When our test began in the Langhe hills, fog still hung over the range. Slippery asphalt, cold air: conditions that command respect. However, it is perfect for understanding what Battista Edizione Nino Farina really is: a very powerful grant that does not live on noise, but on frequency. The onboard sine wave, more Luke Skywalker-like than a racing exhaust, is a genuine sonic identity that can be deactivated and never caricatured. Sight, before hearing: deep Rosso Nino, Bianco Sestriere and Iconica Blu as water signs, eye-friendly carbons. Important dimensions, soft lines, complete proportions. Inside is a concentrated ergonomic study: perforated leather, Alcantara, ultra-fine stitching, a steering wheel with Nino Farina’s signature, and a cockpit that looks like an aviation cockpit. The environment is comfortable yet airy thanks to the large glazing.
When driving, the Battista surprises with its naturalness: four motors, 1,900 HP, 2,340 Nm, a 120 kWh T-shaped battery and a torque vector that draws the trajectory as if it were graphite on paper. Calm, Pure, Energetic, Furious, Character modes completely change the car: pedal response, regeneration, set-up, steering. In the temple it is made of velvet; in Energica the counterpart is direct current; in Furiosa he stiffens his tone but remains readable. After half an hour you feel familiar: exciting without ever intimidating. The Battista wasn’t built for the track although it’s fun there, but for the right roads: high-altitude state roads, beckoning hills, a series of bends where the electric all-wheel drive seems stitched to the ground. The figures remain astonishing: 0-100 in 1.86 seconds, 350 km/h, WLTP autonomy up to 476 km. And the Italian-made details: made in Turin and priced at 2.9 million euros plus tax. There are those who collect it locally and there are those who use it every day. The utility of an electric hypercar is in its movement: simplicity, immediacy, control. When the sun breaks through the mist, the colors become saturated again: ochre, rust, the silver of the columns in the vineyard. In Character, Battista slides, in Energica he lengthens, in Furiosa he bends physics and makes it soft. The Nino Farina edition, limited to five examples with plaques telling the story of the first world champion’s career, is a tribute without rhetoric.
It combines memory and the present with a simple and very difficult idea: to make the driver feel like he is in the middle of the scene, rather than being a spectator of its engineering. In the afternoon we returned to Alba. The soft spaceship feeling remains: able to scare the numbers and soothe the hand. That’s where you understand what it really means to give shape to passion.
