January 16 2009
Topless model: Ferrari Conciso prototype
We came across this special Ferrari on a website in Italy last week. It goes by the name Conciso and originated as a styling exercise by the German studio michalakDESIGN. It got its inspiration from the 1950s Barchetta cars. We emailed the seller, or must we say “alleged” seller and asked for a price. It was a lot. And he didn’t have the car.
A bit of Google-ing later we found some more information. It was designed for the IAA 91. It took second spot at the Eurosign Design Awards. The car featured as a showcar at the 1993 Frankfurt and 1994 Geneva car shows. The intention was to make quite a few of these cars, but only one got made. It is based on the 1989 Ferrari 328 mechanicals. There are no doors and if you want to avoid a mouthful of flies, you better put on a helmet. Those helmets fit rather snug into the interior as can be seen below.
Althought we’re not the biggest fans of the ‘platypus’ front of the car, it’s ‘derriere’ and interior can still pass as a more recent design. Can you imagine the commotion when this car just came out against contemporaries such as the Countach and Testarossa? Quite a culture shock that must have been …
The car is all nice and light in aluminium over a tubular frame chassis and weighs just over a tonne. The 270bhp coming from the engine propels you in 6 seconds to 60mph. Topspeed is 278km/h. It is not for sale out of Italy but out of Belgium actually. MecanicImport is selling the car for its owner who would like EUR110000 for it. The car caused a stir last year on some automotive blogs as it was being auctioned on ebay. It didn’t get a single bid unfortunately.
