IED Torino & Italdesign’s Rapida reimagines sports cars for Gen Z
What’s missing from the roads today? According to IED Torino’s Master in Transportation Design students, pure, joyful fun. In collaboration with Italdesign, the students designed the new concept car born from the imagination and precision of IED. More than a vehicle, Rapida is a manifesto on wheels, crafted to thrill a new generation that craves speed and purpose. With its aerodynamic flow and chiseled rear, the automotive captures Gen Z’s love for style, sustainability, and soulful mobility. First unveiled in Turin on April 2nd, the vehicle also starred in Italdesign’s immersive exhibition at Opificio 31 during Milan Design Week 2025, where it resonated with Fuorisalone’s ‘Connected Worlds’ theme, proving that cars, too, can connect past and future, emotion and engineering. From April 15 to May 4, the car transitioned to Turin’s Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile, where it stood alongside the icons it sought to reinterpret.
meet Vision Rapida, conceived and developed by the students of the Master Course in Transportation Design IED Torino in collaboration with Italdesign | image © PEPE Fotografia, all images courtesy of IED Torino
Rapida emerged from six intense months of hands-on work. Twenty-two students from the Master in Transportation Design course formed a real-world design studio under the guidance of IED’s Michele Albera and Masato Inoue, and Italdesign tutors Dario Lauriola and Andrea Porta. They benchmarked industry trends, dived into user insights, studied emerging technologies, and experimented across both digital and physical platforms —from rough sketching to high-fidelity CAD to sculpting full-scale clay models.
They benchmarked industry trends, dived into user insights, studied emerging technologies, and experimented across both digital and physical platforms, from rough sketching to high-fidelity CAD to sculpting full-scale clay models. Italdesign opened the doors to its Moncalieri headquarters, where students had access to cutting-edge tools, professional workflows, and mentorship that mirrored the pace and expectations of a top-tier design firm, allowing each young talent to both image the car and build it.
Rapida’s bold design embodies not just the thrill and pure joy of driving but its accessibility to a new generation that loves speed, beauty and freedom | image © PEPE Fotografia
With its lean lines, racer stance, and a 90s flair, Rapida reimagines the small sports car for an audience raised on JDM dreams and cyberpunk nostalgia. Built to support different powertrains, it’s a brand-agnostic, shape-shifting idea. Its mission? To make style, performance, and emotion accessible once again to Gen Z — a generation raised on shared mobility but craving personal expression.
Rapida, at 4,510 mm in length and just 1,280 mm in height, is dictated by aerodynamics. The seamless surfaces and sharp rear strengthen its fastback silhouette and expand cargo space, while the 2+2 interior layout blends sportiness with everyday practicality. Furthermore, the eclectic car can also adapt to three powertrains: internal combustion, hybrid and full electric. Streetwear and sustainability meet inside where the fabrics, textures, and materials echo an active lifestyle, technical performance, and mindful consumption.
streetwear and sustainability meet inside where the fabrics, textures, and materials echo an active lifestyle, technical performance, and mindful consumption
Besides its looks, its strength lies precisely in its design versatility: not tied to a specific brand, Rapida is an open concept with a clear identity but no constraints, allowing it to be adopted and adapted by any automotive brand. An approach that fits perfectly into the Turin tradition of independent body shops and style centres like Italdesign, which have always been pioneers in innovation for the automotive industry.
With the idea that the thrill of driving a sports car should not be an unattainable privilege for a younger audience, this project also places great emphasis on affordability, making high performance and design affordable for a new generation of enthusiasts in a context where the driving experience is taking on new forms.
Rapida is an eclectic car that can adapt to different powertrains – internal combustion, hybrid and full electric
At IED, mobility is a language of culture, sustainability, and future systems. The Master in Transportation Design in Turin is the crown jewel of this vision, immersing students in the full spectrum of vehicle development, from emotional sketching to industrial prototyping. For those beginning their journey, the Bachelor in Transportation Design – available in IED Torino and IED Barcelona, teaches students to dream big and design everything—cars, yachts, public transport—with purpose and flair. Specifically, IED Barcelona returned to Automobile Barcelona from 10 to 18 May, to present the work process necessary to develop the design of a car. Meanwhile, the Master in Mobility Design. Rethinking Tomorrow’s Connections, rethinks movement itself, treating cities as ecosystems and transportation as a social experience. Together, these programs form a dynamic playground for those who want to steer the future of how we move.
Specifically, IED’s new Master in Mobility Design is rooted in one powerful idea: mobility is no longer just about cars, but about connections between people, cities, systems, and emotions. The program allows students to explore everything from vehicle architecture to user experience, from emotional storytelling to sustainability metrics, encouraging them to question norms, develop critical thinking, and put together creativity with technical mastery. At its core, it prepares them for the complexity of contemporary design where autonomous systems, connectivity, and environmental impact must be considered at every stage. Working in international teams and guided by professionals who are active in the industry, students design holistic mobility solutions for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s unknowns.
IED’s approach to education was on full display with transdisciplinary and immersive approaches grounded in reality. In this studio-simulation, students were not simply taught — they were expected to perform.
the car is an open concept with a clear identity but no constraints
this allows it to be adopted and adapted by any automotive brand
with the idea that the thrill of driving a sports car should not be an unattainable privilege for a younger audience, this project also places great emphasis on affordability
its high performance and design become affordable for a new generation of enthusiasts in a context where the driving experience is taking on new forms | image © PEPE Fotografia
Rapida will add to the prestigious collection of concept cars created in collaboration with leading global carmakers | image © PEPE Fotografia
further recognition of the school’s educational quality, supported by technical sponsors such as Pirelli, OZ Racing and Lechler and technical partners Italdesign and Scuderia Torino | image © PEPE Fotografia
project info:
name: Rapida
design: IED – Istituto Europeo di Design | @IED_official
school: IED Torino
technical sponsors: Pirelli; OZ Racing; Lechler
technical partners: Italdesign; Scuderia Torino
video: PEPE Fotografia
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