It’s not often that I come across a car that I’ve never heard of at all. This is one of those cars, and it sure is a beauty! Like the Puma, the Bianco is a sports car based on humble Volkswagen mechanical components, in this case the Brasilia. Other than the headlights, there’s nothing visible left from the Brasilia. This particular Brazilian immigrant is currently located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and is listed for sale here on eBay for $39,500 or best offer.
Stunning from every angle I can find, I see elements of Matra, Ford GT and even Chevron in this design, but at the same time I would call it very original. The seller tells us that Biancos were made for between three and four years in the late 1970’s. Apparently Toni Bianco is still working with cars even though he is in his 80’s at this point. If this is what he was designing 40 years ago, I’d love to see some of what he has done since!
No, I don’t know what the windshield is from either, although there was some speculation online that it was from an Opel. I don’t remember any Opel looking like that; I’m thinking it’s just a Bianco item. The body looks awfully nice for plastic and fiberglass construction; I’m thinking this isn’t the original paint, no matter how high-quality they were put together in the first place!
The seller claims that the interior is the equal of Italian exotics; I can’t say I agree with that, especially the dashboard styling and execution. That being said, it is leather covered and seems to be in nice shape. I doubted the originality of the steering wheel until I viewed this video of one that’s been converted to V8 power.
Somewhat unfortunately from my point of view, this one still sports it’s original VW 1600 power plant. Knowing that you could have that shape with a V8 reduces my attraction to this one, especially at this price. That being said, this must be the easiest to maintain “exotic” there is! Would you leave it alone, or hook up with this beautiful Brazilian!
Windshield looks like it could have originally been the rear window on some other make of car.
This looks like the one Auctions America had at their last FL auction. And this one is located in FL also! Same car. Expectations too high for a dressed up VW. “Pig.with lipstick” ?
I’m thinking that windshield is someone else’s rear window, too. Not that it helps much; the donor is probably some obscure Brazilian ride that would be a trial to source.
If one were buying this to cruise the boulevards of Rio de Janiero, it would be perfect. Would probably not be as happy on the Interstates with that VW engine…. But from what I’ve seen the Brazilians do know how to work fiberglass, and their fabrication and assembly skills are up to turning out a classy product. Not, in this case, to Italian-exotic standards, but sufficient for a good-looking, fun ride.
The price seems WAY high, but then again who knows if this might push someone’s buttons? It only takes one!
I agree with the rear window theory. This car would be nice with a Porsche engine.
Here’s a video of one with a V8 in the rear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyBc2QGtRzI
And the picture of it :-)
I agree with Glenn, on the engine. Also, maybe, you could go Japanese Tuner, on it. Either way, I actually like the car, but that 39,500 price tag, just makes it too expensive, for me anyway, to play with. Very cool looking car, though
Bolting in a warmed up 4 carb Corvair would make it fly. All conversion parts are available.
This car looks silly, I want to hear about that great engine and the performance. This thing would kick the stink out of that 64 Corvette race car. I just hope the monster sound doesn’t bring on the cops.
Begging for a Subaru transplant..
The windshield looks like an Avanti rear window.
I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t match up with an Opel (GT) or Avanti rear window.
Eh, listed by the guy who also has an air-cooled Beetle convertible on eBay, for the princely sum of $59,500!
I really don’t know about how well this car matches with the market for value, but I do have to say this: The style of the body, the shape of the sides, with the pronounced wave-shaped height decline from the top of the front fender to mid-door, followed by another rise and fall to the rear…. Well, it is just a beautiful design, I think.
Sure, the power plant is not just dated, it seems out of place against the original design from the very start. But the car itself still looks fresh.
I’d hope that it looks as good in person, as it does in the photos. And, I wonder about the basis for the suspension system, whether it was also sourced from VW, or is a better design for ride and handling.
I certainly hope that the windshield of this is not the rear glass of some other car. Windshield glass is a laminate with a piece of plastic sandwich between two pieces of glass. When a small rock comes up it will frequently chip the outer glass but leave the inner one intact. Rear and side glass are tempered glass which makes them very strong but if the same rock hit tempered glass it will explode into a million rock salt sized pieces.
Looks like the designer started at the front with great inspiration – then his girl friend told him he was not “the man” anymore – then he took a two-week bar binge – then had to finish the rear in 6 hours. Like others said, it only takes one buyer!! Oh, and the engine was last of all, and he said “Oh crap, what do I have laying around!”
This car sold at auction six weeks ago for $24,750
http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?SaleCode=FL16&ID=r0103&Order=alphabetical&feature=&collection=&grouping=&category=vehicles
Wow.
Big percentage markup, for a very public flip.
How come this car wouldn’t be perfectly satisfactory for general use–like the VW ghia and a thousand other similar cars with the same weight to HP a neet car, looks zoomy, gets great petrol milage,probably handles better than most drivers and it’s cheap and easy to maintain!
The last Porsche 914 race engine we built was a ’73 2 litre taken out to 2.4, cam, carbs etc. for 160hp. That would be an easy stick for this car if you could buy it right, and the power to weight ratio would be great.
I like it. But man, I knew it was going to have a air cooled dub engine in the rear.
Turbocharged 1.8 Miata engine would be cool. Or a 20B rotary….or a Hyabusa.
The “windshield” is the window from a C2 ‘Vette hardtop. It’s likely tempered glass, but might be proper laminated AS-1. A tempered glass windshield (AS-2) is not legal in the US for road use.
The VW engine is a letdown, but not a surprise. It needs more / better.
If it didn’t require a complete redesign / rebuild of the back half of the car I would go for a hot drivetrain out of a well done 4-cylinder front wheel drive car.
Problem is, the car is set up for a rear engine placement, and you would need to cut up the back half of the car, then replace the transaxle, then….etc, etc.
Nope.
There are too many better performance cars out there for $40K.
Europeans love these types of cars, as they are rare and cool. This means good on gas, and that’s a plus, as Europe is not the place for gas guzzlers and V8’s.. Maybe export it to Europe.
Very cool and sharp car. Still not worth the selling price
This Bianco is a street version of a brazilian race car named Fúria (or Fury). Originally it came with FNM (brazilian Alfa-Romeo) 2000 cc motor. Some of them were equiped with BMW or Lambo motors. Even with brazilian Dodge Charger 5200 cc motor. Another car designed by Tony Bianco was the Bino mk ll, a true winner in Brazil circuits, from de Brazilian Ford race team
Toni Bianco, the creator, has a story in Pininfarina (the Ferrari design shop), and also on McLaren F1, Lotus and designing cars was his career since his young ages. He designed the first F3 cars for the Latin America competition and this car is based on the F3 structure.