Some cars are built to be fast. Others are designed to deliver the ultimate in luxury. The Giugiaro Peralta D pursues a rather different ambition: to be unlike anything else on the road. Italian designer Fabrizio Giugiaro has created an extraordinary grand tourer for Mexican entrepreneur and car collector Carlos Peralta. With its hand-hammered copper bodywork, the vehicle pays tribute to the great tradition of Italian coachbuilding while looking remarkably like a vision of the future.
Copper is hardly the first material that comes to mind when thinking about modern sports cars. While the automotive industry increasingly relies on lightweight composites, aerodynamic efficiency and industrial manufacturing processes, Italian design studio GFG Style has taken a different approach. With the Peralta D, a metal that humans have worked for thousands of years becomes the central element of automotive design.
The extraordinary vehicle made its public debut on October 24, 2026, at the Pastejé Automotive Invitational in Mexico. The result is a handcrafted, one-of-a-kind automobile featuring copper bodywork below the window line. Above it stretches an expansive glass canopy with a specially developed mirrored finish that complements the metal's warm tones.
Its low, wedge-shaped silhouette recalls the spectacular Italian sports car concepts of the 1970s. At the same time, clean surfaces, narrow light strips and geometric details give the vehicle a distinctly futuristic appearance.
What might initially resemble a digital design study is, in fact, a fully realized automobile.
A Tribute to the Art of Coachbuilding
The Peralta D was designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro, son of legendary automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. His father helped shape international automotive history with numerous designs, some of which remain influential to this day.
Fabrizio continues that tradition through the Turin-based design studio GFG Style. For the Peralta D, he has combined the geometric design language of earlier decades with unconventional engineering solutions.
The treatment of the copper is particularly remarkable. Rather than simply painting the bodywork in a metallic finish, the individual copper panels were actually hammered and shaped by hand.
The material presents considerable challenges. Copper is relatively soft and highly malleable, but it is also sensitive to mechanical damage. Working with it requires a precise combination of material expertise, craftsmanship and artistic judgment.
That dedication is precisely what makes the vehicle so fascinating. At a time when even exclusive luxury automobiles often rely on modular platforms and standardized production methods, the Peralta D recalls an era when specialist coachbuilders created individual cars according to the wishes of their clients.
Entering a Car Like Something from Science Fiction
The doors are anything but conventional. Instead of traditional side openings, the Peralta D features an elaborate mechanism that is almost impossible to anticipate when the vehicle is closed.
The front section of the glass passenger compartment lifts upward and forward together with adjoining body panels. Rear passengers gain access through separate upward-opening gullwing elements.
The concept builds on an idea already explored in the earlier Peralta S. The rear opening mechanism also recalls the 1967 De Tomaso Mangusta, a car originally designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Opening the doors becomes an event in itself. Their movement is not merely a technical necessity but part of the overall spectacle.
Beneath the unconventional exterior, however, lies familiar engineering. The Peralta D is based on the Maserati GranTurismo. Its aluminum chassis and major mechanical components are complemented by a carbon-fiber structure supporting the specially designed bodywork.
GFG Style has not released specific engine or performance figures. Yet outright speed is hardly the defining feature of this automobile.
Copper Down to the Smallest Detail
The unusual choice of materials continues inside the cabin. Leather with a metallic sheen, Alcantara and decorative stitching made from genuine copper wire echo the exterior's distinctive appearance.
The interior combines clean geometric forms with highly personalized features. The passenger side includes a dedicated vanity area with an illuminated mirror and storage compartments. Hidden within the center console is a refrigerator designed to accommodate champagne and four specially crafted copper drinking vessels.
These details also reveal something about the story behind the Peralta D.
Its owner, Carlos Peralta, had already commissioned an extraordinary automobile from GFG Style in 2025: the Peralta S, another futuristic sports car featuring a mirror-polished aluminum body.
While that first one-off creation was dedicated to his sons, the Peralta D was conceived as a tribute to his daughters. Accordingly, the letter D refers both to the daughters and to the Italian word donne, meaning women.
Together, the two vehicles form an intensely personal collection in which the designs reflect not only technical preferences but also family connections.
When Luxury Becomes Impossible to Compare
The price Carlos Peralta paid for his copper grand tourer has not been disclosed. Nor has the design studio published the full development and production costs.
In any case, the vehicle's appeal can hardly be explained through a conventional list of specifications and optional extras.
The Peralta D is not part of a limited production series offered to a handful of carefully selected customers. It was designed and built exclusively for one individual.
That uniqueness distinguishes bespoke automotive creations from many other luxury goods. Even the most expensive supercars are generally products that can, at least in principle, be reproduced. A project such as the Peralta D, by contrast, creates something whose appearance, features and history are directly connected to the personal vision of its owner.
Whether it will eventually become a particularly valuable collector's item is impossible to predict. Its distinctive design, however, is already beyond question.
Perhaps that is where the real fascination of the Peralta D lies. It demonstrates that luxury does not always have to be defined by speed, horsepower or the cost of materials.
Sometimes, luxury means allowing an extraordinary idea enough freedom to become something that nobody else owns.
And in the case of the Peralta D, something that looks as though the future itself had been hammered into shape from copper.
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