ItalDesign Moray - This Is Not The New Corvette C6

Moray (mureana helena) is a sleek, slippery, carnivorous eel found primarily in Mediterranean waters. It is also the name of Fabrisio Giugiaro's latest creation-his 50th anniversary homage to America's supreme sports car, the Corvette. Giugiaro's Moray can trace its evolution back to the Mako Shark I, the Sting Ray, and their predecessors. Its look is bold, brash, and flashy. Designs from the past that have become synonymous with the Corvette mystique are artfully integrated into the Italian-designed Moray. Bill Mitchell, designer of the original Sting Ray with its split window, would applaud. The Moray carries his signature tapered hood and strong, center speed line going nose-to-tail over the top. In fact, "over the top" is a fair description of the entire car. It is every inch a Corvette and then some.

But this is definitely not just an anonymous, understated Italian body mounted on a Corvette chassis as has been done by many other designers in the past. With the Moray, ItalDesign has proven it can create in another American-design idiom as well as it does in the Italian style that is its milieu.

Is the Moray intended to be the next C6 Corvette? No, though it would be a nice alternative. It is instead a celebration of Corvette's styling innovations through the years. As it turns out, Giorgeto Giugiaro's ItalDesign team-famous for so many elegant automotive creations from concept Ferraris to Mazdas-had always wanted to do a Corvette, so they chose the 50th anniversary of the marque to attempt it. Fabrisio (Giorgeto's son) accepted the challenge eagerly. In fact, he stated later that he actually designed the car for himself.

Under the Moray's bodywork is a standard C5 platform with a 6.0L, 400hp V-8 and four speed automatic. But Giugiaro's interpretation of the Corvette in carbon fiber is lighter than production models, making the car more responsive to commands from the throttle. The Moray's look is as dramatic as the XP-700 Concept Corvette of the late '50s, designed in an era when supersonic, jet-age flash was the order of the day.

Fabrisio eliminated the B-pillar completely. The long, glass-bubble top opens along a center brightwork spine like a clamshell. And each of these cockpit-canopy-like, combination side-window and roof panels is easily detachable so as to turn the Moray into a virtual roadster, or barchetta, as the Italians would call it. From the driver seat, you can't tell it isn't.

The sensuous, curvy body and brightwork undulate into the interior of the car as gracefully as a swimming eel, integrating and eliminating the distinction between what is inside the cockpit and what is outside. Four gill-like louvers on each kick panel evoke the menace of the sea's top predator.

"We vowed to honor the rhetorical principles that dictated the American musclecar of excellence era: simplicity and pragmatism, with the hedonist concept of sportiness evolving beyond the restraints of time," states Fabrizio Giugiaro.

Two Morays were ultimately built, and they made their debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2003, along with ItalDesign's new Alpha Romeo Brera, amid great fanfare. The designs for these two legendary automakers, though lovely, look nothing alike because each restates the traditional identities of the company that made them.

One Moray was painted brick red with flowing American flags on the fenders and a big number 50 on each door, reminiscent of a racing number but commemorating the anniversary of the marque. The second Moray-the one ItalDesign brought to Pebble Beach that we were privileged to photograph-is done in red, white, and electric blue, and is literally a flying American flag trimmed in a lot of mirror-like chrome, reminding us of some of Evel Knievel's costumes.