In 1967, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph commissioned a show car from Bertone built on a widened Jaguar E-Type 2+2 chassis. It's an interesting concept, but what would Jalopnik commission today?
People were way more interested in cars back then, and The Daily Telegraph meant business with its one-off. They hired 29-year-old Marcello Gandini to create an all-steel body based on the Jaguar XKE's platform, and Bertone's master came up with a design that evolved into the Lamborghini Espada a year later.
The Bertone Pirana hit the stage with a four-speed manual, air-conditioning and a claimed to speed of 145 mph.
After a short tour around the world, this fully functioning prototype went out of sight and ended up in Arizona, where its last owner threw out the manual for an automatic box to make it a better cruiser. All that is reversible though, so don't worry about it.
While spending millions of dollars on something like this wouldn't make sense anymore, let's play around with the idea for a second.
My guess is that Jalopnik would create an Audi R8 using both the E-Tron's and the TDI Concept's technology with a body made by Zagato. We're into weird things...
Photo credit: Jay Leno's Garage
Contact the author at mate@jalopnik.com.