One of the Shanghai Motor Show’s star attractions this year had to be this, the Icona Vulcano. It was designed by Icona, an Italian design firm based in Shanghai. The development of the Vulcano’s drivetrain was overseen by Claudio Lombardi, a former powertrain technical director of Ferrari.
Icona have a bit of history with the Shanghai event. In 2011 they unveiled the Fuselage concept, an aerodynamic electric-powered, four-seat sedan concept car. Due to the positive reaction this concept received worldwide, the company decided to have a go at a two-seat supercar.
Right from the start it was decided that the Vulcano would use a front engine layout. Samuel Chuffart, Design Director of Icona explains how the concept developed; “As different ideas came together, the most challenging design issue which we faced was how to create a balance between power and beauty. When you’re trying to create a feeling of aesthetic harmony, you risk creating too many sweet lines, which decreases the feeling of power. On the other hand, 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. The way we found the right balance was usually by looking for the greatest simplicity”.
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