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Written by Stephen Dobie
Last year we clapped eyes on the Icona Vulcano, straight from the "um, who are they?" school of supercars. It was all renders and awkwardly angled phone pictures.<br /> <br />But now it is real, and it"s coming to England, more specifically the Salon Prive Concours event, being held at Blenheim Palace in September.<br /> <br />Made of titanium, it"s said to be inspired by the mighty Blackbird SR-71 plane. We"d argue it"s nowhere near as superb to look at, but it is very arresting nonetheless. And Icona"s design director Samuel Chuffart is only too happy to divulge the troubles he had deciding how the Vulcano should look.<br /> <br />"The most challenging design issue which we faced was how to create a balance between power and beauty," he says. "If you make too much of the powerful features which are necessary to a super sports car, such as its cooling cutouts and blades which manage the air flow, they become graphically too dominant, and this makes the car less beautiful."<br /> <br />Chuffart reckons, though, that the Vulcano gets the balance spot on. Icona says that it took 10,000 hours to craft the titanium into the shapes required.<br /> <br />Plenty of love has gone into the interior, too. With leather, carbon and Alcantara, it ticks off all the important supercar cabin materials. The steering wheel appears to have been lifted from a Ferrari 458, sharing the same design indicator buttons and all albeit with a different manettino switch with fewer functions.
Date written: 9 Aug 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 4594
Last year we clapped eyes on the Icona Vulcano, straight from the "um, who are they?" school of supercars. It was all renders and awkwardly angled phone pictures.<br /> <br />But now it is real, and it"s coming to England, more specifically the Salon Prive Concours event, being held at Blenheim Palace in September.<br /> <br />Made of titanium, it"s said to be inspired by the mighty Blackbird SR-71 plane. We"d argue it"s nowhere near as superb to look at, but it is very arresting nonetheless. And Icona"s design director Samuel Chuffart is only too happy to divulge the troubles he had deciding how the Vulcano should look.<br /> <br />"The most challenging design issue which we faced was how to create a balance between power and beauty," he says. "If you make too much of the powerful features which are necessary to a super sports car, such as its cooling cutouts and blades which manage the air flow, they become graphically too dominant, and this makes the car less beautiful."<br /> <br />Chuffart reckons, though, that the Vulcano gets the balance spot on. Icona says that it took 10,000 hours to craft the titanium into the shapes required.<br /> <br />Plenty of love has gone into the interior, too. With leather, carbon and Alcantara, it ticks off all the important supercar cabin materials. The steering wheel appears to have been lifted from a Ferrari 458, sharing the same design indicator buttons and all albeit with a different manettino switch with fewer functions.
Date written: 9 Aug 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 4594
