World Exclusive: 220-mph Icona Vulcano First Drive

TURIN, Italy— A 50-ton hydraulic press smashes a sheet of rare aluminum; as we try to take a picture, a stern Italian man in his late fifties looks at us and drags his thumb across his neck. Over the din of machinery we hear another man say, “Watch his hand, he will kill you.” There are at least twenty secret projects happening here at CECOMP, a coachbuilder that has quietly been creating next-level concept cars for Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, and Porsche for over forty years. But today, we’re getting an exclusive drive of the company’s first solo project, the $2.8-million Icona Vulcano.

Out of the gates of this secretive facility on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city Turin comes the Vulcano, a one-off creation built with assistance from CECOMP’s sister design house, Icona. It has a unique titanium and carbon-fiber body, and it got its name partly because the titanium welding process required a special vacuum chamber so it wouldn’t combust, like a volcano. The naked titanium body takes 10,000 hours of handcrafting and every square inch is detailed with delicate hammering.

Gianluca Forneris, the son of the owner of CECOMP, comes over to see us and, sadly, informs us of his father’s passing the night before. Gianluca’s father, Giovanni Forneris, was a legendary car designer and had a hand in the drafting and concept building historical icons like the DeLorean, Maserati Bi Turbo, and Lotus Esprit. Gianluca Forneris tells us how his father, Giovanni, built CECOMP from the ground up as he walks down a hallway of closed doors posted with “NO ADMITTANCE” and “NO PHOTO” signs. He stops at the last door, scans his badge, and a loud buzzer blasts. Inside is the titanium Vulcano, with a sharp and dramatic silhouette that took inspiration from the world’s fastest plane, the SR-71 Blackbird.

Strongly-sculpted voluptuous shapes evacuate hot air from the front-mounted engine and reduce the air turbulence generated by the wheels. Gianluca opens the hood to show off the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine tuned by industry masters Claudio Lombardi, ex-Scuderia Ferrari director, and Mario Cavagnero, the man behind the Lancia Racing team and father of championship-winning cars like the famous Integrale and 037. The engine is capable of producing over 1,000 hp should the owner demand it, but it is currently tuned at a relatively mild 670 hp and 620 lb-ft of torque. The paddle-shift, close-ratio gearbox was custom built just down the road, between Fiat and Ferrari’s factories, and the front-mounted powertrain works to move the Vulcano from zero to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, zero to 120 mph in 8.8 seconds, and on to a top speed of 220 mph.

We’re eager to drive the Vulcano, but Forneris and the CECOMP team are afraid of almost everything and anything that could befall this one-off before it finds a buyer. On September 1, the Vulcano will go up for sale, and three lucky buyers will vie for the chance to take it home. For now, though, the nerve-wracking thought of this automotive Mona Lisa careening off a rocky hillside road down toward the Basilica di Superga cathedral has Forneris freaked out. An hour later we’re in motion, but the Vulcano is in a transport truck at the front of our convoy. A cobblestone bridge leads out of town, and ancient road lined with manicured hedges and stonewalls climbs up toward to Superga. After dodging some wild boar, we get to the top of the mountain and unload the Vulcano.

Forneris switches on the ignition and says, “We only got the gauges working last week.” A 350-kmh speedometer lights up red, and the odometer reads “00001 km.” The interior is covered in soft grey suede and carbon fiber, and there’s a simple, Tesla-style 10-inch LCD display in the center stack where most functions can be controlled and monitored. Forneris pushes the big red “START” button on the wheel on the steering wheel, but it stays surprisingly quiet inside; the rumbling echo of the engine plucked from a Corvette ZR1 engine is great background noise as Forneris does a first pass to make sure everything is working properly. “I’m so nervous,” he says. “This is an historic day for us. The culmination of six years of engineering and design, and I have only driven it on and off the transport truck.”

Finally, Forneris cuts us loose in the Vulcano. You can feel every imperfection in the pavement, and the Vulcano’s overwhelming amount of instantaneous torque necessitates light inputs on the accelerator, especially since almost none of these roads are straight. Fortunately, there are plenty of fantastic corners to test the chassis and handling. “I wanted to have a drivable car so the set-up is much looser then we would use on a track car,” says Forneris. The adaptive suspension can switch between three disparate settings, but we stay on the softer side of things since the roads aren’t too smooth.

We’re surprised the body panels aren’t flying off as we accelerate, seeing how each titanium quarter panel is only .05 milliliter thick. We run up and down the road until approaching storm clouds force us back up mountain for a few last-minute photos in front of the basilica. Forneris looks on, smiling as local school children being to swarm around the car. “It’s the excitement in those kids eyes that helps me realize why my father and I did this,” says Fornerais.

Icona Vulcano Specifications

Price:	$2,800,000
Engine:	6.2L supercharged OHV 16-valve V-8/670 hp @ 6,600 rpm, 620 lb-ft of torque @ N/A
Transmission:	6-speed automatic
Layout:	2-door, 2-passenger, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupe
EPA Mileage:	N/A
L x W x H:	175.2 x 77.2 x 48.in inch
Wheelbase:	106.2 in
Weight:	3,516 lb
0-60 MPH:	2.8 sec (est)
Top Speed:	220 mph

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