This summer, when renowned designer Sasha Slipanov unveiled his hypercar "Nilu 27", journalists asked about the name, and he explained that "Nilu" is a combination of his daughters' names, Nika and Lucia, while the number 27 refers to something he witnessed as a child in war-torn Tbilisi. In the winter of 1991, newly independent Georgia descended into civil war, and seven-year-old Slipanov witnessed the conflict up close.
Armed individuals in Tbilisi, near where Sasha Slipanov lived as a child, close to today's Freedom Square, late in 1991.
Slipanov recalled taking shelter with his family in their apartment in central Tbilisi: "I remember that time very well. There was gunfire everywhere, and [militias] set several buildings in the neighborhood on fire, including my favorite ice cream café that burned down." As the war intensified, Slipanov's grandfather came to their apartment and told his father, "We need to pack up and leave." Slipanov remembers that while fleeing the city center with his family in a car, "we could see bullets ricocheting off the doors and walls of the streets." His grandparents' apartment in northern Tbilisi was relatively safe, and during his childhood explorations in that house, Slipanov found an old car magazine. Flipping through, he was captivated by a photo of a race car; a red Ferrari with the number 27 on its nose. His love for Soviet fighter planes faded after witnessing the war up close: "I was very upset about everything and was not at all happy to see soldiers in battle." The Ferrari represented something different.
The Ferrari 126C3 that Slipanov saw in 1991 had an aggressive appearance reminiscent of Soviet MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets, which the young boy adored, but "without the aim of killing innocent civilians." He stated, "I just thought it was an amazing image." From that moment on, all of Slipanov's focus turned to cars, but at that time in Georgia, the most exciting car on the streets was the Soviet-made Lada Niva. After the family moved to Russia in the early 1990s, Slipanov's parents started a food import business and then a company selling packaged seafood. The family saved enough to send Slipanov to the United States in 2001, where he studied at the ArtCenter design school in California. After graduating, Slipanov landed a job at the Volkswagen Group in Germany, where he honed his skills but became increasingly frustrated with corporate design limitations. Then, a golden opportunity arose.
Volkswagen asked its design team in Germany to provide an interior design for their new car. Slipanov asked his boss to allow him to present an exterior design instead, which was reluctantly granted. When the Volkswagen head received the folder of designs, "he opened it from the wrong side." Slipanov's design for a Lamborghini, shaped like a wedge that "seemed like it wanted to burn your village down," was the first design the executive saw and liked. Slipanov was sent to Lamborghini's headquarters in Sant'Agata, Italy, to join the Italian team working on a car called Huracán. In a recent appearance, Slipanov became emotional recalling the moment he arrived in the northern Italian city as an unknown young designer. He remembered, "All I could buy was a bowl of mozzarella and a small carton of red wine." Sitting on the street with cheese dripping on his face, he recalled, "I touched the ground and told myself, damn it, I made it, I reached my dream, greats have walked these roads, it’s like I’m going to do something interesting too."
Slipanov tells Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the first few days, as an unknown young designer, were spent enduring "a few heated discussions with fists on the table" as no one from the Lamborghini team was eager for his presence. However, this quiet Georgian man says that he and the Lamborghini team quickly bonded over pizza, drinks, and a love for Italian culture: "They even reminded me of my Georgian past in some ways; the best people, excellent." Much of Slipanov's initial design for the Huracán was retained in the final production model, which achieved success with sales of tens of thousands of units.
Slipanov was then appointed as the head of exterior design at the French hypercar manufacturer Bugatti. After the unveiling of the Bugatti Chiron in 2016, this Tbilisi-born designer etched his name in the annals of automotive design. The Bugatti Chiron designed by Slipanov has been described as "the ultimate car. Period." All 500 Bugatti Chirons produced, each costing over three million dollars, have been sold since their release. A video showing a Chiron breaking a world speed record has garnered nearly 100 million views.
Details of the Bugatti Chiron; Slipanov says he aimed for an exterior design resembling a parachute with wind caught in it.
Slipanov's star shone even brighter in 2019 when he was appointed head of design at Swedish hypercar manufacturer Koenigsegg. After such a brilliant career, Slipanov's future could have been smooth, designing top hypercars for big companies with deep pockets; however, he chose a riskier path. In 2023, Sasha Slipanov and his wife Ina launched their own car design studio "Hardline 27" and subsequently unveiled the Nilu27. Nilu, due to its practical beauty that discards many of the computer components and visual embellishments found in many hypercars, has attracted significant media attention. The first 15 units of Nilu will each sell for 3.7 million dollars, a price that suggests Slipanov may have put everything on the line to launch this hypercar.
When asked why he has devoted all his savings and so much time to such an ambitious project, the 41-year-old pointed to his parents; those who instilled in him during his upbringing in Soviet Georgia a "nearly pathological sense" of the value of every moment. Both Sasha and his brother Dmitry, a successful composer, have embraced the belief that "time is limited, and if you want to achieve something, you cannot spend your day without setting a goal and achieving something meaningful." Sasha Slipanov states, "Wasting a day is the greatest crime you can commit against yourself." The original version of this report is from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.