Nearly every car built in the last century wears steel, aluminum, fiberglass, or carbon fiber. Carmakers balance price, safety, convenience, and appearance before choosing a material for mass production. The Peralta D, with its hand-hammered copper skin, sets those limits aside entirely.
Imagine a project where cost is no object and practicality is a formality. Designer Fabrizio Giugiaro, founder and CEO of GFG Style, faced exactly that situation with the Peralta D, a 2+2 gran turismo with a hand-hammered copper car body.
“It was a proposal I made to the client, Carlos Peralta,” Giugiaro says. The two had already worked together on the studio’s first one-off, the Peralta S, a 1980s-inspired car with a polished finish. For the follow-up, Giugiaro wanted a stronger personal link to the owner. Peralta runs industrial businesses that include copper, so Giugiaro proposed the metal as the material.
Fabrizio’s father, Giorgetto Giugiaro, is one of the most recognized names in car design. He penned the DeLorean DMC-12, the BMW M1, the original Lotus Esprit, and the first Volkswagen Golf. His career also includes work for Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti. The pair founded GFG Style more than a decade ago, but they have only recently focused on bespoke coachbuilt cars for individual collectors.
Why a hand-hammered copper car body makes sense
Copper is an unusual choice for bodywork, yet Fabrizio says it proved easier to work with than expected. “It really surprised us that copper proved to be much more malleable than the aluminum we had worked with previously,” he says. The metal is also easier to weld and polish. Its weight is the trade-off. The team offset that with a carbon-fiber supporting structure, and the balance came out well.
Beneath that copper skin sits the chassis of a 2025 Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo. The donor car has a far more conventional shape than the Peralta D’s sharp, almost brutalist supercar design. The Peralta D has no traditional doors. Instead, it uses an opening system derived from the Peralta S’s single-motion dome. The side windows open independently, and two gullwing sections at the rear give access to the back seats.
Inside, copper-colored leather covers nearly every surface. The infotainment and instrument screens are almost the only elements that hint at the car’s Maserati origins. The cabin was designed around the bond between Peralta and his daughters, and it includes several features aimed at women. A passenger-side makeup station has an illuminated mirror and dedicated cosmetic storage. The rear seats are tight, but a retractable refrigerator holds a bottle of champagne and four copper glasses.
Critics have not all been impressed. Copper bodywork will oxidize over time, as the surface of the Statue of Liberty did.
Fabrizio hints that the next project could push further. He wants to use a material that has been applied to a car only once before.
“I have another alternative material in mind, one that has only ever been used once before,” he says, “so it will be another surprise…”
The Peralta D shows that a car body can be a personal object as much as a machine. Its hand-hammered copper skin makes it a rare piece of rolling sculpture. Whether the car’s proportions and durability will satisfy every reviewer is less important than what it proves. A commission built on trust and craft can still produce a car that no mass-market process would allow.
H/T design-milk.com
Frequently asked questions
What car body is the Peralta D built from?
The Peralta D has a hand-hammered copper car body. It is a 2+2 gran turismo designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro of GFG Style.
Why did the Peralta D use copper instead of steel or aluminum?
Giugiaro proposed copper because the owner, Carlos Peralta, runs industrial businesses that include copper. Giugiaro also found copper more malleable than the aluminum he had used before, and it is easier to weld and polish, though it is heavier.
What is the Peralta D’s underlying chassis?
Beneath the copper skin is the chassis of a 2025 Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo. The team added a carbon-fiber supporting structure to offset the copper’s weight.
How do you get into the Peralta D without traditional doors?
The Peralta D has no traditional doors. Its side windows open independently, and two gullwing sections at the rear provide access to the back seats.
More in
Vehicles
All Vehicles
More like this
Copper-Embellished Maserati GranTurismo Unveiled by GFG Style at Mexican Automotive Event
Lucie Davis Transforms Retail Price Labels into Unique Copper and Enamel Art Pins
MetMo Eddy: The Copper Desk Toy Mastering Electromagnetism with Style
