The Bavarian hybrid coupe has unexpectedly found a second life: the Italian brand Taraschi will make on the basis of it exclusive sports cars Berardo worth about 800 thousand euros.
The Taraschi brand is named after the Italian racer and designer Berardo Taraschi, who after the war had his own company, Meccanica Taraschi, which ceased to exist in 1961. Berardo left our world in 1997, and now his son, Tazio Taraschi, wants to return his father’s name to the auto business and start a small-scale production of Berardo sports cars.
The basis is the Bavarian coupe BMW i8, whose release ended this spring. The body has been extensively redesigned, with new rounded trim panels handcrafted from aluminum. The design turned out, frankly, for an amateur, but the developers claim that they were inspired by the forms of the Giaur 750 Sport Champion, one of the most successful cars developed by Berardo Taraschi.
The interior is no less surprising: the architecture of the original BMW i8 is preserved here, but all surfaces are re-finished with wood and leather. Note the original veneering of the central tunnel, which is a bit discordant with modern controls. The color performance of each specific copy will be discussed with the customer.
The technical stuffing of the BMW i8 was also conjured up. Recall that the Bavarian coupe is an all-wheel drive plug-in hybrid, which, after the 2017 update, produced 374 hp in stock. and could dial the first “hundred” in 4.4 s. Taraschi has increased the power of the German power plant to 420 hp, thanks to which the Berardo coupe can accelerate to 100 km / h in 3.9 seconds. Exactly what modernizations were carried out is not reported, but it is known that there will be more powerful modifications – 470 and 520 hp.
Prices for the Taraschi Berardo will start at 800,000 euros, which is about seven times more than BMW asked for the i8. There are a lot of piece alternatives in this price segment even in Italy itself: for example, the Ares S Project based on the Corvette C8 for half a million euros or the masterpiece De Tomaso P72 for 750 thousand euros.