6.4 Italian Rapsody, Faralli & Mazzanti Vulca S

I was waiting for an e-mail from Faralli & Mazzanti with some info and data on the Vulca S, but August is the month during which everything stops in Italy, hence the delay since the last post here.
I was also a bit short on inspiration, and I wanted this review to be well done, partially to match the poor quality images I took of the car, and something I somehow still blame myself of knowing I won't likely see this car once another time.
Well, I guess it's too late to complain.

In a brief contact with F&M I also had little glimpse of what was behind the Antas V8 project, and partially the Vulca as well. It helped to understand both products and the brand itself better, and it made me even more curios to know more about them.
If I'm lucky enough, I'll get a visit at the Faralli & Mazzanti atelier, that would be awesome.

Let's talk about the car know.
The Vulca is a completely different project from the Antas. Where the Antas was made to showcase the craftsmanship ability and the stylish extravaganza of the company, the Vulca is a real product, ready to be driven by ten lucky owners willing to own a tailored exotic, rather then a customized one. A suit designed by Zsolt Tarnok.

Perhaps the point is exactly this, tailoring rather than customizing, being personal rather than smply unique. Even if the these ideas better fit the Antas, the Vulca isn't just another BMW 6 Series (E63) in a fancy bodywork and with a debatable interior.
I don't have any specific data saying it is a 6er E63, but that V10 engine sounds like an enlarged M6 unit, and the wheelbase, and the material, are the same of the Bimmer. Also, the proportions of the central console are the same.
The car is by no means objectively beautiful, especially on the interior, but probably that's not the purpose. After all, if something is generally regarded as good looking, it's also a bit banal.
Not saying a certain super hot model isn't appealing anymore just because everyone likes her, but there is always something we are going to fell in love with and which isn't “that” beautiful to someone else's eyes. “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” is good yet a bit sterile summarize.

Now, I've struggled to identify a common and homogeneous path on the Vulca's body, there where parts that just weren't fitting the car as a unique body.
Depending on the angle, looking at the rear I was expecting a different front end, looking at the front grille I was then looking for a different side view and so on.
At first it was the grille, than the rear diffuser, then again the front LEDs, or the rims and so on.
Having the car in front of me just made it much clearer. At first those LEDs still seemed randomly positioned, but then I understood it was due to the lightning and th black part they are attached on, making them appearing as if they were suspended in the air. Looking closer to them they are extremely finished, and the position also helps lightening and giving more dynamism an otherwise pretty massive front end.
The rear diffuser is quite big, or so is the black plastic area surrounding it, but it's not the real issue.
I think the upper part of the tail, the volume created connecting each side of the car from where the rear lights are, to be a little too flat, and not curvaceous enough to match the volume created by what I think is the boot lid. I don't think it's bad looking, I'd just have gone for a bit more boat-tail shape, matching the strong rear wheel arches. Well, now I know what to ask for when time will come for my own Faralli & Mazzanti car...
I really like the rear lights, especially their position inside of the body in a way it's usually adopted for headlights. Watching the car from the back, they just move the car a bit forward, giving a dynamic view of the body and the feeling of something quite performing too.

The rear wheel arch is actually a bit too small. Let me explain: it's a huge volume, and it's also pretty independent from the rest of the car, but it isn't as wide as the tire behind it. Now this isn't a real problem, it's just that we all know how large a rear tire is on a such a car, and we also know a wheel arch is made to cover a, well, a tire. I don't think it's a real flaw, it's rather an impression, probably something that just take a bit more to be accustomed with.
The side on the other hand is excellent. Perhaps a bit lower greenhouse would have been even better, but this more of a grand tourer, a real gran turismo, not a sportscar as somehow the Antas was. I know some of view thinks of something like a Ferrari F430 (or by the new standards, a 458 Italia), but I think it is something more about the spirit, the attitude of a car rather than its performance or technologies.
The front evolves in a pretty simple way, with a flat bonnet and wheels arches which are completely integrated on the whole side of the car. The grille becomes the real apex of the car, like a sort of arrow, an edge, it isn't just a brand recognizing object, one of those parts that if removed and substituted with one from another company would have changed the whole brand perception of the car. While Audi is all about its front grilles, Mercedes-Benz' cars feature something which isn't always functional to the whole style. It's a Mercedes-Benz, so it has to sport that grille, regardless of it being an A or an S-Klasse. It isn't a matter of badges, but rather of grilles becoming a badge themselves. Now I'm digressing.
Perhaps the Vulca's grille isn't functional from an aerodynamic or thermal point of view, but it definitely fits the style much more than on the Vulca.
I'm a bit surprised that such a simple and flat bonnet is working on such a curvaceous, but I like it.

I have to say these OZ rims are growing on me, still I don't like them completely. Perhaps all those carbon fiber bits and bites on the Antas somehow fit them more than the classy and curvaceous body, but they don't appear out of place. Probably a classic filled rim as those featured on the Lancia Thesis or the Bugatti EB112, EB118 and EB218 concept cars, would have been a too obvious and inappropriate choice, while these, even if looking quite busy, work with a part of the car you can see on the inside.

When you open the door, the first thing you think of is “yellow”. Yellow as the leather covering the whole cockpit. The second thing is “red”, as those painted (carbon fiber?) parts that create the doors' handles or the central console. Finally, you notice that hi-tech central console, dominated by a huge racing LCD screen.
It may seem out of place, I thought that too quite for some time, but it eventually made sense as this car, as a grand tourer and a pretty performing one too, just needs a proper command console to control everything. It may appear tacky, but I think it's better integrated than a lot of sat navs you can see in everyday production cars.
The colors combo, and the lightning, were creating a very warm and a bit too enveloping, but I didn't really seat in the car let alone drive it for some miles, so it was just an impression, and I'm pretty sure it's all about the colors and the lights of the event rather than the design of the cabin itself. I liked this ambient overall, a bit weird with once again all that leather but also the LCD screens and that unusual steering wheel, but really all about enjoying a long journey.
I don't know if the rear seats are as comfortable as the front look, or if the small side windows for the second row isn't creating a claustrophobic effect as others perceived in a Maserati GranTurismo, but I'll have the chance to get in the car, I'll let you know...yeah, right...

About the technical side of the car, as I said at the beginning I didn't receive a confirm, but I strongly believe the chassis is based on the BMW 6 Series E63, as the nearly identical wheelbase, the aluminum structure and one of the engine seem to indicate.
While the 6er is relatively a new comer in this segment, it is also on of the larger cars available without considering boat sized cars like the Mercedes-Benz CL, allowing for fluent design, a spacious cabin, and more freedom on the volumes of the car.
It isn't perhaps the more capable, albeit still a good performer, but many applications by tuners proved the platform is quite capable and provides room for improvements.
So it isn't really a shocking news to see powerful and large engines under the bonnet. If enlarging the S85B50 V10 from the M division was an easy call for the Vulca S (5.8 liters, 630 bhp), adopting a larger V12 (probably the N73 now increased at 7.1 liters and good for 520 bhp) for the more sedate version of the Vulca sounds a bit of an oxymoron, but this engine is surely going to provide more torque and most of all softer torque's and power's curves.
Ironically, the original BMW 6 Series never received a V12 engine to match the CL offer.

Credit for the project are to be given their main partners and supplier, as OZ Racing for the rims, Continental Italia which provided the right tires, Black srl which was responsible for the interior finish, AIM Sportline for the electronics, Delta Sigma which provided a bespoke audi and video HiFi system.

Hope you enjoyed this short trip in the Italian craftsmanship and extravaganza.

The Italian Junkyard.


All Images Copyright: Damiano Garro
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6.3 Big, blue and Italian - Faralli & Mazzanti Antas V8

This is the Faralli & Mazzanti first creation, the Antas.
If you're one of those who went to see the “Speed Racer” movie from the Wachowski Brothers, perhaps you should remember this car as it was featured sometime in the movie. I didn't see it, and probably won't in the near future, so I'm not going to talk about this.

You should also remember about this car as it was unveiled 3 years ago.
At that time, the car had a simpler look but nonetheless it raised quite some discussions about its look, and its importance, somehow.
you know where to click for the full story, pics and videos too!

Aesthetically, smaller rims (then present ones) were present, the exhausts were completely hidden in the longerons under the doors, and there wasn't any sort of wing or diffuser at the back.
The main featured were its retrò look, curvaceous lines reminding of the drophead era, a long bonnet home of a old school carburetor fed V8 Maserati, the fin at the back for a split window effect and those tacky Lexus-like rear lights.
All in all I thought that I was liking this car, except the rear lights. The interior was a simple and opulent at the same time, covered in metal panels (or maybe those are plastic panels, I don't know) of the same color of the body except for the central console raw metal part on the upper part, and by leather on the lower one. The original mechanics being tipped by the weird position of the gear shifter, a bit too modern steering wheel showing off the brand's badge.

What was really interesting me was its nature of a new kind of coachbuild car. The donor car was a 1966 Maserati Quattroporte, the first series of the famous Italian exotic sedan. Then an aluminum handcrafted bodywork was sculpted around the adapteed chassis, the interior completely redesigned, and the mighty engine left untouched.
No matter what you think about it, Faralli & Mazzanti was out to make a point: if you think there is no car on the market that can suit you, they have the answer for you.
Whatever your tastes are, you just have to choose the donor car according to your preferences about the brand the the mechanical to be used. You can either bring a car of your own or let F&M find it for you once you decided for a specific model.
After a donor is available, the design starts. The style is developed according to your inputs and tastes and penned by their designers. When even this choice is taken, it's time to build your Antas.
First a light wired scheleton is made around the chassis just to give you an idea of what the actual product will look like in the flesh, then the body panels are hand made out of aluminum, and the car starts to take form.
Everynow and then, when significant improvement on the project are made, you will be invited in the middle of Tuscany, Italy, to see with your own eyes the stage of the project. Your residence will be an awesome Villa in the middle of countryside, and when you aren't busy staring at the car, tours of the area will be organized so to enjoy the world famous Tuscany. This will probably be a memorable year for you lucky...
There use to be only one requirement made by Faralli & Mazzanti: the donor car has to be a front engined rear wheel drive one. No matter if a coupe, a sedan or an open top.
Recently, the customization process has been available for mid engined cars as well, so if you're willing for a custom and more exclusive F430, here is your chance.

The result, their first creation is here for you to enjoy, with a couple of videos as well (new features at The Italian Junkyard!).

By the time the car reached the Top Marques for the second time in 2007, new rims by OZ found home in those mighty wheel arches, while new and exposed exhausts were visible under the doors.
A new air vents appeared right after the front wheels, as well as new rear view mirrors and a modified front spoiler in raw carbon fiber. The real news actually was the rear wing in carbon fiber as well.
Honestly, the rear wing isn't as bad as you might think, but overall the car was getting a little too busy now. The new chromed and 20” large rims weren't exactly cutting it, but in the Top Marques atmosphere they seemed right. Here is another video and few shots of the updated style.

The car was also present as the usual “Grande Parade Des Pilotes” at the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans. At this event new rims were fitting the car, and these I think are pretty ugly by themselves, not even considering them coupled with the car, They are just too much race inspired for a road car, let alone for a classic looking car like this.
I think they ruined the car a little, definitely making it too much busy now. Rims are a small detail in a car, but they have a huge weight in its look.
Take a look at that Zonda...do you recognize it?

In 2008 plans for a brand new car were unveiled, the Vulca, and the Antas somehow faded into the background, at least in my mind.
We'll talk about the Vulca in a dedicated post of course.

Fast forward to 2009 and here we are the Salone Internazionale del Lusso, in Vicenza.
The Antas seems to be as it appeared at the Parade des Pilotes two years ago.
It's huge, you can really see the Quattroporte presence under its skin right for this, but it's quite elegant from the lateral view. The main point is the door, were lines come to mix themselves and create a strong and muscular area. It really gives power and dynamism to the whole side.
The rear has two issues, I think. The rear wing is a bit out of place, maybe just because the car is styled after an era when wings belonged just to planes, but probably a less busy design, more integrated with the body and perhaps even painted would do the job.
It's rather then fin to seem out of place, as there isn't another similar element on the rest of the car, as it happens for instance on some models of the famous Bugatti Type 57. This fin is not bad, but either the right feature for the rear end. Together with the carbon fiber wing, they create a bit too much extravagant detail.
The main issue remain the lights though. The transparent cover is simply wrong, and from the ¾ shots even their bubble form is a bit out of place. I'd suggest keeping the whole rear end much simpler, with perhaps drop shaped lights with a colored cover, and an accentuated drop shape for the whole back, especially the lower part where a diffuser is integrated.
I say this because the rear end makes the front almost dull, as it's too simple and plain compared to its “antagonist”. It isn't a bad design, but it isn't working with the rear part, and you couldn't say they belongs to the same car at a first glance. I have the feeling I may like the front a lot if it wasn't for the rear.
Personal opinions aside, the interior still looks perfect I think. It's what you were expecting in a Bentley 15 years ago, but with an exotic (or Italian?) touch. I definitely like it, especially the gear shifter inclined as it used to be in the old days.

If you are wondering if there are more Antas around the world, I don't know.
As it's a customization program, if another one exists, it won't look like this, and as I know a lot of you didn't like this design, perhaps this sounds like a good news for you. I don't mind this car really.
I recommend seeing the video were the car is driven on the road, it really helps getting the right perspective on its shape and look.
While if your wondering about where F&M came from, why you should trust them or the quality of their work, their credential is a tradition and experience on restoring classic cars the Cisitalia 202 or the Maserati 450 Zagato.
Regardless of what you think about this car though, now you know there is another coachbuilder to add to you list for when you'll be rich enough to own your own exclusive awesome car.

Images and videos, Copyright: F&M Auto Srl
Last two images of the 2007 Grande Parades des Pilotes
All other images Copyright: Damiano Garro
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