Audi Unveils Secret Supercar, New Design Direction

Since taking over as Chief Creative Officer of Audi, automotive designer Massimo Frascella has made his goal clear: "Making our brand truly distinctive once again," he explains. "We want to shape a brand capable of inspiring desire and creating cultural impact."
Frascella—who has put in shifts at Bertone, Ford, Kia and Jaguar Land Rover, where he was formerly Design Director—says that the Audi TT made a strong impression on him. "In 1998, when the first Audi TT arrived at a dealership in Turin, I took a day off work to just look at the car in peace. I was there for hours, looking at the car from every angle, touching every surface. The staff probably thought I was crazy. But for me, the TT was more than just a car. It was a message: you don't need to shout to be heard. You don't need excess to make a statement. You just need clarity. And, more importantly, the courage to follow it."
Two years into the job, Frascella has now revealed his stamp on the brand. While most brands signal new design directions by unveiling a concept car, Frascella and Audi have skipped a step and brought a bold new design vision directly into production. This month they unveiled the Nuvolari, a supercar with a techno-futuristic look.

The move caught the automotive press off-guard; Audi managed to keep the development process leak-free and completely secret.

"Radical simplicity is at the heart of our approach," Frascella says. "We achieve clarity by reducing everything to the essential. We live in a world that is often shrill, fast-paced, and overloaded. Almost everything is overdone. The danger of losing your way is greater than ever. Our responsibility is to be better and do what really matters. And the outcome always has to be an emotion."

"Audi is an inexplicable harmony of technicality and emotion, where rational and irrational coexist."

The Nuvolari represents Audi's new design direction, which Frascella calls "The Radical Next."

The vehicle, which is clad in carbon-fiber composite body panels, is actually a hybrid. A 4-liter twin turbo V8 and three electric motors work together to produce nearly 1,000 horsepower. Just 499 units will be made, and they'll cost over $650,000.