This concept car was one of the first to use the angular, deconstructed form language that would replace the flowing lines of the 1960s and would go on to influence cars such as the Lamborghini Countach.
Designed at Pininfarina by Filippo Sappino over an Abarth racing chassis, whose engine and gearbox sits almost naked in the rear, the car was first shown at the Brussels Motor Show in 1969, proving that excting things do occasionally happen in Belgium.
Current owner Shiro Kosaka secured a promise from Pininfarina that he could buy the car if he opened a museum to Abarth. So he did: the car has been in Japan since 1977 and returns to Europe for the first time since then for Villa d’Este. Kosaka-san himself fought the car’s vicious racing clutch, stubby gear-change and hairs-breadth ground clearance to drive it past the judges and claim a win in the historic concept-car class.
More fantastic Villa d’Este pictures & posts here
Photography: Richard Pardon
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