Crunching gravel beneath wide tires in the parking lot at Laguna Seca signaled it was time to switch from the Nazca to the Scighera. It also symbolized that we hadn’t been arrested on the run down the hill.
    “What do you think?  Was that a look of resignation on that CHP’s face? ‘Well I missed those two’.” I asked as we climbed out.
    “I didn’t really want to mention it.” Fabrizio responded with a youthful smile of uncertain guilt.
    “I noticed.”
    “Hey,” Fabrizio’s assistant, Franco, was walking over to us from the Scighera as we came around the silver nose of the Nazca. “Did you know you guys were being followed by the police?  He picked you up at the intersection at Carmel Valley Road and Los Laureles, and took off up the hill after.”
    Fabrizio and I looked at each innocently, shook our heads at each other and turned to include Franco in our stark denial.
    “When we came upon you guys at the crest off to the side, we thought for certain you had been pulled over.  But the timing didn’t seem right.”
We shrugged our shoulders in unison.
    “Have fun in the Scighera Scott.”
    “You’re not going to come along?”
    “With you? Just kidding.  Franco’s going to drive with you.”
    “See you back at the Lodge.”
    “If you want to take some pictures, we can take a break and set them up.”
    “Great, I do.”
    So we did.
   Franco hadn’t been taken in by our parsing of innocence.

   The incredulity of the story translated perfectly in the Italian version I heard Fabrizio rendering as I paced off some staged distance to compose the cars.
    Bringing the two halves of the Nikon’s split screen focus into crisp detail made obvious that these two prototypes have a very distinct visual impact. The Nazca is all smooth Avant Garde grace with its silvered skin and matching opaque glass roof. The Scighera is a series of more complex shapes, impressing with a gravitas of animate immediacy. Beyond their essentially shared dimensions, 8'5" wheelbase, 3'6" height, 6'5" width, the difference between the two couldn't be greater.
    The Scighera is a rolling laboratory of engineering ideas belied by an ingenious body design in the ItalDesign style. From its flashlight size headlamps with thin vertical harlequin turn signals and winged bonnet between, its wooden-hull-period speedboat windshield to its high rear flank that is shaped by requisite air ducts and integral wing, this is a creative study in the boundaries of road car technology.
    A quick appraisal of the interior provides insight. Imbedded in the center of the dash is the horizontal mono-shock for the "push" front suspension. Fabrizio had earlier referred to the shock as a dash feature for the comfort of the driver and passenger. Between the opulently appointed seats (think saddlery meets space shuttle) is a high and dividing leather console, surrounding the exposed and alloy wrapped sequential gearbox with extended ratchet shift. Through the glass panel behind the seats can be seen the amazing plumbing of the highly modified 3-liter, quad cam, twin turbo, Alfa V-6.
    A look beneath the raised hood confirmed that this was the performance ergonomics of some renowned Turinese tuners.  Thoughts of Virgilio Conrerro entering the 21st Century came to mind. The longitudinally mounted 400hp Alfa powerplant was nicely integrated into a twin horizontal shock rear suspension system.