The LF1 features a central structure that houses the cockpit and engines in the true style of a racing car, along with a large from wing and side pods that wrap round the rear wheels. Integrating the styling and aerodynamics has been a key aim of this project. Tris is a 3-door hatchback that showcases new methods of lowering vehicle development and manufacturing. The three doors on Tris are identical, as are the bumpers and the lights/indicator units.

Italian design house Fioravanti will present two very different concept cars at the Geneva Motor Show next week, a sports car that aims to bridge the gap to racing cars, as well digging out its Tris urban car from 2000.

With its brand new LF1 concept Fioravanti, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, is aiming to bring technology from Formula 1 to high performance road cars. It represents a change in direction for Fioravanti from its recent concepts including Hidra (2008) and Thalia (2007) and the company has a tradition of presenting forward looking concept cars at the Geneva Motor Show. The LF1 features a central structure that houses the cockpit and engines in the true style of a racing car, along with a large from wing and side pods that wrap round the rear wheels. Carefully integrating the styling and aerodynamics has been a key aim of this project.

The second concept that Fioravanti will present at the Swiss show is its Tris urban hatchback car from 2000. Tris is a 3-door hatchback that showcases new methods of lowering vehicle development and manufacturing. The three doors on Tris are identical, as are the bumpers and the lights/indicator units. By reusing parts, the costs of the project are reduced. Regarded as being ahead of its time in 2000 when it was first shown, Fioravanti has brought out the Tris for this year's show as the project's fundamental principles are more relevant today.

Fioravanti was set up in 1987 as an architectural practice working on the Japanese market, designing homes in Tokyo and several clubhouses for golf courses in the Tokyo area. In 1991 Fioravanti diversified its activities into services to the automotive industry, focusing in particular on transport and industrial design. The company expresses its philosophy in three concepts: to design is to engrave upon reality; style is a means of perception; and to perceive innovative concepts through awareness of the past.

The company headquarters are housed in Moncalieri, an historic town lying in the Piedmont foothills outside the city of Turin, Italy. By choosing to work out of a building dating back to the 13th -16th centuries, the company is underlining its corporate philosophy: innovative conceptual design in all fields of transport, using leading-edge technology (CAS, CAD, CAM, CFD) in an ambience permeated with the creative beauty of old-world Italy. The same corporate philosophy of sensitivity to environmental and ecological demands underlies the company’s choice of site for its show area for models and prototypes - a natural setting, surrounded by wide open spaces.

C.E.O. Leonardo Fioravanti worked twenty-four years with Pininfarina, where he personally designed some of the most famous Ferrari road cars and became Managing Director and General Manager of Pininfarina’s research arm. During the years 1988-1991 he was with the Fiat Group, first as deputy General Manager at Ferrari and then as head of Fiat’s design centre.

In 1991 Leonardo Fioravanti left Fiat to diversify the activities of his own company, Fioravanti SRL, into services to the automotive industry, focusing in particular on transport and industrial design. The design process harnesses both traditional and advanced methodologies. The most important element in the Fioravanti business and design philosophy is the study of and research into innovative concepts, which in turn translate into the vehicle’s architectural layout and culminate in formal styling. Feasibility studies, engineering and computational aerodynamic research are developed simultaneously. The final phase consists of the building of models and prototypes which then undergo aerodynamic testing in a wind-tunnel.

From 1991-1993 the company worked exclusively for the Fiat Group’s automobile marques - Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo - developing several projects connected to production programmes. In 1994 the company designed and built Sensiva, a highly-innovative proposal for a hybrid sports car, and presented it at the Turin Motor Show. The project, which encompasses several ecological features, is based on a unique sensitive tyre unit, patented by Fioravanti SRL in Europe, the United States and Japan.

Fioravanti SRL was invited to join the Italian delegation to the EVS 12 Show at Los Angeles and to enter the Compasso  d'Oro awards with Sensiva. In addition, some details of the design, as well as some of its components, formed part of the exhibits at the 1995 'Torino Desi exhibition. In 1996 Fioravanti SRL exhibited two economy vehicle design projects at the Turin Motor Show: Flair', based on the Fiat Bravo chassis, was a 2+2 coupe', aerodynamically designed (Cd = 0.18) to reduce fuel consumption and featuring air brakes. 'Nyce' was an economy vehicle for the leisure market, whose basic concept, a Fiat/Fioravanti patent, is a symmetrical door which opens both ways, reducing the number of expensive body parts to keep costs down.

In addition the company has recently produced several projects in the field of marine and industrial design and is currently working with several automotive manufacturers outside Italy. Fioravanti SRL is a member of ANFIA, ADI and ATA, all of which are Italian associations connected with industrial and, more specifically, automotive engineering and design.