Touring Superleggera Disco Volante driven

Despite an untouchable back catalogue, Touring disbanded in 1966 following an industry shift away from outsourced low-volume coachbuilt products to mass-built models designed in-house. The famous name lay dormant until it was quietly reborn 40 years later.

Since then the firm has made small waves by turning the Maserati Quattrporte into a fastback called Bellagio and larger ones by making a Flying Star estate out of a Bentley Continental GT. Its comeback as a creator of the finest hand-crafted coachbuilt cars has been fully announced with the Disco Volante. 

It’s this car for which I’ve come to Touring’s unassuming headquarters on the outskirts of Milan to find out more about and, providing I promise not to tell the chap who’s bought it, maybe even have a little drive in. 

The production Disco Volante here closely follows a concept of the same name from the Geneva motor show in 2012. Two of the eight have been built, another is under construction and the sale of a fourth is close to being finalised. 

The Disco Volante is Touring’s way of using its history to promote its future. “Many people don’t know what Touring is,” Mancardi says, “but when they find out what we’ve done they’re amazed.”

Touring chose to pay homage to Alfa by reimaging the C52 Disco Volante of 1952. “If you go to the Alfa Romeo museum, half the cars are done by Touring,” says the firm’s incumbent chief designer and 2013 Disco Volante creator, Louis de Fabribeckers. “The Disco Volante is such a fascinating beautiful car, with proportions that inspired a generation of sports cars [think Jaguar E-type], so it was a natural car to reference.”

A production run of eight was chosen as “a car built in eight units can be as rare as a one-off, but the passion is shared between people, adds value, and confirms you made a good choice,” according to Mancardi, but he isn’t fussed if all are sold. “We’ll only build what we sell, and can be well off from one unit,” he adds.

Approach the car for the first time and the timeless proportions of the 8C underneath remain obvious, but the body is as much a nod to the future as it is the past. Disco Volante translates as ‘Flying Saucer’ so it’s no surprise to lean de Fabribeckers and his team drew inspiration from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey for some of the design flourishes.

For example, the illuminated Disco Volante logo in the back rests of the seats that greet you when you open the door, the airy spaceship feeling in get in the cabin you get from the glass roof, and the gorgeous paint finish that’s achieved by painting red on top of a gold base coat. Then there’s the sound it makes you when start it up; like the 8C, the Disco Volante’s high-revving V8 sounds like nothing from this world.

It’s not me starting the car, it’s my Italian chaperone who’s in the driving seat. He’s a friendly chap who’s English is as bad as my Italian so we never quite fully establish one another’s names.

Whereas the standard 8C has been tuned to be 90 per cent sporty and 10 per cent comfortable, the Disco Volante has been tuned the other way. So it’s surprisingly comfortable, with a ride more pliant at higher speeds than I remember from the 8C. 

All a bit civilised, really. Until we reach a tunnel, when a smile appears on the face of my driver as he backs off, hit the Sport button on the transmission tunnel, and floors the throttle in a wholly uncivilised way. The engine screams above 4000rpm; it is epic. And my word it shifts.

Then it’s my turn. I’m handed the keys by my nervous chaperone. No-one outside of Touring has driven the car, not even its owner from Singapore. It’s probably worth seven figures before the taxman gets involved, so forgive me if I hold back a bit.

I don’t get a chance to get it much above 60mph on the roads of the Milanese suburb we’re in, but I feel enough to know this is a car that’s very much alive, fidgeting around corners and spinning its wheels at every opportunity. Give it your upmost respect and attention at all times and it will go in a delightful way that’s every bit as entertaining as it looks. 

After I slide around another corner, it’s time to give the keys back before I get too carried away and have to make an awkward call to a gentleman in Singapore.

One thing that is noticeable is the lack of final polish the Disco Volante has next to a Ferrari 458 Italia, but then that’s exactly the point of this creation; it’s for the super-wealthy who want anything but a mainstream supercar. In a rarefied world when a Ferrari is as common as a Ford Fiesta, only a car as wonderfully distinctive as this will do.