Jason Castriota of the Italian coach building company Stile Bertone is turning heads again with a bug-like supercar based on the awesome Corvette ZR-1.
The Mantide - that's pronounced MAN-tih-day, and it's Italian for mantis - retains the super-Vette's 638-horsepower supercharged V-8 engine but wraps it in bodywork that's funky to say the least. Castriota claims all those scoops and slats and spoilers improve aerodynamic efficiency enough to boost the car's top speed to 217 and cut its 0-to-60 time to 3.2 seconds.
You don't often see Italian coachbuilders working with Corvettes, let alone drawing influence from insects. Castriota, however, is known for breaking the mold with cars like the amazing Ferrari P4/5. The American designer attributed the Mantide to "a little patriotism" when our friends at Jalopnik caught up with him at the Shanghai Auto Show.
“The Mantide is definitely going to be a provocative car. . . People are either going to love it or they are going to hate it. And that’s great,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to design, and I love it because it means people care. It means you’re bringing forth emotion.”
Emotion is right. The Mantide’s body will make Corvette purists cry. But even the most hardcore among them has to appreciate the car's slick 0.298 drag coefficient. Castriota says Stile Bertone encourages its designers to be contentious, and that freedom is one reason he left Pinifarina after eight years.
To drum up publicity on the Mantide, the company documented its construction via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the website Inside Project M. The company sees the ubiquitous marketing campaign as a necessary advancement in the evolution of the automotive industry.
“Today, all automotive brands must transform to thrive in the new economy, but for Stile Bertone this boundary pushing is actually part of our DNA,” Castriota said in a statment.
The Mantide is expected to make an appearance in Italy at the Villa d'Este before heading to the U.S.
Photo: Stile Bertone
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