New Concept Car out for a spin
This is the Quaranta, probably one of the least likely cars you’d ever expect to find on Street View – as it’s the only one of its kind in existence!
The “Quaranta” (Italian for “Forty”), is the latest concept from Italdesign Giugiaro who specialise in prototyping next-generation cars, and have designed everything from Bugattis and Ferarris to Volkswagen Golfs and Fiat Unos.
It would hardly be a concept car without an airplane-cockpit style seating arrangement, but this one also has a solar-panelled roof and a hybrid engine. The manufacturer claims that it can do 0-60 in around 4 seconds, with a top speed of 155mph. If this is true, it would make the Quaranta the fastest hybrid car in the world.
Of course the Quaranta isn’t just out for a quick spin – immediately behind it we find a whole truck full of production crew and camera-men! Presumably the truck is about to overtake the car to capture some footage, but we can’t tell what they were filming for.
Perhaps there’s one clue however – does anyone else thinks the driver looks a bit like Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond?
There’s tons of detailed pictures of the Quaranta on Flickr or a video about its design (in Italian) on Youtube.
i don’t think it is Hammond, he doesn’t usually button his shirt cuffs lol
That has got to be the UGLIEST car ever made. I don’t see them selling many of those.
Well, since is taste is something that’s extremely personal, that’s not really a reference
Besides this car has several important selling points:
- It’s a hybrid
- It’s designed by Italdesign Giugiarom
- It does 0-100 in 4 seconds.
That small list is enough to make wealthy car fans’ mouths water…
You sure that 155mph is the fastest hybrid in the world? 155mph sounds pretty standard to me. And by hybrid I mean Ethanol+Gas, unless you mean another sort of hybrid.
I think they mean a hybrid electric vehicle — eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_electric_vehicle
I doubt its the Top Gear guys. I believe they tend to keep filming light, usually just hanging a cameraman out of the boot of a 4×4.
The amount of crew they’ve got there would suggest its more a publicity shoot of some description.
Can’t be hammond, the arms are too freakishly long.
Fernando: Hybrid means liquid fuel + battery + electric motor/generator.
If you zoom in on the side of the truck, you can see the crew doing the filming is with a company called Movie People.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I believe this is their website: http://www.moviepeople.it/
However, I do see one problem with their work here — the car is in front of them, yet their cameras are pointed behind them.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Of course, it could just be a coincidence. There might be other interesting things to film, and the one-of-a-kind concept car that hardly ever goes onto the public road just happens to be there.
Do you know what geek-famous car Giorgetto Giugiaro has designed ? The DeLorean DMC-12 !
Its not topgear UK.. I know the crew pretty well.. and I dont see the Producer there…
I’m looking forward to this one. 155 mph is a fast one, and it is deserved to be one of the best hybrid cars ever.