Budding Swedish carmaker Laboratori Bebi will later this year unveil a new sportscar, called the 'Quercianella' in tribute to legendary Italian designer Giotto Bizzarrini who has played an influential role in the project's development. Bizzarrini, is one of history's most famous designers, renown for working his breed of magic on evocative sportscars, including the immortal Ferrari 250GTO and Lamborghini Miura. He was born in the Italian town of Quercianella, hence the new car's name.

"It is named Quercianella as a tribute to the man who once helped to transform the idea in to reality. His name is Ing. Giotto Bizzarrini and Quercianella is the place where he once grew up and where he is living today. He is a very special friend and he has inspired us to make this a very special car," states Laboratorio Bebi's boss Clas Müller. "In 1998 I read an article in the American magazine Sports car Classics. The story was about a super light sports car project. The car was basically a wider Formula Ford chassis with a composite body. Nothing really special about that. It was the drive train that was special. Mounted in the middle of the chassis was an 1100cc motorcycle engine producing around 150bhp in standard shape. I loved the idea and I couldn’t get it of my mind," he adds.

"Later that year I visited the famous car designer Giotto Bizzarrini and his wife in their home just outside Livorno in Tuscany. I told Bizzarrini about the idea and asked him what he thought about it. In his usual sceptical way, he started to ask me all sorts of questions that I couldn’t answer. That is his way. But after a while the questions were becoming more investigating than trouble seeking and so the idea of the Bebi was born.

"Bizzarrini drew up the concept and quickly build a first ”pre prototype," continues Müller. This was a basic steel frame with an engine and a simple body on top. The body was designed as sort of a spider version of the old Bizzarrini 1900 Europa. This was done just to see how the layout would turn out and to decide the size and measurements. That was our first milestone. A go or no go. We started the engine and sat in the car discussing the future while zipping on a glass of “vino rosso”. Of course it was a go. When building the pre-prototype I was a frequent guest in the Bizzarrini house. Not speaking much Italian and Giotto not speaking any English sometime made it difficult.
 

"We had Bizzarrini's youngest daughter, Elena, interpret but most of time it worked fine just waving and using the words we knew. When we had big problems understanding each other, we turned to the computer and I would write my question in English and let the computer translate it to Italian. Bizzarrini then answered the opposite way around. After milestone One we decided to start building the prototype. The chassis would be a carbon fibre monocoque similar to a Formula three chassis, but twice as wide. Rear and front suspension would be mounted to aluminium tube sub frames. The engine, a Yamaha R1, was taken from the pre-prototype and mounted in the rear sub frame using a Quaife differential to put the power on the road," concludes Müller.

Now nearly six years later the Quercianella sportscar is almost production ready. Laboratorio Bebi are aiming to stake out their own ground in this exclusive market by building a good looking new super-sportscar, which with up to 525bhp and weighing in at 525kg they hope will be fast, ultra-light and superb to drive. The Quercianella will gain its reported 525bhp from an undisclosed 2.4-litre V8 engine fitted to a six-speed sequential gearbox. The light weight will derive from its construction: a carbon-fibre semi-monocoque with steel subframes and composite crash structures. All these features combine to offer a claimed 0-100kmh acceleration time of 3 seconds, and a top speed of over 300km/h.

Technical Details, Quercianella: Bodywork: all painted carbon-fibre; Chassis: carbon-fibre semi monocoque with steel subframes and composite crash structure; Suspension: double wishbone, pushrod activated coilovers; Engine: V8 2.4-litre, 380-525bhp at 10,500rpm; Transmission: 6-speed sequential transaxle; Length: 4230 mm; Width: 1920 mm; Height: 1038 mm; Wheelbase: 2600 mm; Weight: 525 kg; Wheels: Dymag carbon-fibre/magnesium, front 9x18, rear 10x18; Tyres: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup; Brakes: AP Racing; Performance: acc 0-100 km/h 3 secs, top speed 300 km/h.