4.4 My new ride, be jealous

No, I didn't buy one of the rumored 10 Mantides, neither I'm going to, unfortunately.
On the other side InsideProjectM seems to have appreciated my reviews and comments on the car, and that's their sign of appreciation:

My exclusive 3D virtual copy of the red car which incidentally is also the longest-lasting wallpaper I got in quite some time.

I don't know if I want to see more of such cars in the forthcoming future, or if its artistic and exclusive nature should be kept, well, exclusive.
Would the Mantide still be so special if all cars were to show such an artistic, personal and dramatic style approach?
Maybe not, but I wouldn't deny it a spot in my nonexistant garage.

To be honest, the point is another one.
After all the excitement and hype, if you would like to say so, I knew this game was going to end.
As every other one-offs or concept cars, after the unveiling they were almost bound to be forgot.
Apart from the Ferrari P4/5 which is periodically spotted here and there thanks to an owner, Mr Glickenhaus, who is first of all an enthusiast, then a collector, and then an extremely rich man, others simply disappeared, as the 612 K, or even the Continental GTZ and 575 GTZ, and all those ridiculous special, tired iterations of the Veyron, and so on.

One day you are all excited about this brand new fierceness on the road, you can almost feel its bodywork under your fingers, and the day after, the emptiness, the withdrawals.
Even searching on internet sites of sightings wouldn't help in most of the cases, and it's pretty sad.
While cars like an Enzo or a Zonda become almost common, others mantain a sort of mythological aura, like an unicorn, you start wondering if they ever existed, or produced, and if it was worth creating them knowing they were going to sleep in some garages or a caveau.

When you know the P4/5 is regurarly driven, and pretty hard too, you can't help but like his owner and praise him.
So, knowing the Mantide was going to disappear after heading to somewhere in China, from where we still have less news and info about cars than from other countries, I liked the update of a rumored small producion of up to 10 units. I don't even know if it's for real.
Considering I read since the beginning 2 Million $ was the price tag for the actual first car, and that even the 9 additional units are rumored to have the same price, it seems pretty safe to say the small series was planned since the beginning.

What I heard while at Balocco, was that they could have built 5 or 6 cars with exsisting tools and processes, but I didn't bother about asking and listening all the gossips about the car, since I knew both me and you could have read them on the other main sites and blogs, while I wanted to keep this site, and my articles more personal than press data, therefore I focused on emotions, not facts.

I honestly wouldn't mind even a production of 100 Mantides.
That's because, from Chapter 1 of this blog, I figured out what makes, maybe superficially, the difference on a car is its look, its style, and therefore its image, given a good technical base as the starting point.
Now I may like the Maserati GranTurismo, but I can only appreciate the presence of the 8C Competizione too. And so for the Reventòn.
With the ZR1 being an excellent car, I'm wondering what would cost to GM, or even to Bertone, to design and build a certain number of smaller production series, each with its peculiar style and approach, and sold in enough numbers to be profitable but at the same time to keep its exclusivity high.

Somehow as it used to be back in the days were coachbuilders' cars were more common than production bodies.

That would be a nice road to drive on.

Post header copyright: who knows, InsideProjectM or Damiano Garro...?!