While the overwhelming majority of us will simply have to make do with driving the Bertone Nuccio concept in our dreams, it looks like at least one person won’t have to. Recently, at the Beijing Motor Show, the famous Italian automotive engineering and design firm were on hand to show off their impressive concept where Automotive News reports that the company is currently considering selling the one-off concept to an avid (read: wealthy) Chinese car collector.
“We are currently in close negotiations with a Chinese collector who wants to buy the Nuccio,” Bertone CEO Marco Filippa told Automotive News Europe at the show last week.
According to Bertone, the whole Nuccio process took an estimated 15,000 hours to complete from design to build. To make up for that that time and cost, Fillippa has earmarked the asking price for the Nuccio at a hefty €2 million Euros (roughly $2.7 million).
The Nuccio — which was unveiled earlier this year at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show and named in honor of Guiseppe “Nuccio” Bertone, son of the Bertone founder Giovanni — marks the celebration of the Italian styling house’s 100th anniversary. Nuccio was at the helm of Bertone from 1950 up until his death in 1997 and ran the company during some of its most successful and influential years in the automotive industry.
While the Nuccio takes design inspiration from more than few of Bertone’s most prolific models, according to Bertone design boss Mark Robinson, the main source of inspiration derives from the 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero concept, which Michael Jackson fans may remember made an appearance in the 1988 film, Moonwalker.
Whereas most concepts are simple design studies meant to highlight what an automaker can achieve, the Nuccio is different in that is an actual road-worthy, fully-functioning car. Underneath its surface sits a Ferrari F430 4.3-liter V8 that is capable of producing 480 horsepower. Not bad considering most concepts generally have no engine at all.
It would seem that if you got the green then you got your machine, because a certain Chinese collector was so smitten with the Nuccio that he just had to have it, and is in talks with the Italian design house to purchase the Nuccio outright. If the deal goes through he won’t get it right away, though. Instead the Nuccio won’t be available until after August where it is scheduled to make an appearance at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, in Monterrey, California.
