How Audi designed the Nuvolari

Car Design News spoke with Stephan Fahr-Becker, the exterior lead on the Audi Nuvolari alongside chief creative officer Massimo Frascella. In this interview, Fahr-Becker discusses the remarkably short development programme, how the Nuvolari relates to the earlier Concept C, why surfacing became one of the project’s defining priorities and how Audi’s new design philosophy is beginning to take shape.

Car Design News: First, just in terms of timeline, was the Nuvolari running alongside the Concept C? Were you working on the two projects at the same time?

SFB: No, it was later. Internally we talk about it as quite a sprint. We know that’s not so interesting for customers because they just care about the perfect product, so bragging about doing it in a short timeline isn’t something we do. But internally, yes. It took 405 days. That was basically from the first sketches until the first prototype. It was a very intense time. That was after the Concept C was finished.

CDN: With that super-quick timeline, did you arrive at the sketch quickly? Was the idea settled early, or was more of the work at the front end before the sprint towards the end?

SFB: Both. And maybe to explain why there was this timeline: it was an NDA project because it needed to stay secret until the very end, which we luckily managed. There was this due date from the very beginning. We needed to have a fully running prototype ready to be shown at the Monaco Grand Prix, the first ever European Grand Prix that Audi would take part in. There was also another issue with upcoming EU emissions regulations, which meant the car needed to be on sale from January 2027.

We immediately kickstarted with a group of designers who all had the NDA, creating different visions. Massimo, together with Mr Döllner, was heavily involved. There were bi-weekly meetings where he gave us very clear direction based on the designs. Only with that were we able to maintain the timeline. There were clear tasks and clear decisions. Later, when we got into technical feasibility, we would say, “Okay, we have this problem, we have these solutions. Are you happy with one of them, or should we explore another?” It was really organised, because otherwise I don’t think we would have managed.

CDN: Is that direct relationship between Massimo and the CEO one of the reasons decisions came so quickly?

SFB: I think it is. Being connected to the CEO helps a lot. It helps design, but it also helps the whole process. Mr Döllner gave us the task and was so heavily involved. He came by almost every other week, often late in the evening. Massimo and him aligned early on a vision. There wasn’t a turnaround later where different board members suddenly had different opinions. That really helped.

CDN: Was this a project that emerged from design, or did it come from the board?

SFB: As I understand it, it was pitched to Mr Döllner by the technical side, really by just two people. Massimo was involved almost immediately, so it came from Mr Döllner.

CDN: I noticed the Nuvolari is a lot sharper and more sheer than the Concept C, but it still clearly shares the same DNA. How did that contrast emerge?

SFB: Right from the beginning, together with Massimo, we always had the idea of how these two cars should sit side by side. They needed to be related because this is only the second car we’ve shown with this radical new direction. We didn’t want to diverge drastically from what came before.

When I came to Audi, I also had offers from Mercedes and BMW. The reason I chose Audi was seeing the original Nuvolari concept, the Pikes Peak Quattro and the R8 Le Mans concept together. [Fahr-Becker refers to the three landmark concepts launched by Audi in 2003]. That struck me so much. I think that’s something we might recreate in the future, but in a very different way and a very Audi way. The cars should look related, but they should also look different.

This is another animal. It has a mid-mounted engine. We need a lot of cooling. We couldn’t simply create huge flared rear arches because of the mass flow needed around the engine. Massimo always came back to one design proposal that had this constructed strictness. The most important surface was behind the daylight opening, where the volume feels solid and then twists into the light towards the rear. It looks like it’s milled from one solid piece, but still has emotion and precision.

It reminded me very much of Bertone and Gandini. First it’s about the volume. Create a simple volume that is emotional and has nothing more than it needs. Then you apply the graphics

CDN: One thing that really stands out is the surfacing. Can you talk about how that evolved?

SFB: I wasn’t part of the Concept C, but one thing I witnessed immediately after Massimo joined Audi was the attention he gives to body-side sections. I’ve been in the business for 22 years, so I know what a few millimetres can do, but I was still stunned by his input. He would say, “Here we need a little more acceleration,” or “This needs to close slightly more towards the bottom.”

Suddenly, especially in the matte paint, you have a surface that isn’t just a wall. It stands by itself. It has solidity and presence. I feel we already had that in cars like the Audi B6, the D3 and the D2. It really is about millimetres.

Of course, when you’re trying to cover the door structure while also ensuring enough airflow to cool the engine, it becomes an additional challenge. We started with Blender very early – after the initial sketches and doodles – to get full digital models, renderings and turntables. Then we quickly moved into clay. Massimo was very keen on having a perfect clay model where the clay modellers refined the surfaces. If something had been milled only for technical reasons and wasn’t the perfect surface treatment, he recognised it immediately, even if it was just one millimetre out.

CDN: The shutlines also stood out. They seem incredibly precise.

SFB: I think the shutlines will become even more precise because this was still the first prototype. But yes, the precision comes from thinking about the shutlines while you’re creating the shape. The overall shape is quite tectonic, which makes it easier to apply very strict shutlines.

Whether you look at the front, the side, the rear or even the top view, it’s always the same. These clean graphics can’t be S-shaped. It reminded me very much of Bertone and Gandini. First it’s about the volume. Create a simple volume that is emotional and has nothing more than it needs. Then you apply the graphics.

Our aim wasn’t to create something that shouts at first sight. We wanted a timeless design that customers would still enjoy looking at 10 or 20 years later. That’s achieved through subtle, controlled volumes rather than exaggerated movements. Many details are second-glance discoveries. The longer you own the car, the more you appreciate the simplicity, the craftsmanship and the materiality.

CDN: Materiality seems to have been a huge part of the project.

SFB: Very much so. We wanted real materials. On the exterior we have a huge rear mesh that’s a single piece of black anodised aluminium. It isn’t painted. The front meshes and side meshes are the same, and that will remain in production.

Inside, all the air outlets are milled from solid aluminium blocks. Every aluminium ring on the steering wheel and throughout the cabin is milled from solid. When you touch them you really hear that metallic click. 

Customers who saw the car in Monaco, Switzerland, Germany and Goodwood were really impressed. They said, “I get my buttons back. I get the click back. I get the materiality back.”

CDN: Tell me about the front face.

SFB: The general approach from Massimo was to create a design-driven car that never compromised performance. Design shouldn’t reduce horsepower or downforce. For me, Audi is the symbiosis of technology and design becoming one beautiful product.

Massimo wanted people to recognise an Audi from 150 metres away, simply by the graphic. When he joined Audi, he asked us to print every Audi front face ever created and put them all on the wall. Everybody got a dot and marked which ones really felt like Audi. It wasn’t about retro design. It was about understanding what made an Audi recognisable.

Many dots ended up on the early Type C racing cars and also on the C6 generation. That’s why we chose the strong vertical element again. It creates that unmistakable Audi identity while still serving a function. Behind it is an S-duct that channels air through the bonnet to generate front downforce.

Even the aerodynamic engineers were surprised that, despite all those requirements, we ended up with a shape that feels so closed and coherent, where every element looks like it was designed first and engineered afterwards

Massimo wanted a true supercar capable of over 350km/h, but he didn’t want a huge rear wing. For him, that’s not Audi. He wanted the monolithic, reduced appeal and a certain understatement.

CDN: The side treatment also feels very technical.

SFB: The side was difficult because everything connects back to airflow. You need cooling for the engine, the oil and the turbos, and then you need to extract that hot air again. We spent a huge amount of time getting those cooling outlets regular enough that they almost disappear visually.

The side intake also had to satisfy airflow and visibility requirements. We didn’t want dramatic drops in the window graphic because we wanted the straight lines that are typically Audi.

The black panel on the door brings air into the engine compartment, but it also houses the door release. It’s a real button, not a touch surface. You can properly grab the door and close it from there. It gives you that Teutonic feeling that the car is solid and beautifully put together.

I also love airflow elements that are integrated into the door, like on the Ferrari F40 or the original Testarossa. They make the whole door feel substantial.

CDN: Finally, what was the biggest challenge on the project?

SFB: The biggest challenge was the timeline combined with making such a clear-looking design feasible for an incredibly complex technical package. When you hear all the technical requirements for the first time, you connect the dots and end up with a spaghetti diagram.

Even the aerodynamic engineers were surprised that, despite all those requirements, we ended up with a shape that feels so closed and coherent, where every element looks like it was designed first and engineered afterwards.

We could only achieve that because we created a different collaboration model. Exterior, interior, user interface and colour and trim all worked together in one dedicated studio. 

I remember Massimo drawing this side panel: we had aerodynamic challenges and had to cover some stuff relating to crash protection. He spent time to really understand a complex problems and find a very logical design solution.