Geneva Motor Show: Pininfarina Fittipaldi EF7

You can’t go out to dinner in Geneva without tripping over a supercar or two – but even in this carbon fibre drenched berg, this one is kinda special.

The Fittipaldi EF7 Vision Gran Turismo gets its name from two-time world Formula One champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi, who has teamed up with the world’s best known design house and the brains behind the Mercedes-AMG racing program to produce this… stunning device.

It’s a proper, poster-on-the-bedroom-wall supercar, this. Achingly gorgeous to look at, it also promises to be pretty quick, too.

It’s designed and built by Italian stylemeisters Pininfarina, whose catalogue of exotica is as long as your arm. And the other one. Words like ‘shark’ are being bandied about, but I reckon it’s combined form, function and emotion into one thoroughly modern, yet strangely nostalgic shape that instantly attracts the eye.

The carbon body is built to the FIA’s most stringent crash test standards, with a fully integrated roll cage and custom fixed back seats, a movable pedal box and adjustable steering column.

A mid-mounted, dry-sumped naturally aspirated V8 that measures 4.8 litres in capacity and revs to 9000rpm makes about 447kW, with the weight of the car said to be just a nick over 1000kg.

It delivers it power to the back end via a two-way limited slipper and a six-speed sequential gearbox, which, like the engine, is bolted directly to the carbon chassis.

Underneath, it’s surprisingly un-exotic, with steel double wishbones all round and steel brakes – but HWA builds all of Merc’s DTM cars, so there’s smarts in the simplicity.

In fact, Emmo himself says the car is built to go quick but to be easy to drive, with adjustable track-spec stability and traction control on offer. He’ll even be available for trackside instruction for anyone who buys an EF7.

Just 39 – one for each of Emmo’s F1 wins – will be built, and no price has been set. And for the likes of us, we’ll be able to have a go of it when Sony and Polphony add to the roster of Vision Gran Turismo cars on GT4.