Rossignolo's ambitious plans to launch a new performance/luxury Italian brand to build a coupé, sedan and large crossover using an innovative aluminium manufacturing process that substantially reduces build costs, has taken many twist and turns over the last five years, most notably an ill-fated attempt to tie up with Lilli Bertone to kick start its production at the idled Bertone contract manufacturing facility in Turin, a plan that was given the swift brush-off by the bankruptcy tribunal handling the liquidation of Carrozzeria Bertone which instead allowed the Fiat Group to take over the facility.

Rossignolo then turned to another struggling Turinese design and engineering concern, this time Pininfarina, and he was able to obtain the use, through a brokered deal, of its Grugliasco factory (including the paint shop but minus the windtunnel) which was then contracting building a number of niche models including the Alfa Romeo Brera and Spider.

As part of the deal to take over the Grugliasco plant in October 2009, Rossignolo entrusted Pininfarina with designing his range of proposed cars - the coupé, sedan and large crossover - which he pretty optimistically hopes to build in volumes of up to 3,000 units each per year for the latter two and 2,000 units for the coupé.

The next step for Rossignolo was to acquire the rights to the DeTomaso brand which had lapsed into receivership in June 2004, almost exactly a year after the company's flamboyant founder, former racing driver and all-round automotive industry wheeler-dealer Alejandro DeTomaso had passed away. Rossignolo took control of the DeTomaso name in November 2009, just a month after obtaining use of the Grugliasco factory.

Operating on a shoestring budget that makes Lotus' touted ambitious expansion plans look somewhat less-fanciful, Rossignolo had intimated that he would launch his trio of new cars at this year's Geneva Motor Show. However this appears to have been scaled back to just a outing for the large, luxury crossover, codename SLC (sport luxury car), in concept form, which has been developed by Pininfarina. However the show car, which Rossignolo proposes to move into the production phase next year, should offer indicators of the aluminium production technology that he plans to apply to automotive manufacturing.

The series of teaser images don't reveal too much about SLC, which will be given a different name before it reaches the market, but it appears that will be a slightly cautious design without the immediate appearance of any visual novelties in the surfaces that are presented in the four studio photos, novelties that could help tempt a customer to take a risk in buying this car. The somewhat generic design offers hints of current contemporary design language from potential rival companies such as Jaguar, Aston Martin and Lexus, as well as some ideas from the stillborn Maserati Kubang. Establishing itself in a niche that includes cars such as the BMW 5-series GT and Lexus RX-450h, will be an extraordinarily hard task.