Ares Design has come up with some rather stunning designs. But this could be the most beautiful yet.

It’s called Project Wami, and it’s inspired by classic Maseratis. It blends classic design (from the side exhaust and white-wall tires) with modern lightweight construction techniques (like carbon fiber and aluminum).

Details are still few and far between at this point, as the project appears to be still in the early stages of development. But we’re looking forward (as our friends at Motor1 are) to learning more – especially as to what underpins the retro roadster, and what provides its motivation.

We’re going out on a limb here, but the windshield frame is one part that’s hard to change, even when replacing most of the body panels. And to our eyes, at least, the Wami’s looks rather similar to the Ferrari Portofino’s. That’d mean a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 – the same which powers higher-spec versions of the Maserati Quattroporte and Levante, as well as the Portofino, 488, and GTC4 Lusso T. From what we can see, the interior’s hard points would seem to match as well. But we’d be the first to admit that we could be way off.

What we find particularly odd here is that the footwell clearly depicts three pedals, suggesting a manual transmission – but there’s no stick shifter to be seen in these early design renderings.

One way or another, we hope to find out what Ares has in mind for this project. Because at first blush, it looks to good to die before it ever sees the light of day.