The Cilindro was a barchetta-style concept car shown by the Michalak-Werkstudio of Wiesbaden, Germany, at the 1989 IAA motor show. It was created by Bernd Michalak as a design exercise intended to draw attention to his automobile design and development business, in the manner of the established design studios of the Turin area, which offered their services to the wider car industry as independent partners. The Cilindro marked a departure from Michalak's earlier passenger-car work and was developed on his own initiative rather than for a manufacturer.
The car was built as a non-driveable maquette, though many of its details were carefully finished. It was designed as an open two-seater with a low, wraparound windscreen encircling the cockpit, recalling the style of earlier racing sports cars. Its dimensions were dictated by the intended fitting of a longitudinally mounted Ferrari V8 engine in a mid-engine layout. The bodywork was extremely compact, drawn tightly around the cockpit and engine bay with almost no front or rear overhang, and the front wheel covers were designed to pivot together with the wheels. Air intakes were built into the side flanks and the rear cover.
The curved front end housed small headlights under glass covers, flanking a grille with a shape distantly reminiscent of Ferrari. The tail was left open beneath a cut-off rear edge to expose the mechanical components, and the car had no spoilers, wings, or luggage compartment.
