2008 Fornasari RR600

The Fornasari is a 2-doors coupe of compact size which makes it a real sports car. The door width gets to 140cm in order to let people in and sit in the back seats easily. This means that 5 people can feel comfortable in the large space they find inside. The bonnet opens like the one of a prototype for racing ready at the start of a 24h race. It shows the mechanics: a mass of noble technological materials like aluminium and carbon, all framed in light though very strong chrome pipes.

There are 5 large seats inside, with the back seat that can be split. The loading capability is noteworthy for a car showing so much of a sporting attitude. Interior is in leather and aluminium, with particulars sometimes recalling the past: hand hammered and satin aluminium, hand-sewn seams in the leather, pure woollen fitted carpet with leather borders, pedal controls and other parts of the console crafted with care as unique pieces.

Instruments are rounded in shape and the metallic pointers are hand balanced, enriched by all those led lights so familiar to any collectors. Beneath the classic style we find the most advanced technology, as in the satellite alarm combined with the satellite navigator system, linked to the multimedia tool. The car is also furnished with a TV, a VTR player and a video camera for reverse gear.

Customization is a must. Both interior and exterior specs are determined according to the clients’ taste. Also, no limits are given for the engine: either 450 or 600 horse power, with 6-speed or automatic gearbox, suspensions ready to win the Dakar or the Grand Prix. Anything may be required and everything can be satisfied: Formula breaks, hand-hammered body in carbon or aluminium, and even 18″ rims or the 23″, which can be combined with tires for either desert sands or high-speed circuits. Even the armour plating becomes peculiar on the RR600. With such a set of size, weight and mechanical features, this protection grants for the best safety solution with no diminishment in the performance level.

The steel piping chassis in molybdenum-chrome assures an extraordinary lightness and versatility. Suspensions, Proflex or Ohlins, have an independent oil tank. These characteristics make the RR600 a car without competitors: its maximum speed arrives to 280 km/h and have an acceleration 0-100 km/h in 4 seconds. Body in carbon and Kevlar assures high resistance and great reliability.

The car’s skeleton consists of a special steel piping chassis in molybdenum-chrome that means a real space-frame in a 5 users’ model adaptation. More than 450 pipelines go across in order to obtain stiffness and torsion capability with a weight of less than 150 kg. The suspension wishbones are equal on the four sides and they are mechanical jewels, with welding joints like those in Formula 1. The suspensions travel of 240 mm has been studied so as not to affect or change in any extent the geometrical configuration, as it had been set.

The heart consists of the latest generation of engines by General Motors’ as reviewed by Fornasari in the U.S. under the specialist Mr. Cottrell. The result is a light but reliable complex all built in aluminium. Sparing of consumption, in compliance with law about gas emissions puts no limits to power exploitation, which comes to be underlined by great values of torque.

The car, which weights only 1700 kg, has two options: 500-600 hp. As far as the gearbox is concerned, either the six-speed one or a 4 or 6-speed automatic one is available. The traction is integral 4WD. Power gets transmitted to the wheels in three different ways: by a central viscous joint 38/62, standard 40/60, or with reduced gears. Standard rims and tires are 20″, but you can choose from 16″ (races) up to 23″, according to the clients’ taste and use.

In Detail

Story by Fornasari

Keyword: 2008 Fornasari RR600