As a blog with a bit of design focus, it’s always a pleasure to show something that’s interesting and good….
…and not complain about it. First, I was unaware that Touring Superleggera were still in business. I was not paying attention. With a badge as evocative as theirs I’d be falling over myself to find an excuse to put it on a production car if I was a major manufacturer. Second, this car is lovely in its own right and is vastly better than the car it’s based on. The squared-off wheel arches are nicely handled and I like the flat top to the front arch. Bonus points accrue for that colour blue they chose.
Some time back we showed a customised version of a Rolls Royce. That didn’t move me. This car, however, does make me wonder if I have been a little too indifferent to the matter of accumulating cash. A more interesting question is why nobody has lately found a way to sprinkle a little Touring magic on their bodywork. Who would benefit?
The Touring name would be nice on a Volvo coupe. It could add some Italian charm to Jaguar. Or, if handled well, Opel or Peugeot could do with some Superleggera panache. The cars would have to be genuinely different and a distinct cut above. Touring is not a name to attach to a special edition but a proper run of a distinct series of cars.
Driven To Write 
Nice car – they showed the coupe version a few years ago and it ranks as one of my all-time favourite designs of that kind of thing. Stunning.
But is it a knowing or unknowing tribute to Larry Shinoda’s 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer?
Great spot!
A very nice reworking of their previous Disco Volante, to my eyes one of the finest looking cars of resent times.
Yes indeed – lovely detailing, lovely surfaces. Somebody hire them, please.
And indeed you could say that the Shinoda Stingray, and indeed the Jaguar D / E Types, were influenced by the original Disco Volante.
The debt the E-Type owes the original Disco Volante is made obvious with the enclosed canopy (although I would argue the E-Type does it better).
I recall reading somewhere that one of the problems with the original Disco Volante seems to have been their propensity to excessive lift at high speeds, despite being developed in a wind tunnel. Something which may have curtailed their competition career. Whether or not Jaguar’s Malcolm Sayer was influenced by the Alfa – (and it is possible) – he was certainly working along very similar lines almost simultaneously and to undeniably better effect.
But then, you’d expect me to say that…
Don’t forget the Mini concept that Touring created two years ago! http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop/201405/mini-superleggera-vi-71_600x0w.jpg
There’s a link in the text – I saw it referred to at ST’s website.