R.      Picchio designs and builds craftmade cars: every single car is painstakingly handmade. The factory manufactures very high-quality products according to an ideal, which is to reflect in every car the best expression of what is ‘made in Italy’. The products manufacturing means following the process from purchasing the raw materials from suppliers (based in Italy and abroad) to a 360 degrees work of project, styling, CAD design, aerodynamics calculations, research and development, until the actual production and finishing phase. Every car is very carefully studied, even the smallest details, and is realised following the principles of a high level handicraft. The price of all cars is published on this website in the CARS section (see Price List): prices can vary depending on the choice of getting a ‘rolling chassis’ car or a ‘turn-key car’ ready to race, and obviously according also on the optional chosen. Picchio’s strength point is exactly that: the products are tailor-made and customisable according to the purchasers’ requests. It is actually possible to make many and various choices on a car: power plant costs are different, and the drivers may require diverse solutions, accessories, optional. That's why the prices are only indicative and may change, depending on preferences.

R.      Picchio is a racing cars factory. In the future, the company is planning to develop a road model with all the features which will make driving a pleasant and exciting experience, but in a safe way. For getting this goal, Picchio will produce a more than limited series GT, whose project is derived from the race car DP2. From the experience of Picchio cars on the tracks, the road car will have two distinguishing and absolutely featuring characteristics: one is being able to give ‘track emotions’ to the driver; the other, safety on board, because ‘racing make race better’. On the track, in fact, there’s a selection for improving more and more the competitiveness, and from it one gets a big experience about safety. In other words, this will be a very ‘low circulation’ model, with Sport car performances and unique racing sensations.

R.      Picchio’s birth is in 1989, when some young and very passionate about motorsports guys from Ascoli Piceno have the idea of setting up a sportscar factory built by engineer Giotto Bizzarrini. The relationship with this absolute genius of automobile history is enthusiastic from the very first time. The engineer designs the car and afterwards realises personally the new prototype by his own hands: this will become a real ‘on-wheels laboratory’. Then the test time comes: in 1991 autumn the car is tested on Magione’s track (central Italy). The Picchio runs smoothly, no problems at all, driven by Giotto Bizzarrini himself, this time as driver and tester. Afterwards they decide to start the industrial and business plan and in 1996 today’s building and principle place of Picchio is completed. In 1998 the first car entirely designed and built by Picchio is on the track.

R.      The factory founders, unlike most cars constructors –both of race and road cars – wished that it wasn’t tied to a particular family surname or ‘dynasty’. The choice of this name gives actually a larger and more territorial belonging feeling to the area. The woodpecker (this is the meaning of the noun ‘picchio’ in Italian) is the representative animal of the Piceno area where the factory is located. That is because the woodpecker, in ancient times, was the bird consecrated to Mars, the pagan god of struggle and war; and a woodpecker is told to have guided, by perching on their flag, some groups of the ancient people of Piceni through the lands to the Marche region for settlement of new cities. The ‘pic-‘ root in italian words gives birth to the ‘picchio’ name (woodpecker), to the ‘Piceni’ name (the people from this area) and also to the ‘picchiare’ verb (to beat or insist). The woodpecker, by nature and also because of this martial link, is a very aggressive, belligerent and always ready-to-the-fight creature. Furthermore, it is very firm in its purposes and above all it is fast, quick and with a certain ‘aerodynamic’ profile, like the Picchio cars are. This crossing and overlapping of meanings was ideal for creating a name able to give many ideas by one image.

R.      Since Picchio has got a wide range of products in racing Motorsports, it is not planning to start producing new models in the near future and get to new markets. The next project will be the development of a ‘road homologation’ of some of its racing cars instead. We have two ways ten: to develop a roadster directly drawn from the racing model of the Light 2000 car, or alternatively to manufacture an exclusive and impressive GT derived from the Daytona Prototype car design.

R.      When the Picchio staff heard that Grand-Am was planning a new regulation and a new class of cars they suddenly got all the data and information and put at work, because the mission of the company is exactly ‘building racing prototypes’. A prototype, in facts, by nature is something new and never seen before: building prototypes means having to be up to date literally day by day on the regulation and technical changes. The fact that this class was completely new and therefore open to all the constructors was a very interesting challenge in a strategic perspective and they knew they could handle that both from the technical and the time point of view. That way they managed to be the first Italian and European manufacturer of DP2s in the world and enter a competitive market like the American one is, a market Picchio was already in before the Dp came up: an SR2 car has been racing in Grand-Am championship in 2002 and 2003. In 2003, we also introduced the Daytona Prototype car for the Grand-Am series as well.

R.      Picchio is a constructor: this means that the product is studied, made and tested within the factory, and after that the car is ready for marketing and selling. The teams competing with Picchio cars receive the finished product with the faculty of testing it and modifying it according on their own researches. Maybe it is superfluous to say that the factory is concerned about the good result of its cars and gives out a car at its best: every single thing is decided after appropriate aerodynamics studies and vehicle dynamics, and moreover by the examination of data acquired during the project phase. In competitions, Picchio assists directly the teams who wish it, sending some technical staff members, so to establish a continuous exchange of information. This phase is very productive and essential for the constructor, because from the ‘on-track’ experience it is possible to get new data to use for the future and improve the projects of that particular category of cars. In the past few years (from 2004) Picchio started to line up also some official drivers, that are part of official teams, as to say directly provided, organized and managed by the factory itself.

R.      Regarding the marketing and support operations on the American territory, in order to improve business and to better service the customers, Picchio is working to make agreements with importers and is setting a sales ‘network’ of USA marketing and distribution agents. We are also developing contacts for other marketing areas in the world, such as the Far East .

R.      We actually think that we did quite well in USA competitions. I think people already know our results and the fact that we got actually just at the 4th place overall in the 2003 manufacturers' standings is not fair for the car itself, which is actually quite fast. Let's not forget also that the Picchio DP2 was the only Daytona Prototype car which raced in 2003, 2004 and 2005 24 Hours in Daytona, and the engine had not even been overhauled in the second race. So I definitely think that it did perform well. We expect that the new DP car, soon ready for delivery, will be even better because we added many new improvements basing on our R&D department work and on the data collected on the track in the previous seasons. Let's see what comes out of those choices. We actually are also thinking to get a totally new engine, so we basically we'll see the results in 2006.