How do you make a 1,900-horsepower hyper EV more exciting? Slash off the roof, of course!
Last year, Pininfarina proved to the world it wasn’t messing around when it actually put the properly batshit 1,900-horsepower Battista into the hands of some very wealthy customers. Now the company’s back, at Monterey Car Week, with something even more manic, beautiful, and frightening: the Pininfarina B95 Barchetta.
Built for the iconic design firm’s 95th anniversary, the new Pininfarina B95 is based on the existing Battista but features new styling, loses its roof, and adds far more drama. It still uses a carbon fiber monocoque, with carbon fiber body panels and aluminum crash structures, that houses a 120-kWh T-shaped, liquid-cooled battery pack. Each wheel is driven by its own electric motor, giving the quad-motor powertrain a total of 1,877 horsepower and 1,725 lb-ft of tarmac-churning torque. Pininfarina claims 0-60 mph in under two seconds and a top speed of 186 mph.
Now imagine all of that sans roof. In Italian, “barchetta” means “little boat.” In the automotive world, it typically refers to roofless sports cars that often lack real windshields. The B95 is a continuation of that trend, as it too lacks a roof and, instead of a proper windshield, it has individual, electrically adjustable windscreens for each passenger. They can raise and lower on exposed aluminum supports independently, so you can choose how many bugs and pebbles you’d like to perforate your face at nearly 200 mph. Graciously, Pininfarina will let buyers custom order helmets, to ensure facial integrity during high-speed blasts.
Despite sharing clear familiarity with the Battista, the Pininfarina B95 looks like if Italians tried to make a BAC Mono competitor, with its roofless design and dual rollover humps. The front hood intake also now has long strakes, which may help with aero but are probably just there because they look cool. Inside, the B95’s cabin is mostly the same as the Battista’s, save for its gorgeous seats, with their upper houndstooth design made from sustainable fabric. However, where the Battista had normal seatbelts, the B95 has four-point harnesses with leather shoulder straps.
Pininfarina will only make ten of these beautifully manic B95 speedsters and each one will cost $4,791,600, before customization. The Battista was already such a violently fast car, and removing the roof should only make it even more dramatic. Now I just need to figure out which non-essential organs I need to sell on the black market to afford one.
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