PININFARINA BATTISTA
MIAMI HEAT
HYPER GT OF THE YEAR
Where better to try out the supersized horsepower of the new Battista than the land of excess?
WORDS JACK RIX
PHOTOGRAPHY ROWAN HORNCASTLE
I CAN’T THINK OF A WORSE
PLACE IN THE WORLD TO
DISCOVER HOW A 1,874BHP
HYPERCAR REALLY DRIVES
THAN
MA I.
Most of Florida in fact is flat, congested and swampy. Smooth, wide, curly bits of tarmac, the type that wriggle their way skywards then tumble down the other side... simply don’t exist around here. And you know what? I’m OK with that, no use in complaining or kicking against facts, I’m here to move with the flow and fully embrace the Miamian way.
Nope, not cramming myself into a lycra bodysuit that’s four sizes too small and pounding Big Gulp cocktails (seriously, American tourists are a fascinating species to observe) but getting a little taste of that billionaire lifestyle. Which is why I’ve secured myself a box fresh $7m mansion for posing purposes, complete with more marble than the Parthenon and a fridge-freezer that’s bigger than my first flat. I have donned a party shirt of questionable taste and glued a pair of shades to my face. Parked outside, I have the car.
The Pininfarina Battista is the future of really, really fast things. It’s the sister car to the Rimac Nevera, so based around the same powertrain technology, electrical architecture and carbon core, tweaked to Pininfarina’s specifications then draped in a body and interior of its own design. Despite being Italy’s most famous styling house and owner of a back catalogue that stretches back 91 years and includes slam dunks such as the Ferrari F40 and Cisitalia 202, this is the first road car to ever wear the Pininfarina badge... and the most powerful Italian car ever made.
Although mooching around between the art deco buildings on Ocean Drive and the murals in Wynwood might actually play to the Battista’s strengths. While the Rimac Nevera is the physical representation of Mate Rimac’s intellect –a shrine to technology in all its geeky glory, Pininfarina is trying to push an idea of old school luxury and design. There’s an outrageous surplus of performance, sure, but it’s all wrapped in a classically beautiful carbon-fibre shell, uses the world’s finest materials and comes with endless customisation options that mean each of the 150-car run will be unique. Somebody in Pininfarina’s press department deployed The Maths and calculated that “the total number of possible individual designs stretched to 13.9 quintillion”. I have no idea how many that is because I ran out of fingers, but it sounds like a lot.