In the early days of the automotive industry, especially in the United States, coach-built cars were all the rage. People were simply buying a chassis from an automaker and then putting a custom body on it. It was that simple, but times have changed and it’s no longer easy to do something similar. Don’t believe us? Just ask the folks over at Touring Superleggera.

That’s a relatively small Italian company based in Milan that is specialised in building unique supercars. Its latest project is named Sciadipersia and is based on the Maserati GranTurismo. Only 10 examples will be assembled but the price isn’t publicly known.

2018 Touring Superleggera Sciadiapersia

The company’s Head of Design, Louis de Fabribeckers, recently visited Jay Leno’s Garage to give Jay a detailed tour around the coachbuilt supercar. He explained the complicated process of designing and engineering such a car, and what it takes to use the chassis, powertrain, and electrical architecture of an existing Italian supercar as a base.

2018 Touring Superleggera Sciadiapersia

For example, if you’ve been wondering, yes – they are still doing 1:1 design prototypes, but they are no longer using clay. Instead, the designers of Touring Superleggera use special foam and, before creating the model in full scale, they build one in 1:4 scale.

2018 Touring Superleggera Sciadiapersia

Under the sexy, bespoke body everything is in original form. That means power comes from a naturally aspirated Italian V8, which is capable of accelerating the vehicle from a standstill to 62 mph in less than three seconds. Top speed is 187 mph.

If you find the Sciadipersia attractive, better be quick and give its creators a call. It takes no less than six months to get one built.

Gallery: Touring Superleggera Sciadipersia at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show