The Icona Vulcano sports car first blew its top at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show, but its Chinese maker plans to debut an updated version at the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance next week.
The Vulcano Titanium is appropriately named, as its body is made from a mixture of titanium and carbon fiber. The result is a club weight of 3,516 pounds, which is still kind of heavy considering the quantity of expensive lightweight materials used.
But the Vulcano Titanium could weigh 6,000 pounds and still be fast, considering the engine Icona has installed under its titanium bonnet. It’s a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 from the old, C6-generation Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The engine was tuned to produce 638 horsepower in the ‘Vette, but here it makes 661 hp.
Icona says it will also offer a 986-hp version, meaning this no-name car will rival the output of a McLaren P1 GTR.
With that much power on tap, performance should be pretty impressive. Icona says performance figures haven’t been finalized, but preliminary estimates include a 0 to 60 mph time of 2.8 seconds, a 0 to 120 mph time of 8.8 seconds, and a top speed of 220 mph. Not bad.
However, it is too bad all of that performance couldn’t be packaged in a more attractive shape. Icona was founded in Turin to provide Italian design and coachwork services to Chinese carmakers, but the Vulcano seems to lack the style the Italian car industry is known for.
The crumpled flanks look like a bad attempt at copying the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta’s unique fenders, while the front end looks like it’s been smashed into a wall, and then covered with auto-parts-store LED strips to hide the damage. At least the McLaren-style doors look good, lending the Vulcano Titanium some proper supercar swagger.
The car also has a complete interior, although Icona isn’t willing to discuss any details on that just yet. We may find out more when the Vulcano Titanium makes its debut at Pebble Beach next week.
