When the students of the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) based in Turin, Italy, began working on a design study to present at the 2012 Geneva auto show, they looked close to home for inspiration: the 1947 Cisitalia 202 coupe, an icon of Italian design that was the first car to enter the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The original Cisitalia was among the first eight automobiles ever to be displayed at MoMA in 1951. Arthur Drexler, the museum’s curator at the time, referred to it as “sculpture in motion.”
The students—participants in the Master of Arts in Transportation Design work experience program—has no small task in front of them in reinterpreting the classic 202, as the original flowed from the pen of Battista “Pinin” Farina. The end result is called the Cisitalia 202 E (the E stands for “evolution”), and, like the car it recalls, it’s intended to reflect the refined, sensuous qualities associated with Italian automobiles. The school says that the rear-drive concept is powered by a 450-hp V-8—quite a step up from the original’s 55-hp, 1.1-liter four-cylinder engine.
No comments:
Post a Comment