Tuesday 19th March 2013

Pininfarina Sergio to be built

You wait for one coachbuilt Italian supercar and then two turn up at once...

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Hands up, we admit it. We didn't really pay enough attention to the Pininfarina Sergio concept at the Geneva show earlier in the month. There were a couple of other cars making some noise, in mitigation. Geneva is always fertile ground for fascinating design studies from Europe's styling houses though, Touring's Alfa Romeo 8C-based Disco Volante redux grabbing headlines before the show.

Lights inspired by the 1965 Dino concept

While also based on an exotic modern donor car Pininfarina's Sergio concept was no retro recreation, preferring to underline the long-standing history with Ferrari by sitting beside the 1965 Pininfarina Dino Berlinetta Speciale concept. This car inspired the Dino 206 GT that appeared in production form two years later, the concept's faired-in one-piece lights carried over in stylised form to the Sergio along with various other Pininfarina styling ticks.

Taking its name from Mr Pininfarina himself, the Sergio is based on a Ferrari 458 Spider and right from the start the styling house was boasting that this made it "a real car, not just a show car." Reports from Automotive News Europe would suggest Pininfarina has confirmed it will build 'five or six' Sergios and sell them for around 3m euros, which makes it an interesting alternative to the brutalist Lamborghini Veneno. Beauty and the beast? Quite possibly, Luca di Montezemolo giving the project his blessing and, alongside LaFerrari, somewhat raining on Lamborghini's already soggy Geneva parade. Professionally and personally, di Montezemolo is a fan, the styling house having built him a one-off F360 Modena Barchetta back in 2000.

Which is about as close to retro as it gets

Stripping back a 458 Spider, clothing it in bespoke Pininfarina carbon fibre and harking back to the minimalist Barchettas that characterised the early 50s Ferrari road and race car blueprint isn't a bad template. Doing that without getting bogged down in revisionist and retro styling an admirable display of confidence.

Pininfarina reckons the carbon bodywork saves around 150kg over a standard 458 Spider, saying the finished weight is "about 1,280kg" with suitable improvements in performance as a result. The lack of a physical windscreen is dealt with by an aerodynamic 'virtual' one effective above 30mph but if you really want to protect your hairdo Newmax helmets (colour matched to the bodywork, natch) are stored in the sills ahead of the doors.

With that mechanical and emotional provenance, never mind the stunning looks, it's doubtful Pininfarina will struggle to find buyers. Bravo!

[Sources: 4WheelsNews, Pininfarina]

[craig_m67]

I don't like the headlights

[LaurasOtherHalf]

what's with all the hate for lambo on PH recently? building a 3-off special based on one of the most respected supercars isn't good enough?

as for the sergio, very pretty which is very hard to do with no windscreen

[BBS-LM]

My Eyes. Client driven privet design projects like this are usually abominations of what is in the clients head. Point in case.

[LotusOmega375D]

There's no similarity whatsoever between the headlight treatment of those two cars, other than that they both have them located at the front.

A Fiat Dino Spider would be a better comparison.

Other than that? Meh.

[8vFTW]

3 million euro and it doesn't even have a roof.

[Killer2005]

Yes please, looks brilliant

[elvismiggell]

Nope, these eyes are protesting at that I'm afraid. Takes the worst of modern Ferrari design and manages to find a new extreme for me.

[suffolk009]

Normally I swoon like a little girl at any car that doesn't have a windscreen. Yet, this isn't quite hitting the spot for me.

[r11co]

So, where are the ignorant comments about the 'silly' name?!

I mean, the Sergio!!?

That's a bit like calling a car the Dave....

[kambites]

Those headlights look much too low down to be legal, to me.

[PHuzzy]

r11co said:

So, where are the ignorant comments about the 'silly' name?!

I mean, the Sergio!!?

That's a bit like calling a car the Dave....

I like that, should have called it the LaDave!

[astra la vista]

8vFTW said:

3 million euro and it doesn't even have a roof.

if this was a bespoke car built from the ground up i'd say okay, if you're a millionaire go for it.
to take an existing £200k ferrari, restyle it and then ask 3m euro is taking the piss.

[Itsallicanafford]

r11co said:

So, where are the ignorant comments about the 'silly' name?!

I mean, the Sergio!!?

That's a bit like calling a car the Dave....

How did you know i call my car Dave?

[Carnnoisseur]

Found these images - slightly better angles

[Carnnoisseur]

[Carnnoisseur]

[Krikkit]

I must admit I snapped a quick shot of the original Dino concept and moved on, wish I'd had a proper look now!

[LuS1fer]

The 65 car blows the modern one out of the water.

[trashbat]

Carnnoisseur said:

This looks like some sort of half hearted Honda/Peugeot collaboration. The rest of it is nice.

[CudaBen21]

I do like it very much and its nice to see car companies making one off prototypes for sale now all I have to do is win EuroMillions!