Dec 22 2014

2013 Mercedes-Benz SL Coupe Torino

Italian design house Studiotorino, along with six students have unveiled their vision for a shooting brake variant of the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class dubbed the Coupetorino 2013. The Coupetorino 2013 is the successor to the Coupetorino 2008, a similar project that was developed in the same way with Istituto di Arte Applicata e Design (IAAD) and Mercedes-Benz Design Center.

The Coupetorino 2013 is a non-profit academic project at IAAD, it began in September 2012 with six students and one objective; transform the new iconic Mercedes SL into an exclusive Coupe.

The project SL was envisioned as a one-off special edition or limited series model, the Coupetorino was a realistic work-study project for the students, who also had to integrate engineering feasibility and cost of production in their work. Mercedes’ Head of Advanced Design Steffen Koehl gave three lectures to the students and made himself available to the students for questions throughout the project via email.

The 6 design students Bruno Arena, Michele Bavaro, Riccardo Luigi Cascone, Stefano Manini, Dario Pellegrino and Cristiano Zanot have the SL transformed into an exclusive coupe – with the support of Steffen Koehl of Global Advance Design at Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz has supported the students in the context of 3 lectures and direct contact over the Internet via e-mail. Back in 2008, a similar project of the group had been started, the Torino Coupe 2008 which in those days was also developed in collaboration with the Mercedes-Benz Design Center. The extent to which the model comes sometime in the series, is unknown – but unlikely for us.

The Coupetorino 2013 1/4 scale model was presented on May 27 at the Mercedes-Benz Design Center in Como, Italy and given excellent reviews.

While this is an academic project, we can’t help but wonder whether such a coupe would make sense for Mercedes-Benz. The design is certainly top notch and the six young students clearly have a bright future ahead of them.