Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums - 2019 Geneva Auto Show.. pics & thoughts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wh921 (Post 15684531)

Thanks for all the pics and info! The manual New Stratos........to me that is by far the most desirable car at the show.

I'd written a little piece on instagram about MAT, a company founded by one of the worlds most awarded and experienced automotive prototyping engineers, and my friend, Paolo Garella. Paolo and I became friends a few years ago.. but as a kid, i would cut out magazine articles about him and make collages of where he was included in an article.. some people like music stars or sports stars.. I followed automotive engineers like Paolo and Horacio Pagani and Gianpoalo Dallara and others.

Few people know, but the number of projects which Paolo Garella has lead is simply staggering... and his depth of experience is unlike that of any automotive engineer in the world that i can think of.
-Pininfarina Special Projects Manager
-Sultan of Brunei Prototypes.
-Apollo IE
-All the jim glickenhaus cars including scg003/s/ + ferrari P4/5 & P4/5 Competizione
-Ferrari Modulo restoration
-many others which can't be shared publicly...

Starting from the top though, Paolo was the special projects manager at Pininfarina, and most famously was the man behind most of the Sultan of Brunei prototypes. Like taking ferrari coupes and making them into sedans and wagons... with ferrari production quality levels.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...f693e6cee9.png
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...94229fd7ec.png

Additionally, he built the Jim Glickenhaus SCG 003 Nurburgring race cars,
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...ce67183db2.png

and the SCG 003S road car which I test drove last year.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...578a452064.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...a01c8912a7.png

Paolo also was the man responsible for the Ferrari P4/5, as well as the P4/5 Competizione...
http://www.paologarella.com/img_sche...ininfarina.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...946c23b2ed.png
https://www.motorsport-total.com/img...?ts=1533987830

not to mention doing the restoration on an italian icon... the Ferrari Modulo (something which I covered here in a post after my visit to his shop last year.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...29e26234fe.png

Anyway, needless to say.. Paolo Garella is THE MAN you trust when you want a new car built. Period.

This year I was a guest of Paolo's team at Geneva, and with exhibitor passes in hand, i was able to access the show before the crowds, and just walk around and talk to all my friends, hear the gossip, share some stories.. and just relish in the whole gearheadness of it all. Of course i spent a lot of time inside the MAT booth here at Geneva past two days, and I interviewed Paolo about his time working with the Sultan of Brunei and all the crazy engineering projects he was tasked with. This was the man who managed the entire collection.. thousands of cars.. and hundreds of special projects.. from rolls royce SUV's built on range rover bodies, to paddle shift Ferraris with F1 paddle shifters.. before such a thing existed. To managing the Mclaren F1 collection.. the stories he can tell are endless... and simply jaw-dropping. He was the man who would wake up in the middle of the night to a phone call from the Sultan asking for a run of station wagon Ferrari 456’s, and he was the man tasked with figuring out a way to take cars that simply didn’t exist, and make them into production worthy machines.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...0bf480494a.png

When you look at small production cars, they look good from far away, but they fall apart upon close inspection. The difference, and the devil as they say, is always in the details. But when you look at the cars that Paolo’s team builds like this Stratos, they look like production machines all the way down to the smallest attachment, all the way down to the perfection of the shut lines in the doors. Every little detail which the untrained may not see, but that the production engineer spots as equal or surpassing the quality of a mass produced car. When you look at the new Stratos machine which Paolo’s team has built on a custom shortened F430 chassis, you are in disbelief at the precision and quality of the work. I drove the prototype this summer during pebble beach, it made me smile so much it hurt. We also put the car next to an original stratos and it was such a beautiful reinterpretation of the originals...
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...35fd955894.png

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...7b6e15bbdc.png

The Stratos is like nothing else on offer In today’s supersaturated world of sports cars, super short wheel base, turns on a dime, very quick reaction.. not neutered and dumbed down, yet refined. this project truly stands out as something different… Not only is it so unique in it's setup as a modern but old-fashioned analog rally racer, but because of the intrinsic quality of every detail. This stratos stands apart from the insanity at Geneva because it's a usable sports car with a fantastic design.

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