Creator of 'world's slowest Porsche' back with the even more slothful 'Ferrari' the Fahrradi Farfalla FFX (+ videos)

You may remember Austrian artist Hannes Langeder’s ‘world’s slowest Porsche,’ unveiled in 2010 – well, he’s back with a new pedal-powered supercar-inspired creation, the Fahrradi Farfalla FX.

What’s more, while leading sports car marques compete in an endless quest for more speed, Langeder has gone the other way – according to the website dedicated to his latest creation, the vehicle represents the fruit of an effort “to further constrain the already extreme slowness of the predecessor Ferdinand through an even greater transmission ratio.”

As the following video shows, he certainly appears to have achieved that goal – and we couldn’t help but chuckle as footage of the vehicle making a stately progression through a tunnel was accompanied by less-than-matching engine noises.

Its creator says that the Fahrradi Farfalla FFX “is an attempt to further develop the concept of the mimicry encasement based on muscle-driven drive technique (muscle car) in an evolutionary manner.

“Unlike Ferdinand, however, the Fahrradi is not a copy of an existing car model, but rather the anticipation of a future top model of an actually existing automobile brand.

“The external form of the vehicle is the result of Internet research into various real and fictive design ideas about what this vehicle could look like, but also our own ideas of design and, not least of all, a substantial portion of clairvoyance.

“Another substantial difference to the predecessor model is a built-in butterfly mechanism,” referring to what in English would be termed gullwing doors.

“An angle gear attached to the rear axle moves the wing doors while driving, resulting in a wing beat similar to that of a butterfly (Farfalla in Italian).

“This ensures that it is possible to lift off slightly from the ground at all times (= anti-gravitation). An even better ventilation of the interior is a side effect.”

Langeder says that the slowness of the vehicle, which takes two people to pedal and has a reported price tag of £1.2 million making it, if nothing else, the world’s most expensive tandem, “makes the Fahrradi a serious rival for pedestrians in street traffic as well,” adding that “by (Austrian) law, the Fahrradi can be driven at any time on public streets.”

The Fahrradi Farfalla FFX will be on display at the Lentos Museum of Art in Linz, Austria, until 4 July 2012. Meanwhile, here's a video of Langeder's previous creation, the Porsche Ferdinand.