2018 Touring Superleggera - Jay Leno’s Garage

[Music] there you go [Music] welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage I want you to take a look at the car in front of you if you can figure out what it is don't feel bad if you don't recognize it because no one has ever seen this car before this badge might give you a little bit of a hint turning Superleggera it was built in italy it is a coach built car as it stands right now this is the only one there is it is a beautiful design we'll find out the car that it's based on and how it is built you know back in the 20s and 30s coach built cars were all the rage people would go in and they buy a chassis from any one of the major manufacturers they don't have a custom body put on and that's what this is you know with modern manufacturing techniques it's fun to see this coming back that people can design and build a car for them or have it built for them the gentleman who designed this car a very talented man you know he's got a beautiful last name I I'm gonna screw it up I'm gonna call him Louie and as soon as he comes in here I'll tell you his name Louie come on in my friend nice work now say your name Louie the family because it's so good and almost sounds Italian but it's Belgium that's right Belgium okay very nice well just beautiful let's first off let's tell people what car this is based on well this is based on a Maserati GranTurismo we plan to do maximum 10 cars every year in fact we present a new coach build car which will be made in a very small limited series this is our core business in fact since more than 90 years now and this is how it works this is odd Kuti oh yeah now in the old days cars were built on a chassis and you could bolt things on a chassis it was fairly straightforward it must be very hard now to design a custom car with all the electronics in unibody construction was all much more difficult now than it was back in the day well indeed the concept is more or less the same there is one more step which is strip of the existing car to go back into the chassis the essence of the car the mechanics the bones I would say and then we can rebuild the car due to yes'm allegation and also level of quality our client are used to have a very luxury daily car so they expect to get a one-off or good built car which get this level of quality right thanks to the software's now we can do a lot of testing through computers through the software we don't have fortunately to do crash tests real crash tests we can do it virtually we can check the aerodynamics we can check even the torsion of the chassis thanks to the the computers but you don't change the basic structure of the car when you get a Ferrari or Maserati or rolls or whatever it might be that has been crash tested I mean you're not shortening wheel bases are doing anything that may write exam use you're just more or less putting the suit on the man you're not changing the man right exactly you're just putting it so you're making a beautiful suit of claws it's it's exactly what job you're in fact we don't leave the structure and it's all the visible part that we change I'll give you an example the visible part in coming with the Maserati GranTurismo are the windscreen and the handles that's it right all the other panels are completely bespoke made for this car and is it done more modern fashion or the old-school way with the old school obviously oh yes there is no reason to create huge tools for just as such a small series of cars and I think that our clients are also looking for that for this concept of old cooter where there is people the real hands which we really build the car and it must be nice to see young men doing this kind of work because I have some cars in there that we had bodies one and the men are all 85 years old and and you know and you go Minh that skill gets lost but in Italy they're still training younger people to do this kind of work it's not all a bunch of guys at hair this color just sitting there having a heart attack dropping dead I mean so it's nice to see this is fairly well it's not a new concept but I just see more and more custom cars being built which is very exciting and it's wonderful for designers like yourself because the platform to the platforms now lend themselves a little easier to this because of computers I think that it's much easier today respect to 10 or 15 years ago in the other hand we have to reach quite a level of quality there is many coachbuilt car or one of cars which looks like kit cars right here we stick on quality and this is a big advantage of doing Superleggera that we have design engineering and construction everything under the same roof all aluminium in this case the door panels are in aluminium and the rest is in carbon fiber or carbon fiber that's right that's right it's which say it's our very first coachbuilt car with more than 50% of the body panels in carbon fiber oh that's fascinating now carbon fiber is it easier to work with than aluminium or harder for for the bodybuilder themselves for the designer maybe it's more difficult because when the wing the fenders of the bonnet are done you cannot touch it I remember the past the previous coach built on we did at the very last moment before the car was pushing in the joven form for being paint right I was running behind the car saying could you please move this really I mean and check change these little details in cupboard fibre when it's when it's done it's done that's right ok well that's interesting because I see I was just thinking of the old school bang bang bang you got the wooden buck and all that but with carbon fiber you can you can design it on a computer can right exactly let me ask you as a designer especially in Italy in America I see so many cars designed by computer and they have all these sharp lines Italy still it it looks like it's designed by him because there's a there's a flowing motion there's a curve to it you know yeah do you design by hands yeah and then go to computer that's right exactly I design behind burned but there is this I think is small the culture linked to the Italy Italy is the country of the fashion right and I think the country where you can find the real timeless design the true time is design yeah it is in fact fascinating to work in Italy the computer is a tool you don't have to be eaten by the computer when you are a designer you need to keep control on your tools and this is a very important rule there is in fact some cars with well you can see that maybe the designer was a bit heated by the computer I lost a bit the control in this case I love drawing yeah I love designing so that very first part getting the pencil and making the line of the paper is very important and I keep that alive like two people sometimes think a lot of people think everybody else's job is easy like to me when I see this crease here this line here and you realize how many places you could get it wrong here you got it exactly right it is it comes over and then goes down here but if you were down here it would look weird it was up here to look weird but you just have a designer's eyes so you know and this is all this is all carbon fiber right exact well that's fascinating the trunk lid carbon fiber that's right Wow and this here this is steel exactly this is still because it's welded to the chassis a pillar until CPR are in steel and then you have this aluminium element visible aluminium element which are linked to our name Superleggera which was one of the very first coachbuilder using aluminium thanks to the fact that the aluminium is superlight right because that was always when a racing car was super yeah that meant it was lightweight exactly like the Maseratis with the to the birdcage and that's right yes yeah okay now you obviously you have to cut your own glass as well right it's a glass not you're not taking glass from a Citroen and sticking it in there no no I mean it's you designed that's right I mean you know when you see kit cars they use pieces from here in pieces America and they look yeah they just look off there is only something a bit weird yeah I mean to me if you want to know about good design look at bad design and then you realize oh my God look how kid cars never sit where they always look odd they don't look even the expensive ones they just look weird because it there's no flow to it it's and maybe it's also linked to the fact that we worked with this company which is established since 1926 right and in terms of design that company was such an important major actor in the car industry so today when we design a car we cannot do any compromise it has to look perfect right right no it looks perfect so yeah the rear glass is completely new even the side the side glass door the door glass either the roof glass is completely yeah when I look it up when I look at this piece I would say was the design of French that looks French to me looks like I know that kind of car you're thinking that maybe you know you know you know it looks know des that's right exactly I see a little bit of French there and so I mean I see a lot of and this looks so Italian and here the way that right over the trunk here see I would never if I was designing a car I would never think to put this this line here I would just have a trunk and I like you I like your imagination here it's almost like a speed a power bump right in the trunk it gives a bit of character when you look at really does it really does very and this feature in fact is in continuity with the bonnet which got the same kind of a feature oh I see yeah right here that's the same thing it's very subtle it doesn't has to be too to show off quite subtle but then there is this this balance between the front in the back you know it's funny when I was a kid there was a famous American actor named Edward G Robinson and he bought a famous painting and he put it in his house they made an alcove with a little eye and you would sit every day and have a glass of wine to stare at the painting and I used to think well that's kind of stupid that's it you know because you're a kid you know why would you say but yet I can go in my garage and I could sit down and I could look at this for an hour an hour and I would see different things each time I looked at it you know because you really appreciate the design you know I the power bulge down here it almost gives the impression they were huge Weber carburetors over there but we don't have those anymore but I like I like the history I mean you know in the history of a Maserati based car it's like these details on the front the aluminium brushed and polished I was I was thinking to do these kind of louvers right which doesn't in in terms of techniques we don't need it on that car so instead of doing a fake louvers right I say let's try to do something which get which give character to the front and I was thinking to this paint on the Indian face the war paint right you know which which are very nice but which gives a true character or a face like the rib Damon you're the football player they have this kind of sign and it gives a character to the front without being aggressive these are your own wheels as well now these wheels were existing I pick up from from the shelf okay and because they have this design which fits so well with with the body you know that it's so important to get the right wheels on on the right body we're not gonna open the hood of this car because what I'm interested in the engine what I assume it's time to meet this is about the design and and that's what's kind of fun just to go around and you know just the history of this just this badge is so iconic you know I like the fact that it's you kept it not a modern interpretation of the badge I like the fact that I see a bit of history and I see it here that's really really really cool let's see what else do we got now the inside of the car is just as beautiful let's let's take a look inside and show people what we're talking about now I'm not familiar is that the basic - structure that's right of the of the right exactly due to some allegations we don't change the dashboard the dashboard is exactly the same as well as for the steel wheel there is these airbag which are Amala gated so to Rio mala gate an airbag it's just crazy and it would be no sense for such a small series we gave a complete different character to the interior by changing the upper part of the panels and due to the fact that the bed line is horizontal now it was it had an angle on the GranTurismo and now it's completely flat we were able to create this this profile which is running all around the interior and it's it's kind of a mirror with the exterior on the exterior you have this completely original line and as well as an via of the interior how many times like I find a lot of times with the designers that first sketch is right it just comes to you and then you improve it is it is that the case of you it is it just does does the final version of this car look completely different than the first version that you start with or is it closed no it look quite different quite different that's right we do a kind of 360 degree research doing many many different sketches and when you see the very first sketches there are a bit too heavy of lines many lines yeah and then there is this very important moment that you have to erase all the lines and keep just the main one okay the one which we defined the essence of the body so you designed this whole car correct the with with the tooling team with the doing design team but you're the head of the team that's right so you have the final set because to me the most iconic engineering design is always one person's vision whether it's Enzo Ferrari Gordon Mori Duesenberg Bentley you know things designed by committee you wind up with the Toyota Corolla it's a nice car right but it doesn't excite me there's no passion you know it's true but when you design a car for six months there is always a moment where you are a bit lost in man you don't know if you are working on the right direction and thanks to the team which is there yeah which gotta be the third eye which are looking at this project you say Louis you should try this and this and then the propone different solution and together we can reach a perfect result do you do it in clay first life-sized or they still do that anymore we don't do it's nearly the same concept it's not in clay it's a full model which is melt that's right that's right what a scale one twine we start with a scale 1 to 4 yeah and then we switch to a 1 to 1 you know it's most intoxicating smell it's leather you know in America and the Germans do it now too when they do leather it's got a sealer on it so the leather is sealed you know even leather like hide food doesn't work on it anymore because it doesn't breathe it seems hard so it doesn't have that rich this smells like you know when I used to deal in antique cars and when I was a kid you're getting an older car that had a leather Oh and that rich rich love that this has that same smell this is in fact it's an old experience where everything is real yeah true and when you touch this leather you get this very special feeling in fact the other day I was driving the car and I surprised myself to touching the the side seat because this leather leather is so cool now here there are a couple of books here this is a and this is the whole history of the company isn't right I mean these guys have just some of the beautiful cars that they have designed over the years just fantastic stuff I've got a Maserati 63 3500 which was designed by you guys just a beautiful beautiful car timeless shape timeless design now form a oh I mean just all the great marks of Italy and as Turing is then literally hundreds and hundreds of cars I mean it's a two-volume book so let's all check this book out it if you're a fan of coachbuilt car is this this is the book to have very very nice let's see what else can we see now something unusual you have this glass roof this is not a Sun roof it does not open that's right all right and you have this sort of Targa looking exactly he's here yeah in fact when you start with the proportions and when you get the view the good proportion when the car sit very well on the road and when you can turn off the light and you look at the global line in it's look good then you can start making the car looking like a one-off right that means working on these little details like the treatment of the brushed aluminium over there like the grill on the front fenders like the small details on the bonnet all these elements in fact when you look at them you say obviously it will never be done for mass production car right and this gives this the feeling of a one-off car something which expect our our our clients now this ratio from here to here is the same as the Maserati it is a bit too modified in fact everything is a bit modified the only element which got exactly the same position as the donor car is a windscreen ok and RS is all a bit modified yeah well it's it's just tastefully done beautifully done let's come around to the back first start with the Turing badge here this is probably the largest one on the car isn't it that's why I didn't big it's fun and rather than just stick it on there I love how the trunk is recessed and the badge is lowered into it that's really beautiful about those deals yeah it really is beautifully done I just love that and of course the exhaust there is in fact in the exhaust devisor yeah which which is a bit floating in fact and it's a stupid detail but when I draw it was quite happy it looked like light yeah I mean this I just like the heritage of this and your gosh you've integrated your brake light up right exactly I like that rather than just some people stick it on the glass and it just then you see it in the rearview mirror and then I like the way it's laid in there I really like this piece here this gives it a real definite little offset in fact gives a bit of sportivity yeah when you look at this side in fact it's the good way to judge the design of Fatah is take a bit of distance looking at the side of the car is the most important view to judge the design so you look at it and if the car sit well on the road and it's a bit dynamic let's say that ninety percent of the job is done and this little detail in fact gives a bit of dynamism yeah and it works very well with with the the cam tail you know when I was drawing that that car and I was thinking let's make it super clean and cleaner and cleaner and then I have this idea of the Aero and if you look at the side of that car it looked like an arrow there is a line in the middle who cut the car then there is this point on the front and then all the elements which are on top or both the central line get an angle yeah like an arrow and I see a lot of history here I see a lot of classic I know it's necessary during design but like this is right that is exactly I mean it has the proportions of some of the Maseratis from the fifties that's right exactly exactly the modern cars look sort of I don't know they're not beautiful they're just functional I guess the idea was to recreate a kind of big coupe GT inspired by this proportion from the 50s 60s a bit like you Maserati 3500 long bonnet small greenhouse but a lot of flights kind of invitation for for for journey and then this quite quite long real over hangar what side is wheels front and back are they those 21 I think that 21 for an and back that's right exactly exactly cuz this one proportion to me always is this proportion from here to here sometimes it's too high in fact there is this proportion between the tire the hole and this little board and these three elements are very important it seems to be a detail but you don't know how much we work on that kind of detail well speaking of detail this is a huge door which looks better a small door would look odd I mean it seems proportionate whether from here to here the I mean if this is a little door right as it would look between it would make the fender look that's very fast exact you know I like the way you put it right here it just looks like it's in exactly the right spot and I assume it's a large door for design reasons rather because most gas doors now are just this thing you know you little thing you pop all true but as as soon as you do a rectangular wine it has to be a bit bigger in this case I'm very happy because as you see in term of proportions it works very well on that car it's also linked to this this example of the arrow with it's not a perfect rectangle that's what I mean if you made a rectangle it would look that's right it would look odd so I like the fact that it goes out and comes around it's it's really you you you have a very good eye alright it's very good it's it's and I love this part here these haunches it gives it sort of a masculine you know to me the best design is half masculine half feminine you know like an X key like a Miura women look out and go that's beautiful but men think it women thinks that look think it look dainty and men thinks it was muscular and the fact that they they're completely different but they're both coming in same conclusion I mean tell me that's who that's what works that's what I like about this here this is this is my favorite piece right there we're just it just sort of goes out as if it's got you know I'm I really like when the shape is shown by the highlights yeah and not by the crease in this case in fact when you see the surface as you see is super clean but if you see the highlights it shows the power one great thing is when you drive the car you look in the mirror and then you see these shoulders right right exactly yeah yeah and this would be a fun car to take candid pictures of and put them out and have people figure out it's like the blind man and the elephant you know I mean you can't you this doesn't look like it belongs to a car that looks like this but when you put it all together oh it works you know cool cool can we take a for a ride yes obviously let's see how it looks I think we're getting a lot of looks on the road let's let's give this thing a shot some of that aroma [Music] [Music] we shouldn't stop here ding-ding-ding-ding-ding what happened there we went as an stupid comedian American comedian got stuck on the railroad track [Music] right there now you guys also did the first Ferrari right first that's right first Lamborghini right I see a lot of firsts well doing super a jam was a major act during the car industry when 20 I wanted to create this branded you know it was a race director for for me or then he decided to be his own brand he came to touring and then we designed the very first one and then succeeds come with the 166 the two and twelve the 340 same thing with future Lamborghini yeah that he wanted to create his own brand that he came to touring and asked for design and construction same thing with David Brown that we did the before db5 well known I love the db5 I mean it's one of my favorite because it's a grand touring car which is chairman you know people think they want a sports car what they really want is a grand touring car I know cuz people gonna think oh you know it's kind of uncomfortable and the seats it's a spa I go well that's what you ordered it's not that's a sports car yeah we work for many many car manufacturers since the very beginning and even today we still work for kanya factor two or three years ago we believe this mini village era for for the B&W group that was a lot of fun and project and i think they call this because they were very happy to get them like another point of view on the brand you know ronnie is a very iconic brand and asking a coachbuilder I'm asking a carrots area as we seen in in Italian to get another point of view is it's always good it gives fresh idea to a brand now to people who are watching this for the first time just although we're talking about design primarily the specs are v8 how many leader I think it's a 4.7 4.7 about 450 horseman 8-speed bong how many thanos I think it's a 660 yeah that's right it's a real one because when you change gear you can really see the movement of the Reeves yeah yeah I just fantastic it drives you can really drive a nearly like a sports car even if it's a grand coupe it's a 5 meter longer feels very classic [Music] very strong [Music] you have more or less or the same soundproofing as you would have in the standard car now the sound is a bit improved we work on the pipes and on the exosystem we have some clients which doesn't really drive them car they take it they buy it and then they put it in the garage area but for the wine who draws and who drives it it's it's important to get these feeling because it's all about feeling there are the son of the engine you get the son of the time you get this this leather perfume you get the the end link it's a the first car design that you were in charge of is it this or was it because I know a lot of time I have so many friends at designers and they get stuck just doing door handles or you know some little piece of the car they don't get a chance well do the whole car I was so lucky in fact because when I was hired by the company in 2005 yeah 2004 2005 the design wasn't existing we had the the Atelier the workshop we get the name but I was the very first I'm the only designer yeah I was a head of design as well as junior designer I had everything at my hands so the very first one was a mock-up which was presented at the canoe of elegance of Villa de state they are just called the a8 GCS Berlinetta that was a kind of business card in terms of design for us saying that will be the continuity of doing with respect to the past and in the same time represent the Maserati Bellagio which is the fastback version of the Quattroporte that was very good to show our possibility to manufacture gas and then we designed something like 1k oh yeah which means all s the 30 $40 something like that instead by step by I build a small but very talented design studio and I imagine for a designer like yourself it's more important if not more fun to being a small design I mean if you are part of the Volkswagen Group with the General Motors or any of the imagine you could be a while before you would be in charge of a whole project - as a whole here are Kian Nouri well I don't really know how it works a man come in fracture but it's true that working a very small team especially when you do because it's very what we do when you do b2c you just have to sell them to the car or the design to one guy right right the client you don't have to speak to marketing jingim well all these these things so it's the crease yeah [Music] sounds dude now your smite I cannot stop laughing it is I mean if you're a car person there's nothing more exciting for having a bespoke car a car built either for you or a one-off like this I mean because it really is the only one and it's a it's a great conversation starter and if you I always think of cars is like kinetic artwork I mean their artwork that you know people draw a picture painting on paper and it's just one dimensional this now has to look good it has to function it has to work it's got to look good moving it's got to look good mark I mean it just says so many more elements involved in it that's what I find so exciting about it and now we're finding the age where cars are being looked at as hard you know I mean a lot of I've been doing these talks around the country with a friend of mine where we get a bunch of streamlined cars a bunch of cars that were you know one Design Awards and people come in and they look them as ours is Michelangelo right there and there's a Bugatti Type 57 you know it's like oh you know and it's fun to see them because for so many years they were just they were just cars it's just old cars hey that's very pretty you know nobody thought of it as most culturally and in fact we realize something that it's better to do very small series respect one-off because a piece is create a very exclusive club you can really share with the other owner how look your girl respect to mine even if it's exactly the same shape you have these little details which it makes a difference between number one number two number three and the fun part is in the old days if you had a car built like this for yourself five ten years later it would sell for this much I mean it was just you know it's just an old car nobody ever heard him you know now the value actually Rises I mean I see with McLaren Ferrari new cars go out of production and the next day the price doubles that's where the old days the next day the price would drop that's right but the question is what will be the next classic what we will present in 20 or 30 years at the quill Concord it will be this car building the very very small series yeah respect apology will be a very old man they'll drag you out in a wheelchair this is the car designed 60 years ago and they will ask you how'd you do that's it we met before right in 2013 that's right exactly the Disco Volante they are this is a reinterpretation of one of the masterpiece made by to interprete this car is a completely hand-built in Milan that car was presented as a world premiere in villa de state and this car worn without a state lease here as you can see you get a chance to see what normal cars look like next to a car like this it really stands out it's just an instrument thank you so much for being a part of this we really appreciate them and thanks for bringing this all the way from Italy this is the first show to feature it at least here in the United States so we are quite honored and it's fun to drive it and it's just fun to take it out and just watch people's reaction you can hear people yelling and asking what the car was and no it's really really cool so thank you so much and good luck with the rest of your career I'm sure you've got some more wonderful designs in the future thank you anytime you got it and bring it by here we'll drive it we will thank you again my friend thank you let's see glad see bellissimo [Music] [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 418,615

Keywords: jlg, jay leno's garage, Touring Superleggera, Scia de Persia, bespoke, Maseratti, GT, coachbuilding, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: 9FghvF5iHp0

Length: 36min 26sec (2186 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 18 2018