As you might have already guessed from looking at the photos, the Drako is based on the Fisker Karma. The doors are the same but the rest of the carbonfibre body has been tweaked by ex-Pininfarina designer Lowie Vermeersch. It isn’t ugly, but it does have a visibly enormous wheelbase. A 90kWh battery pack containing 10,000 cells sits under the floor, which explains why. The four motors drive the wheels via half-shafts and produce a combined total of 1200bhp.
Balboni is being interviewed on camera. This should be interesting. What does he think about high-performance EVs? “They’re the future, for sure,” he says. “The days of the traditional supercar are coming to an end.” He’s right, of course, as the plethora of super-EVs in development shows. I suspect also that Balboni, a guest here today, is being somewhat diplomatic, so I’ll get him alone later.
‘Alone’ is sitting next to him in the Drako. The last time I met Balboni, I was driving a slightly scuffed Diablo SV into the car park at Sant’Agata. It had been teeming with rain and I had been unable to make a mountain road corner in the non-ABS-equipped and summer-tyred Lamborghini.
“Ah, yes,” says Balboni. “A blue one with orange SV lettering on its side.” He remembers. He was fine about it at the time; he just wanted people to drive his cars with gusto and passion and expected the odd bit of collateral.
Balboni answered the questions in a matter-of-fact way, just as I would have done. Yes, EVs are the future, but don’t expect me to weep with joy at the prospect. The real Balboni comes out when I talk about the old days and his first love, the Miura, and mention that I had lunch with his old gaffer, Gian Paolo Dallara, last year.
We’re in a different world now. Last time I was his passenger, there was a loud V12 behind us and he was about to pull out of the factory gates and into the Emilian countryside with his foot flat to the floor. In the Drako, there are just odd whirring noises and the whining of cooling pumps.
Different environment, same old rolled-up sleeves, same talent. Balboni hammers the Drako around Thermal’s multiple corners with the accompaniment of more whirrings and a lot of tyre squeal. This car weighs 2.5 tonnes, and you can feel that even from the passenger seat.
The Lamborghinis that Balboni developed weren’t exactly light or easy to drive fast, so this is no great challenge for Il Maestro. There’s plenty of time to catch up and talk joyfully of old times, because the Drako has to spend quite a lot of time suckling from a large and very noisy diesel generator. Drive super-EVs on track and you get a lot of coffee time.
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