The Alfa Romeo Scighera is a functional, futuristically styled

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

Fabrizio Giugiaro Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. is a design and engineering company and brand based in Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best kno ...

and manufactured by

Italdesign Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. is a design and engineering company and brand based in Moncalieri, Italy, that traces its roots to the 1968 foundation of Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi S.p.A. by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani. Best k ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy in 1997 for automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo. The name "Scighera" means mist in the Milanese dialect.

Design

The Scighera was conceived by Italdesign as a homage to Alfa Romeo's racing history and was designed to be a race car drives let on the road. The design combines modern and classic design elements. The front of the car draws inspiration from Formula One cars' front wing which has a low slung design and an integrated wing on the buttress in order to create downforce. The V shape of the front mimics that of the Alfa Romeo logo. Due to the integrated wing, the car had thin headlamps that were infamously called "clown-eyes". The windshield of the car was inspired from Alfa Romeo's race cars of the 1950s and 60s and extended to the side of the car. The doors had the unique opening mechanism borrowed by the Nazca C2 which incorporated a conventional outward opening door with a window opening in a gull-wing arrangement. The windows were removable, making the car convertible to an open top two-seater. The gull-wing setup was electronically operated. The large engine cover and the rear wing are a single carbon fibre piece, allowing easy access to the mechanical components of the car. The thin tail lights are joined by a third brake light integrated into the rear wing. The engine cover opens in two steps. The first step allows the driver to refuel the car while the second step allows access to the engine.

Specifications

The Scighera is based on the 164, and has an all

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

body, the frame structure is made of aluminium-

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

composite, and powered by an

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...

twin-turbocharged Twin-turbo (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...

V6 engine A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabr ...

. The engine produced a maximum power output of at 7,500 rpm and of torque. The

all wheel drive An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand. The most common forms of all-wheel drive are: ;1x1 : All unicycles Reflecting one axle with one w ...

system was derived from the 155. The interior of the car had Connolly leather upholstery.

Production and performance

The car can accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.7 seconds and had a top speed of . Italdesign intended to enter the Scighera into racing and even built a racing version of the car which had a bare interior, a large fixed rear wing, and did away with the gull-wing mechanism. They were considering a small-scale production for homologation, but it never came to fruition.

In media

The car is featured in the 1998 racing

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

'' Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit'' as the Italdesign Scighera, exclusively in the PC version. The

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

version features the Nazca C2 instead.

References

External links

Italdesign site about ScigheraItaldesign site about Scighera GT
{{Alfa Romeo Scighera Italdesign concept vehicles Rear mid-engine, all-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 1997