Skip to main content

Bertone Mantide

The Jason Castriota designed Bertone Mantide was one of the vehicles displayed at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show. Before its unveiling the Mantide concept had been teased for several weeks under the codename "Project M" and a series of images, videos and vague press releases had been circulated by Stile Bertone in order to whip up interest in the concept.

The Bertone Mantide is based on the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 - an outstanding car to begin with, and features the same 638 horsepower, supercharged, 6.2 litre V8 driving the rear wheels. However thanks to the the lightweight carbon fibre body panels and wheels which help shave 100 kgs (220 lbs) off the weight and a more aerodynamic profile the Mantide can sprint to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 3.2 seconds and carry on to a top speed of 217 mph (351 km/h).

The futuristic and angular styling of the Stile Bertone Mantide was inspired by modern aerospace technology and the world of Formula One racing. These influences are apparent in the way the teardrop-like fuselage tightly wraps around the drivetrain, and the prominent aerodynamic wings which intersect the cabin and fold down into the rear wheel arches.

The Mantide's aerospace and racing inspired styling is further underlined by the low-slung nose, jet fighter style canopy and butterfly opening doors, as well as the numerous air intakes and outlets. However the radical exterior design of the Mantide is not just cosmetic. By using an advanced full scale wind tunnel to fine tune the profile, and thanks to a race-car derived flat floor plan the Mantide features an impressive drag coefficient of Cd 0.298, and also a 30% improvement in downforce over the ZR1. This means that not only is the Mantide more stable at speed, it is also more aerodynamically - and therefore fuel - efficient.

The strictly two-seat interior of the Stile Bertone Mantide features an FIA compliant triangulated roll cage, lightweight carbon fibre racing seats and four-point racing harnesses.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Porsche 913

Forgetting the Panamera, Cayenne and Macan, Porsche offer a pretty well-rounded sports car range. Starting with the Boxster and Cayman, and moving up the multitude of variations of the Porsche 911, all the way up to the 918 Spyder supercar. But there is a HUGE price gap between the top of the range 911 Turbo ($250,000 will all the options ticked), to the 918 Spyder ($800,000). Somewhere in that range Porsche could surely offer something to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Something like the 913 possibly? Conceived by the fertile mind of Rene Garcia, a professional 3D modeller who has created conceptual vehicles and highly detailed models for some of the biggest movies of the past decade, including the Matrix Trilogy, Transformers, the latest Star Trekthrillers and The Avengers, the Porsche 913 is an exquisitely rendered design in every detail. It has a bit of the 918 Spyder about it, but there’s also a lot of originality to the design. It looks like a Porsche, but a
Read more

Lamborghini Canto – What the Murcielago could have been?

Back in the late 1990s, when Lamborghini were starting to realise they needed a replacement for the ageing Diablo, they started reviewing design proposals from various automotive design firms. Zagato’s offering was the Zagato L147 SuperDiablo, or as it was to be later known, the Lamborghini Canto. The Lamborghini Canto first appeared in 1998, it arrived only two years after another Zagato designed Lamborghini concept had been unveiled, the Diablo-based Raptor. The cars shared a number of similar features, including the wraparound windows, triangular lateral air intakes, and trademark double-bubble roof. However of the two, the earlier Raptor was probably the better looking. Clearly Ferdinand Piech – head of the Volkswagen Group – thought so too. After VW bought Lamborghini in 1999, one of his first decisions was to review the Canto’s development and redesign the concept. The car was re-engineered and the rear extensively restyled to include smaller air intakes. The engine was also up
Read more

BMW DK Concept

Lucas Herman Lopez (31) was born in a small town in Argentina. After high school, he perfected his techniques of drawing and learning about design. He now has six years working experience as a designer and is currently working in his own small design studio where he is making a sports car concept designs. Have more information about this car than please comment us or email us at roadstrikersIN@gmail.com Thank you
Read more