For the last century or so, ever since wood fell out of style, the bodies of most automobiles have been made from a few tried-and-true materials: carbon fiber, fiberglass, aluminum, and steel, with the metals proving most popular. The choices are a balancing act, forcing carmakers to weigh price, safety, convenience, and appearance to determine which substance makes the most sense for the masses.
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
But what if you didn’t have to worry about such concerns? What if cost was no object, practicality a formality, and there was no need to cater to the wants of more than one owner? Well, that was the lucky circumstance designer Fabrizio Giugiaro, founder and CEO of GFG Style, found himself in when creating the Peralta D, a gran turismo with a body made of hand-hammered copper.
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
“It was a proposal I made to the client, Carlos Peralta,” Giugiaro says. The duo had worked together before on the design house’s first one-off automobile, the spitshine-polished 1980s-esque Peralta S. For the follow-up, Giugiaro wanted to draw a deeper connection to the owner. As an industrialist, Peralta has business interests involving copper, so Giugiaro suggested it as the material.
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
Giugiaro’s name is well known in the automotive world. His father, Giorgetto Giugiaro, is a master of clean-line designs—he penned the DeLorean DMC-12, the BMW M1, the original Lotus Esprit, and the first Volkswagen Golf. The senior Giugiaro’s career has included work for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and many more of the world’s most notable automotive brands. The father-and-son duo founded GFG Style together over a decade ago, but it’s only been in recent years that they’ve been dedicating their talents to bespoke coachbuilt cars for individual collectors, as with the Peralta D.
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
And while using copper for a car’s bodywork may be unorthodox, the designer says it wasn’t as difficult as it may seem. “It really surprised us that copper proved to be much more malleable than the aluminum we had worked with previously; it is also considerably easier to weld and polish,” Fabrizio says. “Of course, it does come with the disadvantage of greater weight, but since it was combined with a supporting structure made entirely of carbon fiber, the overall balance between the materials ultimately worked out well.”
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
Beneath all that copper lies the chassis of a 2025 Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo—itself a stylish design, but one far removed from the almost brutalist simplicity of the Peralta D’s angles. Instead of traditional doors, the car features a dramatic opening system inspired by the Peralta S’s single-motion dome, with independently opening side windows and gullwing-style openings at the rear to access the back seats.
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
Inside, copper-colored leather adorns most surfaces, broken up (almost) only by the infotainment and dashboard screens, which offer some of the few hints of its Maserati roots. Meant to showcase the bond between its owner and his daughters, the car comes with a few (perhaps stereotypically) female-oriented features, such as a passenger-side makeup station with an illuminated mirror and dedicated cosmetic storage. And while the rear seats are tight, a retractable refrigerator designed to hold a bottle of champagne and four copper glasses means occupants can easily distract themselves.
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
While the Peralta D might seem to push the boundaries—or at least the materials—of road-going automobile design to their limits, Fabrizio suggests even wilder builds may follow in its tire tracks.
“I have another alternative material in mind, one that has only ever been used once before,” he says, “so it will be another surprise…”
Photography courtesy of GFG Style
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