The Fittipaldi EF7 was a Brazilian

mid-engined In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

from Fittipaldi Motors, designed in collaboration with

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (; ; short for Pininfarina Società per Azioni) is an Italian automotive design, car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 ...

and

HWA () are a type of traditional Korean boot, which, along with , is a subdivision of Korean shoes. The refers to all kind of shoes that do not go up to the ankle. are usually made of leather, and artisans who make the shoes are called . were ...

. Originally released as a

Vision Gran Turismo The Vision Gran Turismo program (commonly abbreviated Vision GT or VGT) is a series of virtual concept cars developed by various car manufacturers for the ''Gran Turismo'' series of sim racing games. Debuting in ''Gran Turismo 6'', Vision GT c ...

concept car for the ''

Gran Turismo Sport ''Gran Turismo Sport'' is a 2017 sim racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is the twelfth game in the ''Gran Turismo (series), Gran Turismo'' series. One of ''G ...

'' racing video game, former

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

and

IndyCar IndyCar, LLC (stylized as INDYCAR), is an auto racing sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The organization sanctions two racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with the Indianapolis ...

champion and company founder

Emerson Fittipaldi Emerson Fittipaldi (; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Fittipaldi won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with Team ...

announced that a production track-only version would be manufactured and released by spring 2018 as the EF7 GTR. However, the plan did not materialize, and the company became inactive in March 2019.

History

The EF7 was the first Fittipaldi-badged car since the

Fittipaldi F8 Fittipaldi Automotive was a Formula One racing team and constructor that competed from to . The cars were officially called Copersucar until the end of 1979 and Fittipaldi from the beginning of 1980 onwards. It was the only Formula One team to ...

Formula One car A Formula One car or F1 car is a single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel racing car, open-wheel formula racing car used to compete in Formula One racing events. It has substantial front and rear wings, large wheels, and a turbocharged engine mid ...

in 1982, and was originally created to be part of the

concept car programme. It was designed by Fabio Filippini and headed by

Paolo Pininfarina Paolo Pininfarina (28 August 1958 – 9 April 2024) was an Italian engineer, designer and businessman, known as the manager, from 2008, of the Pininfarina design company. Life and career Pininfarina studied mechanical engineering at Politecnico ...

. According to Emerson Fittipaldi, the design was created to loosely represent a shark and the process took six months. The car was also inspired by wind and how it travels the car. The production model would have featured differences from the concept model had it been produced. Only 39 real-life units were planned to be made as track-only sports cars. The production number '39' originates from the 39

and

victories Fittipaldi achieved throughout his

open-wheel An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

motorsport career. Each customer was intended to receive personal racing coaching from Emerson Fittipaldi himself. The purpose of the car was to have high power, low weight, and high downforce design; features that Emerson Fittipaldi wanted to have in a car. His most important goal for the EF7 was to allow his customers have the best driving enjoyment and experience.

Specifications

The EF7 contains a 4.8-liter

naturally-aspirated A naturally aspirated engine, also known as a normally aspirated engine, and abbreviated to N/A or NA, is an internal combustion engine in which air intake depends solely on atmospheric pressure and does not have forced induction through a turboc ...

V8 that is dry-sump lubricated. It is expected to have or more. This is still to be decided on the final car. Emerson Fittipaldi says the torque, which is at , will help for faster launch, thanks to low-RPM for the torque. This should help for running under-3-second runs. The engine fumes come out of an eight-pipe exhaust that gathers into one exhaust. The engine will also have a 9000 rpm redline. All of this power will be sent by a 6-speed

semi-automatic transmission A semi-automatic transmission is a multiple-speed Transmission (mechanics), transmission where part of its operation is Automation, automated (typically the actuation of the clutch), but the driver's input is still required to launch the vehicle f ...

. The car's weight is said to stand at . The weight distribution is also said to be at 52 up front, and 48 down the rear. This was made possible thanks to a carbon-fiber construction for both the monocoque and body panels. The car's suspension was planned to be constructed by

HWA AG HWA Team, also known as HWA RACELAB, is the auto racing team of HWA AG, a German company based in Affalterbach, that also develops and builds vehicles and components for Mercedes-AMG race cars. It is named after founder Hans-Werner Aufrecht. H ...

, who was planned to build part of the car.

References

{{reflist Pininfarina vehicles Cars introduced in 2017 Sports cars Gran Turismo (series) concept cars First car made by manufacturer Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Mid-engined cars