Leonardo Fioravanti came to the Geneva Show with the Kite, a rear wheel drive coup\u00e9 concept most notable for its LED lighting system and its \u201csemi-transparent\u201d roof.<\/p>\n
\u201c The Kite\u2019s LED lighting system\u201d, he explained, \u201cis the latest evolution of a process that began in 2001 with the Vola prototype and was carried forward in 2002 and 2003 with the Yak I and the Yak II concepts. While traditional lighting systems are bulky, these are so small and light that they can be mounted pretty much any way you like\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the Kite, the front clusters are lodged inside the front wing frame, while at the back, the printed circuit boxes are slotted into the roof pillars.<\/p>\n
From illumination to the transparency of the Kite\u2019s innovative roof. \u201cOur intention\u201d, says Fioravanti, \u201cwas to create a coup\u00e9 with a sense of space overhead and a pleasantly capacious interior. And while it\u2019s different from any other roof on the market, it is entirely feasible\u201d.<\/p>\n
You can build an entire roof out of glass these days and it can be perfectly safe, or equipped with a variety of lifting or sliding systems; and its transparency can be regulated in real time. On the other hand, all that glass can feel odd. Hence Fioravanti\u2019s idea for a semi-transparent roof.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn creating its support structure\u201d, reports Fioravanti, \u201cI adopted the theory of flat slabs, which states that a lightweight slab, externally supported, performs much more efficiently. For the interior, I turned to high resistance steel that retains its properties even when perforated\u201d.<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 146<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1606200401_Fioravanti_Kite-276×300.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1606200402_Fioravanti_Kite-300×196.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1606200403_Fioravanti_Kite-300×196.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1606200401_Fioravanti_Kite-276×300.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1606200402_Fioravanti_Kite-300×196.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/1606200403_Fioravanti_Kite-300×196.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-concept-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 08:34:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}