Italdesign Zerouno convertible to be displayed at Geneva motor show

The Italdesign Zerouno will gain a convertible variant to cater to demand, after the design house sold all five examples of the coupé it produced. The model has been revealed ahead of its Geneva reveal, although the company remains tight-lipped on details, including the open-roof model's name.

All five slots for the Italdesign Zerouno were sold to customers - but the brand has now shown a murky image of a drop-top version, suggesting that it has bowed to demand from customers to produce more examples of the supercar.

The V10 supercar is capable of over 200mph and has been launched by the famous Turin-based design house, which was founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro in the late 1960s and now part of Volkswagen Group. It marks the first of several planned low-volume models produced by the new Italdesign Automobili Speciali.

Although not officially revealed, the entry-level price for a Zerouno is said to be more than £1.3 million - but it is tipped to cost close to £2m after owners add their chosen extras. These include a wide variety of trim, equipment and performance personalisation options.

The five customer cars were aimed at “collectors and visionary enthusiasts”. The brand said it still has several buyers after a car, so was previously exploring the "possibility to build a roadster version", having already opened "dialogue with customers worldwide to truly materialise their wishes into it".

Speaking to Autocar last year, Filippo Perini, Italdesign’s supercar project chief and head of innovation design, said of the first model: “For the first time, we can offer collectors the chance to order a true made-to-measure car."

The new supercar uses a 5.2-litre V10 petrol engine shared with the top-end versions of the Audi R8. It also adopts Audi’s quattro permanent four-wheel-drive system. Top speed is estimated at 205mph and the 0-62mph acceleration time will be just 3.2sec.

The company’s engineers promise “racing car performance with type approval”, so the car can be used on normal roads.

Sophisticated aerodynamics and lightweight construction are major themes in Italdesign’s first supercar. The body features a prominent front splitter, louvres over the wheel arches to relieve air pressure, side-mounted fins and a racing-style rear spoiler that works in conjunction with a large underbody diffuser to tune the car’s high-speed aerodynamics.

The body panels are made entirely of carbonfibre and the car is expected to have a kerb weight that will undercut Volkswagen Group’s other V10-engined supercar models, the R8 and the Lamborghini Huracan, which weigh 1595kg and 1575kg respectively.