VxDesigns

Meet the Bertone Mantide — part Corvette ZR1, part Italian model and all sex appeal. With the Mantide, Jason Castriota’s come very close to outshining his last great design, the Pininfarina P4/5. Exclusive gallery below.There’s something we really hate and that’s covering bespoke supercars we’ll never own, built specifically for the über-rich. Really though, we secretly like it. Okay fine… we love it. Designed by Jason Castriota of Pininfarina P4/5 fame, the Bertone Mantide had its coming out party today at the Shanghai Auto Show to one very surprised writer — me. I honestly thought that I’d hate this thing, thinking to myself; “Ick, another Corvette-based supercar?” But it truly is a beautiful work of art, best appreciated in the flesh.Stile Bertone started with the best ‘Vette platform yet, the 638-horsepower supercharged LS9 2009 Corvette ZR1. By creating the Mantide’s body shell in carbon fiber, they were able to shave off 220 lbs from the already lightweight ZR1 allowing it to rocket to 62mph in 3.2 seconds and break police radar detectors and lasers with its 217mph top speed.