Frangivento Asfane DieciDieci is a hypercar that can’t be translated

The Frangivento Asfanè DieciDieci looks like it entered our present timleline through a portal in a 1970s Italian sci-fi film. Or a flamboyant evolution of a Spyker, which is saying something. We don’t know how long the coupe will be here, nor how long our world has left since the time-travelers who drove it haven’t made contact. The Frangivento website claims the DieciDieci is, in fact, the fourth product from the tiny, 4-year-old Italian company. The coupe embodies the same hard-to-forget design as the company’s other prototype outings, and uses a hybrid powerplant with 1,010 metric horsepower, or 986 American ponies.

For any who wonder, Frangivento is Italian for “windbreak,” “Asfanè” is said to mean “It can’t be done” in the Piedmontese dialect, and DieciDieci is TenTen, representing the coupe’s metric horsepower. Not that any of that explains anything, but we do find it more comprehensible than the fact that the company’s Charlotte roadster from 2017 had a fish tank behind the front seats. It even held two fish, Nemo and Dory. We’ll assume those are the Babel Fish. Only slightly less odd, the Asfanè coupe trotted out in 2016 had a camera mounted on the single windshield wiper. At the press of a button in the cockpit, the wiper arm would rise to 45 degrees and take a picture of the cabin occupants.

Frangivento never misses a chance to do something novel, it seems. There are brake calipers drawn inside the wheels of Asfanè DieciDieci rendering. The rear caliper features text we can’t make out. But at the front? That’s a caliper-shaped cutout from Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

It’s not clear what powers the DieciDieci. The Asfanè coupe used a V10, Ansa.it writes only that the DieciDieci will use a supercharged ICE on the rear wheels and two electric motors on the front wheels, said powertrain designed by Italtecnica. The aluminum bodywork is about five inches longer and wider than a Lamborghini Huracán, and the roof sits just a hair lower.

The brainchild of investor Paolo Mancini and designer Giorgio Pirolo, additionally backed by Carlo Pirolo, the Asfanè DieciDieci will meet the public this Thursday, May 30, at The National Automobile Museum in Turin, Italy. They should gets lots of wealthy eyes on the news, at least, since that’s the same day Ferrari’s unveiling its V8 hybrid supercar for selected guests.

The Italians say we’re looking at a production prototype that opens “a new chapter in the history of FV Frangivento.” We’re not sure if their last chapters ever made it to production, but they were meant to cost about $1.3 million, so expect the same here. If you can’t make it to Turin for the debut, you’ll get another chance when the Asfanè DieciDieci celebrates Italian Republic Day at the Italian Embassy in Monte Carlo on June 2.