Italdesign Brivido concept is part car, part hybrid Italian spaceship

Hidden among the nooks and crannies of the Volkswagen Group is the Italdesign-Giugiaro design house, where founder Giorgetto Guigiaro has overseen the styling of everything from VW Golfs to the DeLorean. This is his newest concept from the Geneva Motor Show: the Italdesign Brivido, a hyrbrid-powered grand tourer that has just enough out-there touches to intrigue us.

When a design house does a concept, the least important part of the car lies under the hood. While Giugiaro touts the 3-liter, 360-hp V6 that can hit 60 mph in five seconds or so, the real job of the Brivido is to advertise Italdesign's styling abilities, which generate $100 million a year for the accountants in Wolfsberg.

Giugiaro says the Brivido -- Italian for "thrill -- was designed as a realistic touring car, with only a set of gullwing doors as the bow to auto show drama. While the front end looks vaguely related to the Ferrari 458 Italia, the car becomes more distinctive towards the back, from the glass cut-outs in the doors to the screens for the rear-view cameras that float like wings around the steering wheel. There's also an interior that's full of touch screens and a toaster-like slot for an iPad.

The Brivido will remain an auto show queen, but it's conventional enough that a few ideas, such as the LED headlamps/turning signal combination, will be folded into real vehicles. Then again, Giugiaro did bring another copy of the Brivido to Geneva in a Martini racing livery...