 engineers, designers and materials experts. However, we wouldn't be surprised to see it in the carbon fibre at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.