For someone untrained in the language of vehicular design, it’s not easy to describe what makes a car particularly Pininfarina or Bertone—but suffice to say that once you’ve seen examples of both, you will be able to tell them apart at the blink of an eye. An easy metaphor would make Pininfarina the designer of jet planes with Bertone in the business of sci-fi spaceships.

Think Bertone and you think Marcello Gandini, the man whose forehead the Lamborghini Miura sprang from like Pallas at the incredible age of 27. Gandini joined Bertone in 1965 and—following the Miura and the wonderful Espada—he went on to design cars which crave, simply crave ion drives and proton cannons, first amongst them the Lamborghini Countach.

The news last fall that Pininfarina’s Jason Castriota was to leave his employer of many years to follow in Gandini’s footsteps at Stile Bertone was quite a shocker. Pininfarinas and Bertones just don’t mix. Add to this that the cars Castriota had worked on at Pininfarina—the Maseratis Birdcage 75th and GranTurismo, the Ferraris 599 GTB and P4/5—are very Pininfarina, their aggression expressed not by sharp angles but flowing lines that hit you like an aikido throw.

Yet six months later, Castriota unveiled the Mantide, a car Bertone to its core. And while it has not become easier in the past three paragraphs for someone untrained in the language of product design to describe what that precisely is, there is one design element very easy to pinpoint: the angular rear wheelarches.

Like most things Bertone, this is from Gandini. As far as I know, he first used it on the Lamborghini Countach LP500, the prototype which served as the basis for the first production Countach, the LP400. Over subsequent iterations, the Countach lost the angularity, but the motif cropped up in later Gandini designs like the Maserati Shamal—and this Quattroporte IV that was parked the other day on the very street I live on:

By Gandini’s outrageous standards, this car is a subdued Q-ship, especially in the neutral Germanic silver this example—one of only 1,138—was painted in. The Quattroporte IV was produced at the tail end of Maserati’s doldrums, before the company was acquired by Ferrari, and this is their last car that was built in the old Maserati factory, before the Ferrari people threw out all the old machinery. There was a lull of four Quattroporte-less years at the reborn Maserati until they began building the Pininfarina-designed Quattroporte V—the latest version of which we recently drove in Italy.

It’s comforting to see how quickly Castriota has grokked the essentials of Bertone design, as evidenced by this reference to Gandini’s last car for Bertone. I can’t wait to see how he will manage over the years to balance on the shoulders of the giants he’s standing on—and what he’ll add to the Bertone canon. Based on his work at Pininfarina, one is compelled to think he will do just fine.

Photo Credit: Lamborghini, Cartype, 25ora.ro, Stile Bertone and the author

A few hours after we published our in-depth interview with Stile Bertone’s new design director Jason Castriota, I was standing by Lake Como with him showing me the secrets of his first Bertone design, the Mantide.

The front fenders melt into wings behind the front wheels then draw up into a single taut bunch—reminiscent of a calf muscle—which in turn passes under an archway similar to Castriota’s famous C-pillar for the Ferrari 599 GTB. The confluence of curves and LED’s in the back is, when viewed from a step back, a classic Kamm tail. While retaining the tried-and-true shape of the fastback, the Mantide is boldly futuristic.

But will anyone be able to drive it? There are plans to make two more examples, Castriota says, in white and green, to create an Italian flag with the addition of the first car. Then, in an email to the New York Times, he said: “We would not rule out producing as many as 10.” A price has also been quoted: €1,500,000

That's close to two million US dollars at the current exchange rate—almost two Veyrons worth of cold, hard cash. Not insignificant for a car built on a Corvette ZR1, which retails for 5% of the Mantide’s asking price. Let’s examine what you get for that kind of money, apart from the warm feeling of contributing to a company’s survival which has given us the Miura, the Countach and the Lancia Stratos.

Interior

While Jeremy Clarkson has named the Corvette ZR1 his car of the year for 2008 and our own road test editor Wes Siler called it “the best car ever made,” the fact remains: on the inside, it's all Corvette.

To whit, from our first drive:

In fact, the only thing detracting from the ZR1’s grand touring credentials is the interior. The only options on the $103,300 car are an awful set of chrome wheels and the 3ZR upgraded interior package, which succeeds in moving the interior from cheap and nasty into luxurious bass boat territory with more embroidered ZR1 and Corvette logos than my fragile mind could comprehend. We have a hard time accepting the “value” excuse; for this kind of money we’d no longer like to feel like a Jeff Foxworthy punchline. An automatic transmission is, thankfully, not an option.

Let’s see what the Mantide has to offer:

As you can see, it’s a modern European alcantara-carbon-fiber-leather affair, with the car’s hexagonal theme continuing as cutouts on the racing seats, themselves thin carbon shells. The instrument screen is the one used in the Ferrari FXX, the gearshift is a nice aluminum knob and it’s certainly got a snug racer feel to it. But it’s perhaps not as remarkable as the car’s exterior.

Certainly a major upgrade on the Corvette, though, but then that’s not saying much when you’re considering this is a two million dollar Italian super car.

Exterior

Here in Europe, the current Corvette is not liked much. It’s a big, brash American design, a brute amongst small European cars, but while it’s unarguably alien to these shores, I rather fancy its low, wide, flowing looks. In ZR1 trim, it’s a proper menace, with all the right vents, wings and scoops.

The Mantide gets rid of that all. Aside from the front-engined layout and the fastback silhouette, you would be hard pressed to tell there’s a Corvette underneath. And there is: the Mantide is not like the Italian-American cars from the 60s like the Iso Grifo or the De Tomaso Mangusta which paired an Italian chassis with an American V8. Beneath the red carbon fiber is a Corvette ZR1: LS9 engine, aluminum chassis, the works.

But what carbon fiber! It’s all sharp Bertone creases which turn into subtle arcs as you examine them up close, dihedral Enzo doors, smatterings of hexagons everywhere. The angular rear wheelarches—straight off the M577A armoured personnel carrier which transported the space marines into the doomed reactor core in Aliens—frame black Transformer wheels.

It’s dramatically new, so shockingly new that it’s actively disconcerting to take a few steps back and see its classic berlinetta profile. In person, it creates the sort of time warp the iPhone did when it first went on sale in the summer of 2007. You felt as though you were holding a sliver of 2011 in your hands.

The Mantide? I’d say it’s from 2017. Similar vehicles are on their way to leave the inner Solar System.

But then is it worth the price of 20 ZR1’s? There is, of course, no rational answer to such a question, as even the ZR1 is not an entirely rational purchase, being, as Dan Neil put it in his article The rapture of the hypercar, a big needle to deliver the combustible heroin of petroleum.

If you have space-faring ambitions on the public road, set to the soundtrack of a pushrod V8 with titanium bits, then by all means get in touch with Stile Bertone and put down whatever deposit they ask. The car geeks of the world need you to enable them to carry on the traditions of coachbuilding.

And then I saved the best part for the end. If you open the gigantic hood and peer inside, what you’ll see is exactly what you'll see when you open the hood of the ZR1 — a grinning, black Corvette Racing skull named Jake.

So even though this is not a race car, your Le Mans ass-kicking heritage is right there. And who could ask for more.

Photo Credit: Alex Conley (Corvette ZR1), Natalie Polgar and the author (Stile Bertone Mantide)

Eight hundred miles in the dark, four hundred milligrams of caffeine consumed from cans and ceramic cups and there it is: Lake Como. The road approaches from the top of the steep hills which flank its five cubic miles of frigid slate-gray water. We descend toward the city of Como then on to Cernobbio, home of the Villa d’Este, a magnificent lakeside hotel built half a millennium ago and for a day every late April, home to a handful of the world’s most beautiful cars ever built.

I can feel the small white rocks through the thin Kevlar soles of my sneakers. If you focus your eyes to ground level, a honeycomb pattern emerges, cast by the grille of a red coupé. On this very spot two years ago stood another red coupé, designed by the same man, who is now showing me secret archways of aerodynamics. The car is, of course, Jason Castriota’s Stile Bertone Mantide and this is the Concorso d’Eleganza, a show to fry every brain even vaguely interested in cars.

Classic cars, you say? Then what is Castriota’s new concept, unveiled a week ago, doing here? The Concorso was first held in 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, as a beauty contest—for the most beautiful new cars. It certainly is the perfect geological backdrop for automotive beauty, a stone’s throw from the villa where Anakin Skywalker wed Padmé Amidala, and this will be the very last Darth Vader reference in this blogpost. The Concorso soldiered on through the Depression until World War Two, then was briefly relaunched only to die a quick death and remain in a coma until BMW resurrected it ten years ago. It is now the premium event on the European concourse circuit.

There is a tendency among petrolheads to arrive at the cars of the 50s and the 60s as the most perfect embodiment of the automotive form. It certainly is easy to see why. Prior to World War Two, the car was a luxury good, clearly evidenced by the prewar cars which make up three classes of the Concorso. These are mostly huge, baroque battleships and visually, they have more to do with horse-driven carriages than with the vehicles we think of as cars. It is very pleasing to look at, say, a 1936 Auburn, but it would be more at home on the waters of Lake Como as a hydrofoil boat than on the public road.

Something happened during the production lull which was World War Two. The cars that emerged in the 50s were smaller, more human in scale, and much closer mechanically to modern cars. To look at a Ferrari 250 GT is to look at a fairly modern sports coupé.

There is a particular 250 GT on display, a Lusso, the last model in Ferrari’s labyrinthine first production model, and this car is chestnut brown and was owned by Steve McQueen. It is deeply beautiful and next to it stand a 250 GT SWB, a Lamborghini Miura, Paul Frère’s old Maserati, and so on. Most of these cars were closely related to motor racing, a pioneering and highly dangerous— therefore very cool—activity back then. They also happen to be really pretty.

But their prettyness stems not from the fact that they are old, au contraire, they are pretty because they were radically new for their day. The Miura was one of the first road cars to have its engine midships. The Ferrari 250 GT SWB was perhaps the best road racing car of its day. The Jaguar D-Type had disc brakes.

These were cars made by people who believed in progress.

This is why it’s wrong to treat them as anything other than fine museum pieces and why it’s so refreshing to see new concepts make up a separate class at the Concorso. Concepts which may be very abstract exercises in design, never making it into production, but concepts which may introduce new ideas. Like the many trick wings on the Bertone Mantide.

What is the point of it all? It’s hard to tell. There are people here who collect cars the way they collect wristwatches and vacation homes and then there are car geeks with mischievous twinkles in their eyes, people like you and I who happen to be wealthy enough to own an interesting old car and it is their cars which bear evidence to daily driving.

But make no mistake: this is a beauty contest. A day of fine escapism, and while there are new cars on display, the answer to the future of the automobile will not emerge from here. However space age the looks, the Corvette ZR1-based Mantide will not be an answer to a world running out of space and oil and filling with people who have never owned a car but would certainly like to do so.

Perhaps the best way to approach it is as a game. Dress up in a fine spring suit, grab a glass of champagne, and enjoy the Alpine sun as you walk around the mammoth sycamore by the hotel and lean in close to the leather straps which hold engine covers above triple Webers. Tomorrow will be another day. But if you lean in close enough, you can just about hear a racing V12 scream down the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans.

Just make sure you step back when the car’s owner guns the engine for real. These things are LOUD.

Next up, we’ll look at the more interesting cars of the Concorso in detail. Like this 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B pictured above, which won this year’s Coppa d’Oro: the grand prize of the event.

Photo Credit: Natalie Polgar and the author

The Concorso d’Eleganza is no Goodwood Festival of Speed: the cars are parked on the lawn of a fancy hotel. Because of this static nature, it’s not much of a video event, being much better suited to photography. Still, in breaks between photo sessions, we couldn’t resist turning on our trusty Flip camera to capture the few moments when the cars were in motion between the exhibition area and the garages.

If you click play, you can hear the sound of a 1955 racing Maserati, a 1969 Miura, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB—and Jason Castriota’s Stile Bertone Mantide.

And click here if you missed our video of the Aston-Martin One-77 idling its 7.3-liter V12.

Damiano, from The Italian Junkyard, was kind enough to share with us his live coverage of the Stile Bertone Mantide reveal at the Balloco Fiat Proving Ground in Italy. As you can see in the images below, what you're looking at is the real, fully-running Mantide including it's full alcantara-covered, spartan, race-like interior and a cleverly disguised 638-horsepower, supercharged LS9 V8 from the donor Corvette ZR1. Like us, Damiano is absolutely in love with the Mantide, proving even more so, that you need to see this car in person to fully appreciate its complexities and design prowess. Maybe these shots will help change your mind too...or maybe not. Just remember Mr. Castriota's watching.

If you haven't already done so; check out our live Shanghai Auto Show coverage of the Mantide and our interview with the car's designer, Jason Castriota. [via TheItalianJunkyard]

As you’re reading this, Jalopnik’s European squad—yours truly, teamed up with Crazy Euro Car Girl—are heading down to Italy to arrive on Saturday morning for this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza. It’s the 80th showing of perhaps the classiest classic car event this side of Pebble Beach and on display will be a number or rather special cars. Racing Ferraris, prewar Bugattis and even Jason Castriota’s new Bertone Mantide. Only this time it's the real thing instead of the foam model on display at the Shanghai Auto Show.

The Concorso is a peculiar event for the car geek. For one, it is of a mind-boggling scale. There are close to a hundred cars on display, every single one of them not only very beautiful, old and exciting, but often with an intriguing story. Ferraris driven by 50s playboys. Maseratis owned by movie stars. An Alfa Romeo used by Benito Mussolini’s mistress Clara Petacci to escape at the end of World War Two, unsuccessfully. And so on. It is a monster of a show, easily inducing Stendhal syndrome in those so inclined.

On the other hand, the Concorso brings into sharp focus the oddity of the vintage car scene. There is a tendency among people who are into cars—and I am certainly not immune to this—to think that all the best cars, be they road cars or racers, were produced in the 50s and the 60s. And in that regard, the Concorso should be the pilgrimage of a lifetime.

Except that the old Ferraris are no longer raced by Italian daredevils on public roads. They are tended to by retired American businessmen in ice-cream colored polo shirts. The paintjobs, never meant to be immaculate, are given lustruous sheens with soft clothes and have their names pronounced in accented Italian.

And that the glamour of all these cars stems from the fact that they were radically new back in the day, not museum pieces.

I first came face to face with the Concorso two years ago, and ten days later, produced what was perhaps the most difficult article I’ve ever written, which is now republished in English at Hyperleggera:

Sergio Scaglietti is a short Italian gentleman. Immaculate in appearance, but that’s Italian DNA, his hands sinewy, his eyes like the lake. All around us park Ferraris which Scaglietti had designed fifty year ago. Cherry blossoms captured as they reached the ground, a half century old yet gleaming, all proper use carefully polished away.

Take the red 121 LM Spider we had passed on our way to the hotel. Eugenio Castellotti led with it the race at Le Mans in 1955 before the world erupted into flaming magnesium. The red 860 Monza. Juan Manuel Fangio drove it to victory in Sebring in 1956.

Under the paintjobs, covering aluminum curves, are Sergio Scaglietti’s fingerprints. They’re from an age when the right materials, the right technology and the right people combined to create perfection, time after time after time. Florence under the Medicis was similar. Athens under Pericles.

Modena in the Fifties and the Sixties.

If you’re in the Lake Como area, you can attend the Concorso yourself on its public day of Sunday for €10. If not, check back here on Monday, when, armed with hundreds of photos, we’ll show you what’s hot and what’s not.

Jason Castriota has spent most of his professional career designing some of the most iconic and beautiful sports cars of our era. Cars that kids, for years, will be playing interior decorator with, plastering them all over their walls. With the help of Pininfarina, and now, Stile Bertone, he's managed to put himself at the forefront of the newly re-emerged coach building game being played out at the top design houses around the world. Jason has been fortunate, and insanely talented enough, to have his say with the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the Maserati Gran Turismo, the Maserati MC12-based Birdcage 75th Concept, Rolls-Royce Hyperion, the Ferrari 612 Kappa for collector, Peter Kalikow and of course, the Enzo Ferrari-based Pininfarina P4/5 for the now famous collector, Jim Glickenhaus.

After the official reveal of the Stile Bertone Mantide at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show, we were able to catch up with Jason for a chat in between his picture taking with the extremely excitable Chinese journalists that were also attending the show. At first, we thought the man that had designed all of these mesmerizing vehicles would be kind of a self-appreciating prick as so many other car designers are, but our conversation with him proved this wasn't the case. Actually, he seems like a pretty cool guy. But of course he is, he reads Jalopnik, and your comments. But let's talk cars:

The Auto Insider (TAI): So Jason, how did you ever get to be so lucky as to design some of the most iconic cars of our era?

Jason Castriota (JC): Well, basically from the time I was literally five-years-old, I was sketching Ferraris, quite literally, with little Pininfarina badges on the side. People would say; "Wow, is that your name on the side?" And I'd say; "No, that's a Pininfarina badge." It was actually quite funny at the time. And from there I just followed it, though I didn't quite know how to get there.

TAI: What gave you the idea to pursue car design as a career?

JC: Well, around the time i was twelve-years-old, one of my good friends, who was also a very good artist — His father was a in advertising in New York and he said; "You have to go to Art Center, that's where all the car designers go."

TAI: Pretty cool that your friend's father let you in on that little secret — I got mine by happening across a Southern California AAA magazine article about Art Center, not as helpful, but it was a big wow moment to realize that you could get paid to design cars and not just draw them in the margins.

JC: Well, I was always obsessively drawing cars and when it rolled around to graduation in high school, my parents looked at Art Center and said that it was a technical school and "you're not going to get an education there, you need a liberal arts education and be more well rounded." And plus, at Art Center, at the time, the average student was already pursuing their second degree. They were already 24, 25, 26 years old, guys who were really ready to enter the industry, as opposed to being kids out of high school and frankly, now having the hindsight of eventually going to Art Center, it was absolutely correct because at eighteen-years-old, to be doing the things we did, I wouldn't have had the discipline or the head or the mental strength to do it.

TAI: So how did you get yourself ready for Art Center?

JC: I ended up, let's say in classic rebellious youth style, saying; "Okay, now I'm never going to draw cars again!" And I went to film school because I like photography and I also like to write. I was there (Emerson College in Boston) for five years and I had a blast and for about four years it was all about film, and I lived, ate, breathed the indie film scene. It was great, but then around my fourth year I started picking up a pencil and anytime there was a TV Guide lying around I'd start doodling cars again. And, you know, I remember graduating and there was that classic emptiness going, well, okay I'm supposed to go and be a PA (production assistant) on a new film that was going to shoot in New York, I think maybe it was, uh... I don't even remember what it was anymore. It was nothing of grandeur, let's put it that way. And I just said; "To run around and get coffee or to start trying to pursue this dream of being a car designer again and realizing that dream, I think I'll roll the dice."

TAI: Pretty ballsy move. How'd you ultimately get into the program?

JC: I called up Art Center and I said; "Listen, I really want to do this, but I haven't drawn in five years, you know, do you guys have a preparatory course or something to that effect?" And they said; "Yeah, we've got Art Center at night. No one gets in here without going to Art Center at night." They were like, who do you think you are kid? You foolish little boy. (laughs) They said the next session started in four weeks and I said; "Sign me up!" And, I went home that night and told my parents and my girlfriend at the time; "I'm moving to California in three weeks." And everyone wondered what I was talking about, so I told them. I'm going to become a car designer.

JC: During my time there I was under full scholarship, which was great, 'cause God knows it's costly. During my time there I won an internship with Volkswagen/Audi California and then right after that I went to Ford in Dearborn where I worked under Moray Callum actually. Then I came back for my sixth semeseter and right at the beginning of the semester Pininfarina gave the opportunity for an internship, so I went to Pininfarina and I just said to everybody; "I ain't coming back. That's it." I had already had some job offers, but I really wanted to go to Pininfarina. I remember when I walked into Art Center, I said that from day one, and people were like; What are you talking about? That's crazy! No one goes to Pininfarina. Why would you want to go to Pininfarina? Because, at the time, maybe they weren't doing the most exciting stuff anymore and the hot places to go were Audi or Renault, or Honda who has like a mafioso grip on Art Center because a ton of iconic instructors are from Honda.

TAI: It seems like all your dreams came true at that very moment.

JC: When I went (to Pininfarina) the internship went really well, I started actually winning and contributing to real projects and a few months in they offered me a job and asked; "Do you want to stay right now or do you want to go back and finish your dream and come back after?" Because I still had a few semesters left and I said; "No, I'm good." I went to Art Center to get a job. I didn't need another degree. So I stayed on and a year and a half later I won the (Maserati) Gran Turismo project, two in was the (Ferrari) 599, three years was the (Maserati) Birdcage, four years in it was the P4/5 and things just snowballed from there and it was an amazing experience. I really was able to realize all the dreams I could have had there. Eventually being Chief Designer and also being jointly responsible for the special projects program.

TAI: Tell me more about the Pininfarina special projects program and what it meant to be apart of it.

JC: Well there was sort of a renaissance of that type of project because that was something that Pininfarina and Stile Bertone, and actually, all the Italian coach builders, that's what they did. They were coach builders. And you know, there was that famous Sultan of Brunei-era that kinda went away unfortunately when the well dried up over there. And from there on out, things just sorta petered out and there was no more interest. Every now and then, if we'd do a showcar there was some interest, but nothing ever really came of it. But with the Birdcage, that's what really opened up people's eyes again to say; "Wait a minute, there's an MC12 under there?" And that's pretty special and especially when you have the pedigree of basing it on a championship-winning racing chassis, like the MC12, that makes it all the more interesting. Out of that, is really what birthed P4/5 and other sorts of project cars, which a lot of, haven't even been seen because a lot of our clients are also anonymous, they don't present their cars, they keep them garaged. (Jim) Glickenhaus is a little special in that respect that he really likes to put his car out there, which is great. You know, these things should be shared, they should have a life. If you're going to go to that extreme, then you know, why just throw it in your own private museum. I mean, to each his own, but I like to see cars on the road. We're car guys, we're all there on YouTube watching the Nurburgring Ruf Yellowbird video and you know, we're all the same, we're all cut from the same mold in that respect.

TAI: You left Pininfarina prior to the Paris show in 2008. What caused you to make that decision?

JC: That was a great experience, but after eight years there, it was time for something else. And you know, I really had the full intention of starting my own company and I created my little LLC in America and I was all set to go. I really had some good projects on the docket already and then Bertone just kept knocking on the door and they said; "Look, we know we haven't had the best years, but we need to bring this place back." And at the end of the day it's really seductive because you're really following in the footsteps of some amazing designers, Michelucci, Scaglione, Giugiaro, Gandini, I mean, it's unbelievable. Just to be honored like that, to take that role. Not being a guy who internally took the role because some big guy left, but being a guy that they sought after — That was real special for me.

TAI: The Mantide design has become quite controversial, especially among the Jalopnik commentariat. How do you feel about that? And does that gauge its success?

JC: The Mantide is definitely going to be a provocative car that when people see it in images, people are either going to love it or their going to hate it. And that's great. That's what I wanted to design and I love it because it means people care. It means you're bringing forth emotion and whether that's good or bad (emotions), that's a good thing. People hung Chris Bangle on a cross for how many years, for the 7-Series, even though Adrian (Van Hooydonk) did it, but you know, that's great. If you can get people talking about it, that means that it's important enough to be talked about. So that's pretty cool. And I think when people see it in person, as you have, their impression will change quite a bit and I think that's true for a lot of sports cars. Sports cars are so much more three-dimensional and seductive when you see them, you know, compared to a regular car and this car, when you see it next to other sports cars, will still be seductive.

TAI: What was your inspiration for the Mantide? I saw your sketches and there was a little thumbnail sketch showing, what appeared to be, a form study with a huge flying buttress, can you elaborate on that?

JC: Well, I spent half my career at Pininfarina in the wind tunnel, I've worked on Le Mans cars and when you have that experience you really become passionate about it (aerodynamics). Even the Birdcage has a similar theme, in that it's got that teardrop suspended within a wing, so this was a similar type of theme. I believe that iconic car design always has to have a very clear theme that you read, after that, it can have many, many different layers. But you need to first read a theme of volume that creates a graphic statement. So, with the Mantide, what it is, is this teardrop, this central fuselage, much like if you look at an old jet fighter, you know, it has that shark-like fuselage and that's suspended within this wing that basically embraces it. It looks like it's two pieces interlocking, so that gives it a visual strength, but at the same time it's very dynamic because if you look at the Mantide from the rear, you can see that volumes are really all converging to a similar point in space. And then you have this very sensual, yet technical wing that embraces it, and of course it's functional. You know, it's really taking the 599 buttress idea to a really super extreme and it makes for a really strong graphic statement that you can really recognize. And then from there, there's a lot of detailing that ties into Bertone's history of very technical and more geometric, but what I think is really interesting about the car is that it has an interesting blend of being organic yet geometric at the same time. And I think that great design has contrasting elements, you know — There's a sensuality about it, but there's a brutality about it as well. I like to use the analogy of that sexy woman, think of Angelina Jolie with that spiked heel. There's that dangerous quality, you know, you want to touch it, but at the same time you're a little bit afraid. And that's a good thing.

JC: So that's what we wanted to express with it at the end of the day. And of course, for us, it was really important to create something that would get people talking. We wanted the wow factor, we wanted to make people go; "Woah, what is that? What the F is that? What were they thinking? What were they on?"

TAI: I think you've accomplished that goal. So, tell me, what were you on?

JC: (Laughs) You know, people who really know me, know that I'm really boring. I was on San Pellegrino water, which does have very high mineral content though, and protein bars. But, you know, it's one of those ideas that you have in your head for a long time, but when I was at Pininfarina, it didn't matter how much you could tone something like that (the Mantide) down, you know that you could never get that passed the management of a car company. You just go; "Nah, I'll keep this one in the drawer, just keep it in the head." And one day, who knows, maybe an opportunity will come about, where you can go; "Viola! There it is!" And you know, people will love it or they'll hate it.

TAI: We could probably guess, having driven the car ourselves, but why the choice to go with the Corvette ZR1 as the basis for the Mantide?

JC: You know, the ZR1, is a SPECTACULAR car and here's the reality okay, there's a certain snobism, especially in Europe against the Corvette, and I have to admit, I had it as well. I worked on Ferraris and Maseratis, and I always dreamt of working of Ferraris and Maseratis. So, in America, you know how it is. You're either a Ferrari guy or a Porsche guy or a Corvette guy. And everybody's got their blog and everybody's got their opinion and Ferrari guys are like; "You're not in my class, dear." And Porsche guys are like; "We're honest, we're technical, we've done the same car for fifty years, and we're the best." And look, you can't really beat their formula. And Corvette guys are like; "You fancy-pants Europeans don't know what you're talking about, good ol' American V8 muscle." It's three really different groups for three really different buyers, but you know, let's say, true car enthusiasts respect all three and I love and respect all three. The Corvette continues to use, in certain respects, dated technology, but does it in such a clever and efficient way. It's bulletproof and pretty amazing. The ZR1, I have to say, when it broke the record at the Nurburgring, and I know there's a story about the ACR Viper, but you know what kids, that's got a wing on it the size of... you know, its really a race car. And the ZR1 was really built as a road car and it's really impressive. It's got the FXX brakes on it, it's got the same shocks as the 599, it's got an aluminum chassis, the motor, it's brutal. It's not a 9000rpm Ferrari V12, but you know what, it does the job and arguably it does the job more reliably and efficiently. And let's not forget that the Corvette has dominated, DOMINATED, Le Mans and GT racing and you can't beat that pedigree and I think it's time for people to really take notice.

TAI: You're an American living in Italy, did that have anything, at all, to do with your choice in donor car?

JC: A little bit of patriotism came out in me and I like the idea that in this moment of crisis, particularly for the American manufacturers, we celebrate this crown jewel of American industry is important. I think it's important for people to realize that GM isn't the anti-christ, that they're not all bad. They've made some mistakes, and that's okay, and hopefully they'll resolve the issues, but the ZR1 is a masterpiece and it really shows that Americans can be leaders and I can tell you this — When we took this thing apart, and again, I've worked on the Enzo, the MC12, I worked on a Le Mans car that I can't really talk about, the 599... I know what good chassis engineering is and I know what good aerodynamics are. This thing (the ZR1) is amazing.

TAI: Tell me what modifications were done to turn the Corvette ZR1 into the Mantide.

JC: It was difficult to improve it because the car is already lightweight, it has a lot of carbon fiber in the bodywork, the chassis is already aluminum, the upper frame is in magnesium, it already has carbon ceramic brakes. So we decided to redo the entire exterior in carbon fiber, we used Dymag Racing UK for the carbon fiber wheels, there's also polycarbonate in the upper, but the windscreen and the windows are glass and it's the original window drop from the Corvette. We tried to maintain as much of the Corvette so the Mantide will retain full serviceability, it even has a trunk. We added a full FIA certified rollcage, so if someone really wants to go to the track they'll have everything they'd need including the racing harnesses and racing seats, which the Corvette didn't have and we were also able to save some weight there. So at the end of the day we were able to take 100 kilos out of the car, which in a car that already has an impressive power to weight ratio, that's scary. This car (Mantide) is going to be really scary.

TAI: You said earlier, that you had knowledge of aerodynamics. What aero improvements were made over the ZR1?

JC: Well, we put the ZR1 in the wind tunnel and got all the base line numbers, and you know, it's very well-balanced aerodynamically, but there's nothing spectacular or special about it, aerodynamically speaking. We were able to improve the drag point five percent less to .298, which is a really exceptional figure for a sports car, and for those of you like numbers at home, Ferrari 599 is .34, I think the SLR is around .36, the Ferrari F430 is around .34, so for those that don't think that .29 is impressive for a super-sports car with 335 wide tires isn't good, think again. And, we were able to increase the downforce by thirty percent and maintain a fifty percent distribution of downforce, which means the car maintains very neutral balance. It's something that race drivers always want, so the performance of the car should be spectacular, but we're not out here to make any claims, nor will we.

TAI: Based on what you've told me, it seems like the Mantide might just out-perform the ZR1.

JC: Let's say this, if the owner want to take it to the Nurburgring and put it in the hands of an experienced driver — I'd like to have GM's Jim Mero take it for a spin on the Nurburgring. I mean, he's the guy who gave everyone a hammering with the ZR1, so it would be very cool to give the car to him and let him run, so long as he keeps it out of the kitty litter. I'd like to get the car on Top Gear. We'll have to see if The Stig is still around.

TAI: The car on display here in Shanghai is a foam model with a waterline interior, what, if anything did you do to improve on the Corvette's lackluster interior?

JC: In the real car, of course, we've maintained all of the interior structure and airbags. We've added the roll cage, racing seats, but the whole thing was created out of carbon fiber, but it's very minimal, very spartan. We use the same digital display that's in the FXX, LEDs on the wheel and some Italian touches like a gated shifter. We added a little more romance, a little more Italian sensuality to it. But it's very, we like to say in Italian, puro e duro, which means pure and hard. It's very spartan, very race car like. It's not a show car interior, you know, it's function driven and light and user-friendly. The ergonomics have remained absolutely that of the Corvette. Unlike a car like the P4/5, which has a very different roof line and is very tight on the passenger cell; this maintains the interior space of the Corvette. So, we've got one of our engineers, who's 6'5" — He can fit in the car with no problem with a racing helmet. The car maintains its tremendous usability.

TAI: So what's coming up in the future? Any more special projects coming down the pipeline?

JC: The future? Well we're (Bertone) working on a lot of things now for the Chinese market, which is a lot of the reason why we're here now. We really wanted to point out and really celebrate our relationship with China, just as Porsche did with the Panamera and BMW with the CS. Everybody knows that this market is very important, so we're doing a lot of work with emerging car companies, but it's all very top secret because they like to be very top secret about who they work with. We're definitely looking forward to Europe and America ramping backing up so that we can start working more heavily with our more traditional clients because, of course, we'd like to keep our roots. But as far as special projects, show cars and one-offs — We have some ideas that we'll hash out very, very soon. Though, I want to take a week off first (laughs). But we would love to do something, maybe Italian, above all. But there are definitely some interesting things on the table.

TAI: Can you tell our readers where they might have a chance to see the 'real' Mantide in the near future?

JC: The 'real' car is going to be presented first at a private event in Italy on Thursday, the 23rd, then on Friday I'll present the car at Villa d'Este, Concours d'Elegance at Lake Como. The car has been invited to Goodwood, so we'll do some runs in the super car class, so we're super excited about that, and then after that, the car will go to Pebble Beach. So the car is definitely going to make the rounds.

TAI: So, sounds like some of our readers will be able to see the car in person very soon.

JC: Absolutely. And I look forward to them seeing it in person because I think the disbelievers will change their opinion, but maybe they'll never love it, but I definitely think they'll change their opinion.

TAI: Thank so much for taking the time to sit down with me Jason. We're all very excited to see what you've got in store for us next and l look forward to seeing the beautiful Mantide in action in the next coming months.

Check out our exclusive live coverage of the Stile Bertone Mantide HERE

[Birdcage via Flickr]

There's something we really hate and that's covering bespoke supercars we'll never own, built specifically for the über-rich. Really though, we secretly like the Mantide. Okay fine... we love it. Designed by Jason Castriota of Pininfarina P4/5 fame, the Bertone Mantide had its coming out party today at the Shanghai Auto Show to one very surprised writer — me. I honestly thought that I'd hate this thing, thinking to myself; "Ick, another Corvette-based supercar?" But it truly is a beautiful work of art, best appreciated in the flesh.

Stile Bertone started with the best 'Vette platform yet, the 638-horsepower supercharged LS9 2009 Corvette ZR1. By creating the Mantide's body shell in carbon fiber, they were able to shave off 220 lbs from the already lightweight ZR1 allowing it to rocket to 62mph in 3.2 seconds and break police radar detectors and lasers with its 217mph top speed.

[via Bertone]

For those who haven't been following the documentary, this vehicle is a one-off multi-million dollar supercar being created by Bertone and designer Jason Castriota of P4/5 fame.

From this heavily photoshopped photo we can start to see the shape of the vehicle, including the protruding grille, extended greenhouse and an abundance of side features. Most curiously is the object sticking out above the rear wheel. Is it a piece of testing equipment? Is it a duct of some sort? Is it there to make us look silly when we photoshop this picture? We're not sure. You can click here to see the original.

[AutoBlog, TwitPic]

Here's what we know so far:

1.) The Shanghai car will be a styling model not the real car

2.) The actual car will be released on on the track April 23 at the Balocco proving grounds near Turin for a VIP showing let me know if you would like to come and I can make sure you can get in I can also get you a exclusive interview with Jason as well?

3.) On April 25 and 26, the Bertone one-off will have its first public outing on the lawn at the concours d'elegance at Villa d'Este on Lake Como.

4.) perhaps the biggest news is it's a front-engine car so that kills the Lamborghini theory despite many believing it was going to be on a Lambo chassis.

5.) The car will have a full greenhouse effect like P4/5

6.) The car will be 250 lbs lighter, be all carbon fiber with better areo and downforce then the donor shell.

What we don't know? Whether it'll be made from a Nissan GT-R body as Edmunds Inside Line believes. Of course, they think everything is a GT-R, don't they? But regardless of their GT-R-gasm, those design lines leading up to the rear wheels, combined with the rear wheel arches shown near the end of this latest YouTube video look very GT-R like. Here's the frame screen capture, tell us what you think. [Inside Project M]

When you're done watching the video, remember to sign up for their Twitter feed (and remember to sign up for the official Jalopnik Twitter feed. Heck, even sign up for mine while you're there) to learn about new chapters as they happen before the one-off car is debuted officially at the Shanghai Motor Show. [via Inside Project M]

Following last week’s news of Italian space jacket-clad ex-Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota’s new supercar to be unveiled in April at the Shanghai Motor Show, here is the first episode of Inside Project M, a documentary series by Kinetic Fin and Bradley Farrell about his new car. Castriota talks about the heritage of his new employer, Bertone, and how car designers have an arc of creativity in the first chapter of Bradley Farrell's documentary of the build:

The American-born Castriota has done more to advance teenage boy bedroom decorations that any other designer since the early 70s. In a few short years at Pininfarina, he has built up an awesome portfolio. He has had a hand in designing the Ferrari 599 GTB and the Maserati GranTurismo and has created two of the most beautiful one-off cars ever made: the Maserati Birdcage 75^th and James Glickenhaus’s Ferrari P4/5. As of December 1, 2008, Castriota is the design director of Pininfarina archrival Stile Bertone.

We also have an exclusive still shot of Castriota’s new supercar. Here it is, in Maserati racing colors:

Now, you might be thinking along the lines of “Hey Jalopnik, that’s a vague car shape covered with a rumpled tarp on a forklift!” Do not despair. We happen to have a similar photograph of Castriota’s previous project:

And look how well that turned out:

Follow Project M yourself at the website or on Twitter.