Mazzanti Evantra: the real supercar handmade in Italy

“For every screw there is someone who screwed it in place”, says Luca Mazzanti. I think it’s a phrase that better reflects all of what Mazzanti Evantra, and more generally Mazzanti Automobili, wants to be.

A supercar completely “handmade in Italy”, as you can clearly perceive in the workshop entrance, where all Mazzanti are born. An Italian flag hangs vertically in the background behind a reproduction scale 1:1 of the Evantra. No robots, no mechanical arms, no assembly line, no sterile environment as you can find in large manufacturers.

The idea of ‘Handmade in Italy’ is already outlined in the symbol of Mazzanti Automobili: the italian flag at the top, and the word Pisa at the bottom, just to remember that yes, it is ‘Made in Italy’, but also ‘Made in Tuscany’, just to differentiate themselves from the historical manufacturers of the Via Emilia.

Here we are in Tuscany, in Pontedera, in the foothills.

It’s Saturday morning, the only day when Mazzanti can find some time for hosting a visit to the company, with the founder, creator, designer, developer, tester, in short “do everything man” at Mazzanti Automobili, Luca Mazzanti.

Luca is 41 years old, and although young, has already been able to realize his dream: to create a supercar craftsmanship, exclusive, whose manufacturing can be monitored step by step, to offer a shopping experience without gimmicks but made of much substance, cooperation, touching by hand if necessary, the evolution of his car, as happened once in the workshops of the great Italian coach builders.

It is from a coachbuilder workshop that it all started. His father had a body shop and it is here that Luca discovered his passion for engines and cars. “For my father it was just a job, to feed the family,” said Luca. “For me it was a passion.”

The real breakthrough, however, happened when he started working for Faralli, a known car restorer. Here he got closer to the craft, and the chance to work on cars as rare as Cisitalia 202, and cars built by the great Italian coachbuilders, like Zagato, Pininfarina and Vignale.

He started restoring cars from only the chassis, or heavily damaged by accidents during races, perhaps using a faded black and white photo, dating back sixty years before in which the proportions are far from easy to interpret and the photo quality is far removed from today’s.

During his work he had to think and empathize with the minds of these masters coachbuilders, acquiring great skills, not only in terms of design and style but also of building technique.

Through the years, the idea grew to start from a blank sheet of paper and put it into practice on a personal project using skills gained in fifteen years of work.

It started building cars tailored for clients, that gave him great visibility, but the real dream came true in 2013 when first displayed in public after years of work at Top Marques Monaco, the Mazzanti Evantra, a supercar, mid-engined, designed for limited production and customizable to the maximum.

After this introduction, we moved in the workshop where there are two Evantra, the 00, the first ever produced and 01, 80% completed, with the latest refinements, both aesthetic and technical still in progress.

I had had already seen in the picture the Evantra, in some video games and live for the first time in September at Cars And Coffee in Turin. It’s undoubtedly a supercar that stands out among the others, with very distinctive features, short front overhang, prominent wheel arches whose line moves the flanks up to the tail. This is the part I like most – so high and wide, with its taut lines toward the ground that make it seem glued to the floor.

The styling, of course, is subject to individual tastes. A friend who is a professional designer, told me that the British true supercars are not made to appeal to the masses and Luca Mazzanti confirmed “it was not born to please everyone, but to thrill with his character and exclusivity.”

So what has inspired Luca Mazzanti, in collaboration with the Hungarian designer Zsolt Tomak, for the Evantra’s design? He didn’t mention any cars in particular, neither historical, nor present, but from the profile of the Tuscan hills, the land where he grew up and Mazzanti Automobili was born. Land where it was also tested by the same Luca Mazzanti who has experience in racing, those roads that put a strain on the cars, those that require the car performance and especially safety and stability.

So the styling of the Mazzanti, not designed for broad aesthetic appeal, suddenly makes sense. The profiles of the wheel well rounded, stretching sinuously on the sides creating a clean and soft yet functional shape. And I challenge anyone to say that the profile of the Tuscan hills is bad or unharmonious.

The Mazzanti Evantra was revealed in 2013 when Luca was ready, after years of work and without the many teasers to which we are now accustomed. No wind tunnel, no advanced design technology. Only knowledge and hard work, moulds for the bodywork, ability to make modifications, exactly like the master coachbuilders, spending hours and hours, late nights, for the construction of the car.

An example are the doors that have an opening called elitra, said brutally “upwind”, Rolls style, but in this case the opening is carried towards the outside and upwards. To ensure that this type of door didn’t fall to earth, as happened to others, they worked on a long study of the hinges. “I’m young, I’m 41 years old, but I guarantee you can see the last years of work on my face.”

And the interiors? Well, customers can choose from two options to tailor the exterior: the first made of carbon fibre, while the second is wrought aluminium. But inside, the client can personalize the car even more, giving full realization of the ‘Handmade in Italy’ definition. Seats tailored to the drivers, leather, colour, alcantara, texture, type of stitching, roof-lining, the engine compartment.

The area of access to the engine compartment, for example, is covered with precious material fastened with screws, and to some might appear unsightly. Instead it is a conscious choice, and returns here the concept “for each screw there is someone who screwed” (said with Tuscan accent). All these details are made from workshops and tanneries in the area obviously, as the Tuscan district is one of the best known in this field, and the Evantra materials and colours customisation catalogue,is rather long and will grow even more in future.

We then moved to a recently purchased area by Mazzanti next to the workshop, where, unfortunately it was not possible to take pics due to the presence of moulds and prototypes of the next Evantra evolutions, that will really …. well I can’t find the suitable adjective, but in 2016 I am sure we will be amazed once again.

The atmosphere breathed in this area is that of a garage where they develop the ideas as happened in the past. No concessions to modernity, offices, windows, minimal design, only rough brick ceilings, the floor on which you can still see the holes where they had set the machinery of the company that was previously used the building.

In short, the classic Italian SMEs, where in this case produces dreams on four wheels. But dreams in a place where you sweat, argue, discuss, build and discard. In which passion, dedication, the sacrifice and family support are the key to the success. Where work per hour is set aside in favor of work on the project. One on which the success of an idea is shown in something truly exclusive.

This dream is to obviously for a few fortunate people. The theoretical production for the moment is five cars a year, and needless to say, each one is unique. “I would never choose to exceed ten cars a year,” says Luca. “This would eliminate the exclusivity that I want to give customers”.

Typical customers are wealthy car collectors, who usually have a number of cars in the garage, including an Italian supercar, and seek in this case something really unique, different, that nobody else has. Nobody. For the process of creating an Evantra, you would be better looking at a bespoke house built from scratch, or a wedding dress, because it is a workshop.

“For every screw there is someone that screwed it in place”, for every stitch is hand stitching, I add. For each Evantra ‘Handmade in Italy’ there is so much behind it. For every dream there is someone who dreamed, and Mazzanti Evantra has all it takes to create this dream.

PS: I have not talked about technical specification, engine (a 7.0 liter Corvette-derived that on 00 was providing 700hp while already on the 01 we were at an altitude of 751), exchange rates and driveability. If I ever get the chance to drive I will tell you that. Now I wanted to intentionally tell the story of a real ‘Handmade in Italy’ supercar.

Mazzanti Evantra: the real supercar handmade in Italy

Lascia un commento Annulla risposta

luca_thecarguy