Porsche Tapiro

Porsche Tapiro
Porsche Tapiro and Giorgetto Giugiaro
Overview
Manufacturer	Porsche
Production	1970 (1 built)
Designer	Giorgetto Giugiaro (Italdesign)
Body and chassis
Class	Sports car
Layout	Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
Related	Porsche 914/6
Powertrain
Engine	2.4 L flat-six
Transmission	5-speed manual

The Porsche Tapiro is a concept car built by Porsche in 1970. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and has a traditional 1970s wedge design, which critics say somewhat resembles that of the De Tomaso Mangusta. The chassis is based on the Porsche 914/6, and it features gullwing-style doors.^[1]

The Tapiro is powered by a longitudinally mounted, air-cooled 2.4-liter flat-six engine that produced 164 kW (220 hp; 217 PS) at 7,800 rpm, and is linked to a 5-speed manual transmission. This engine could propel the Tapiro to an official top speed of 152 mph (245 km/h).^[2][3]

The Porsche Tapiro was introduced to the world at the 1970 Turin Auto Show, in Turin, Italy.^[4] The car made its US debut at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Imported Automobile and Sports Car Show in 1971.

In 1972, the car was sold to a Spanish industrialist who used it as his daily driver. The car was mostly destroyed after it caught fire. Most sources say the cause of the fire was a group of labor activists protesting its owner's labor policies, who planted a bomb under the Tapiro. The bomb exploded, burning the car but not destroying the chassis.^[5] Other sources say the car was involved in an accident and caught fire that way.^[6] The burnt shell was repurchased by the engineering and design company Italdesign, and is now on display in its Giugiaro Museum.

This article about a classic post-war automobile produced between 1945 and 1975 is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e