It’s powered by the Alfa 8C’s Maserati-derived, Ferrari-assembled 4.7-litre, 450bhp V8, so there’s huge personality here, too, the basso profundo soundtrack amplified by the absence of a roof. But despite its size, the DVS is user-friendly.Īnd fast. I guess perfection is part of the deal, as it would be if you were having a suit tailor-made or even forking out for a pricey kitchen, but cars can be tricky things to get right.įew things are more likely to induce heart palpitations than driving someone else’s multi-million pound one-off supercar onto an Italian tangenziale rammed with hire cars and mercenary 18-wheelers. There’s one teeny squeak, and that’s your lot. Touring’s in-house paint-shop is so good Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce frequently use it, and the rest of the car is as glossy and lustrously finished as the exterior. The luggage matches the interior, natch.īest of all, though, is the quality of execution. So there’s storage space inside, and a frankly huge boot under that vast, sweeping rear canopy (also made of carbon composite). It’s also meant to hark back to the days when Agnelli and his jammy playboy ilk genuinely did tour grandly, usually on nocturnal assignations with willowy heiresses or casino croupiers. “I pushed them a bit on that one,” he concedes.įew things are more likely to induce heart palpitations than driving someone else’s multi-million pound one-off supercar. Louis likes that detail, but not as much as Clive. There’s a little wing between the fairings, inspired by the Spitfire. The seats themselves are trimmed in buttery-smooth Connolly leather. The DVS is well-nigh perfect in this regard although the cabin is Alfa 8C, there are ally strips on the sills, unique body colour inlays in the doors, and even Plexiglas inserts in the seats that pulse gently with light when you unlock the car. He said, ‘Well, why don’t you?’ So I fell right into that one…”īeecham, as I’ve discovered over the years I’ve known him, is a stickler for detail. “I visited Touring to look at the coupe and asked Piero why they hadn’t done a spyder. “I’ve never owned one, and I have no intention of ever doing so,’ he tells me firmly. It’s also why Clive elected to go this route, rather than pick up an ‘off-the-peg’ supercar. The DVS is more than a car, it’s part of a priceless continuum. This is what you’re buying, and buying into. We visited the Touring HQ back in February to see the DVS in final assembly during the countdown to its Geneva show debut, and met the guys who take sheets of aluminium and fashion them into heart-stopping curves armed only with a hammer and expertise. We have to take care of everything, and the finished car represents 10,000 hours of engineering effort.” “It’s one of the reasons I love working at Touring,” Louis says. The top half of the car now flows seamlessly into dramatic seat fairings which are reinforced with carbon, resolving into a rear end whose volumes look almost impossibly cool.Ĭool or not, the sculpted taper on the DVS’s rear really would be impossible if it weren’t a handcrafted, bespoke special. The roof is a two-piece carbon-fibre creation (the panels weigh 3.5kg each), the design of which necessitated a complete reworking of the windscreen. It’s also much more than just an open version of the Touring Disco Volante coupe (driven in TG issue 250). As wide as a Range Rover, its body really is almost saucer-shaped and flaunts the basic tenets of stance and proportion so flagrantly that it simply shouldn’t work. The DVS generates so much charisma, it’s difficult to know where to begin. Thirty months of anticipation, and he wants us to do the honours? Is he mad? He’ll meet the car he started thinking about two-and-a-half years ago, and then take part in a weekend-long catch-up with Touring luminaries and owners. Its owner, UK businessman Clive Beecham, has asked TG to collect it from Bologna airport and drive it to Florence, where we’ll meet him. Although it looks like pure conceptual eye candy, the DVS is a production car, albeit in an extraordinarily limited run: the vehicle you see here is currently one of one, although six more will follow. As Touring celebrates its 90th anniversary, it’s a welcome shot in the arm for one of the best-loved names in Italian carrozzeria, a firm whose greatest hits include the Aston Martin DB4, Ferrari 166 MM and Lancia Flaminia GT. Visitors to the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza in May obviously agreed, awarding it the prize for best concept or prototype. Of greater relevance is his fluency in design, for if a more striking car than the Touring DVS has appeared in the past five years then it’s passed me by. Louis is Belgian, his fluency in English only rarely offset by the odd Clouseau-esque turn of phrase.
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