[Auto] Taraschi Berardo, a peculiar sports car with BMW i8 genes

[G h o s t l y.]

 

Fluid and organic lines in a coupe profile and an aggressive red. A look that definitely makes a nod to the past. If we talk about the Taraschi Berardo, you will probably stay the same as before, but it is a curious name that only a few, very few experts in the world of racing from the past, in fact, will be able to link. Because it is not a brand created from scratch, well, not at least as far as its origins are concerned.
 

Berardo Taraschi was a car and motorcycle racing driver between the 30s and 50s. He started with the latter before the war and, after it, he moved on to motor racing. He raced with small and medium displacement cars and single-seaters, even landing in Formula 1, a category where he played several races with a private Ferrari alongside Luigi Musso, Alberto Ascari, Eugenio Castellotti and Luigi Villoresi, the best Italian drivers in the race. postwar period. But Taraschi was a bigger character on the auto scene for being a manufacturer.

 

He built the cars he raced himself: he drove them in the race, he drove them to victory, and then, following the successes, he sold a small series to other private drivers. His machines were called first Urania and then Giaur (from the name of a famous racehorse of the time). At the height of the post-war automotive heyday, he was one of the most flourishing examples of what a driver car builder would be, as champions like Bruce McLaren and Jack Brabham would later do, albeit at a somewhat higher level of production.
 

Taraschi left his activity in the early 1960s, dedicating himself to the street car trade until his death in 1997. Six decades later, his name returns to the headlines in the hands of a hybrid sports car, with the blessing of the Taraschi family who granted the use of the name. The Berardo is a prototype and hopefully the first in a series of models in a range. Its body is made of aluminum, and it measures five meters long and two meters wide. It was built by hand, or at least the part that our eyes see, because under the skin is a BMW i8.


 

The latest i8 rolled off the production line in June this year, but the Bavarian firm's plug-in hybrid is still alive. However, as you can see, the Berardo Taraschi's body looks nothing like the futuristic i8. The company declares that its lines are inspired by the 1953 Giaur 750 Sport Champion, one of the most successful Taraschi models. Only those with a keen eye for detail will notice that the Berardo features the BMW i8's “butterfly” loading port and doors, as well as all the glass and windows with the sharp Hofmeister curve.
 

At 4,980 millimeters in length, it is also 300mm longer than the model from which the base takes, thanks in large part to the increased rear overhang. But it is in the interior where the German genes can be perceived more clearly. All along the i8's architecture, the Taraschi's cabin features an abundance of brown and cream leather, as well as wood trim throughout. The center console looks more like a classic piece of furniture than a functional interior element of the car, although it maintains the same buttons and gear selector as BMW.

 

On the mechanical side, the standard model comes with 420 hp behind the seats, a marked improvement over the combined power output of the 374 hp BMW i8. The Berardo is said to sprint from 0-100 km / h in 3.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 280 km / h. However, the Italian manufacturer also promises 470 and 520 hp variants, which should provide even more performance from both the electric motor and the three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine. Additionally, there is a set of carbo-ceramic brakes.
 

The company has not mentioned the number of copies planned for the Taraschi Berardo, but we know that the starting price will start from 750,000 euros, which is several times the factory price of the BMW i8. The company says it will redirect part of the proceeds to charity, although it has not specified any further details. Although if there is no doubt about something, it is that this sports car will have its defenders and detractors, and I bet my salary that there are more of the second than of the first.