2021 Touring Superleggera Arese RH95

В истории итальянского ателье Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera были только переднемоторные модели, но к своему 95-летию компания подготовила нечто особое — первый автомобиль со среднемоторной компоновкой. Новинка называется Arese RH95 и построена на базе Ferrari 488.

В названии суперкара зашифрованы местоположение штаб-квартиры Touring Superleggera — пригород Милана Арезе — возраст ателье и инициалы заказчика первой машины из 18 планируемых к выпуску. Стиль купе описывают как симбиоз объемных форм Disco Volante и агрессивного дизайна Aero 3, причем последнего здесь явно больше. Кузов, разумеется, полностью оригинальный, и изготовлен из армированного углеволокном пластика. В компании RH95 называют своей первой среднемоторной моделью, хотя таковым можно считать и концепт Gumpert Tornante.

При взгляде на Arese RH95 первым делом обращают на себя внимание раздутые задние крылья с воздухозаборниками, фирменное оформление передка и заходящие на крышу двери «крылья бабочки». Колеса созданы специально для суперкара одним из премиум-производителей и имеют уникальный рисунок. Первый экземпляр RH95 окрашен в зеленый колер Verde Pino в сочетании с серебристыми акцентами. Второй будет оформлен в стиле Alfa 8C Competizione и гоночных GTA 60-х годов; третий окрасят в знаменитую ливрею Gulf (вместо него ателье показало снимки четвертой машины с двойными красными полосами).

Разработчики суперкара не называют машину-донора, но её выдают заявленные характеристики. В движение купе приводит двигатель V8, развивающий 720 лошадиных сил и 770 Нм крутящего момента и совмещенный с семиступенчатым «роботом». Привод только на задние колеса. Плюс в арсенале машины есть активные аэродинамические элементы, которые пришлось разработать с учетом новых нагрузок и особенностей кузова. На основе только этих данных можно сделать вывод, что перед нами перелицованный Ferrari 488 Pista.

Превращение «Феррари» в Arese RH95 займет около полугода. Машину-донора можно приобрести самостоятельно или возложить эту обязанность на Touring Superleggera. Цену в компании готовы назвать только при личном обращении, но учитывая коллекционный статус купе, вряд ли стоит рассчитывать, что она будет низкой.

Touring proudly presents the Arese RH95, a name reflecting 95 years of Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera heritage, our commitment to the future at our home on Via per Arese, an area long known as the standard-bearer for outstanding Italian design, as well as the initials of the Arese project’s founding patron. The Arese RH95 was born to share our passion for traditional custom coachbuilding; 18 units are expected, with deliveries beginning just one month after the official presentation.

The evolution of Touring’s “Streamline” styling philosophy, introduced with the Disco Volante Coupé and confidently reiterated in the AERO 3, Touring’s first venture into carbon fibre bodywork, is projected even more boldly into the future with the Arese RH95. It not only shares the AERO’s carbon structural methods, it is the first car in our long experience to utilize a centralized engine position, emphasizing yet further its inherent speed and performance bloodlines.

“This Arese RH95 is another milestone in the history of Touring, 95 years after its foundation” declares Salvatore Stranci, General Manager of Touring Superleggera. “Once again we demonstrate our ability to innovate, a practice renewed through the adoption of cutting-edge materials and construction techniques that are unusual for us.”

Touring’s new Arese RH95 represents the next generation of the firm’s AERO range, established with our acclaimed Disco Volante Coupé of 2012. It’s a perfect synthesis between the sinuous volumes and ideal proportions of the Disco Coupé, and the aggressive and powerful form of the AERO 3, introduced in autumn 2020. “In fact,” explains Louis de Fabribeckers, Director of the Touring Style Centre, “Arese RH95 reflects the stylistic features of the entire AERO line in its many distinctive elements, and the cinematic openings of the exterior panels adds theatricality to a car that is art and design in motion.”

Arese RH95 expresses a touch of drama in all its features, and if the novel scissor doors are its most striking expression, every detail is fascinating but subtle. From the bright aluminium side-slash briskly interrupted by the front wheel arch, then continued elegantly along the waistline, inspired by the Disco, to the grille and front air nostril treatment derived from AERO 3, every flank and panel offers a visual delicacy.

The Arese’s stage presence reaches its zenith, however, with the rear clamshell, where the dorsal scoop is the car’s emblematic feature, simultaneously bold and functional, optimizing forced air circulation in the engine compartment. Aside from this dorsal, the shoulder air inlets and a corresponding rear outlet, the sleek rear body contours are otherwise simple and quite voluptuous, with not even a trunk opening to mar the fluid shape of the rear aspect and not a hint of the brutal faux-Le Mans-winner “styling” so typical in much of the current supercar genre—although a brief, enchanting memory tickle of Alfa 33 Stradale might occur to the connoisseur.

Meanwhile, thanks to the scissor-hinged doors and their generous roof cut-outs, ease of passenger compartment ingress/egress is exceptional. Interior ergonomics, overall visibility, and the AERO series “cocoon” concept of individual cockpits for driver and passenger give the former a highly usable and comfortable workspace, and the latter a viewing and sensory experience of a lifetime.

Touring’s ample choice of interior colours and materials greatly expand the client’s personalization opportunities, and exterior paint and trim choices are also liberal. Car Number One is finished in Verde Pino, with silver accent bands at nose and tail to accentuate its sporty character, and a cockpit blend of caramel and cocoa, with seat facings accented in shades of saffron. The brilliant red of Alfa’s 8C Competizione will grace Car Two, with white nose panels in the fashion of Alfa’s GTA racers from the 1960s. Likewise, Car Three takes livery from the motorsport world, wearing the famous Gulf Orange and Blue.

All examples of the Touring Arese RH95 will be built around the chassis and drivetrain of a well-known exotic, mid-engine donor car, whose active dynamics have been engineered to handle the new body loadings and specifics, and ensure performance and efficiency. Each will be thoroughly tested and quality assured before delivery to the client. Donor specimens may be provided by the client, or if desired, sourced through Touring Superleggera.

Cognisant from the earliest days of the industry that weight is the enemy, Touring Superleggera has returned once again to carbon fibre for the Arese coachwork. The thicknesses and orientation of the strands are selected for the best weight/stiffness ratio, and in the preparatory phase, the optimal use of materials was analyzed in terms of overall weight, strength, surface appearance and durability. For maximum precision and quality, each CFRP element is produced by vacuum infusion at 120 degrees Celsius.

The Arese RH95 is EU certified according to the European directive relating to small series production: EU-Directive 2007/46 EC.

Touring’s Arese RH95 price is on request. Touring Superleggera is able to deliver the completed car six months after receipt of the basic (donor) car. Every part manufactured or modified by Touring Superleggera is covered by an unlimited mileage two-year warranty, subject to the usual terms of industrial production. The availability of parts produced or modified by Touring is guaranteed for life.

Touring Superleggera’s work responds to an ever-growing demand for personalization and exclusivity that comes from all over the world. But the modern coachbuilder’s task does not only require originality and beauty: if the “made-to-measure” car allows one to discover unexplored areas of form and function without the limits of mass production, nevertheless they must of necessity be immediately producible.

And today, to be feasible, even a custom-built car must respect the standards of quality, safety and usability required of production cars, if not exceed them, and offer unparalleled levels of prestige and quality in materials. This is why Touring Superleggera designs and tests parts, accessories and systems with the most advanced engineering practices. In manufacturing, out-of-the-ordinary craftsmanship skills are not sufficient to guarantee quality and reproducibility; Touring therefore adopts computerized processing techniques and sets very high demands for finishing and precision.

Touring takes extreme pride in their reputation as a style centre and manufacturer of the highest proficiently, among the few able to carry out the entire cycle of creation and construction of an exclusive car, from manual design to surface engineering, to structural calculation, to style models and prototypes, up to and including small series production.

Touring Superleggera’s achievements show that the profession of coachbuilder has a great future if done with rigor, respecting the engineering and quality requirements of today’s automotive industry. Since 2009, when the Touring Superleggera brand was revived, our cars have drawn inspiration from the immense birthright inherited from our founders, focusing on the conception, design and manufacture of very limited series or totally one-off automobiles. It was the singular mix of local Italian artisans with mechanical skills dating to medieval times, and before, and the application of cutting edge present-day engineering disciplines, combined with absolutely uncompromising standards for the results, which made possible our rebirth.

In recent years, Touring has noticed with growing interest, other companies have followed us into the market for custom-built models, which had largely disappeared in the second half of the previous century. At this rapidly growing and constantly evolving bazaar, where the competitive edge lies in staying at the forefront from viewpoints both technical and artistic, Touring’s emphasis is on pleasure in all its meanings, from the aesthetics of eye-pleasing appearance, to surfaces found luxurious to touch and smell, to the thrilling sound of powerful, thrilling, throbbing engines, to the pure, earthy pleasure of nothing more than everyday driving.

Touring has consistently given the world satisfying, eminently fulfilling art on wheels, from our inception to this morning. The Arese RH95 further confirms the role of Touring Superleggera at the helm of the contemporary Renaissance in custom coachbuilding for the demanding and discriminating enthusiast.