Saregati's rear-engined, four-seater, sports coupe is just as weird as Saregati's past cars, but this time, might have the polish to make you look past the "just fine" design.
Saregati's much awaited third car has arrived. The Serpiente, released on April 10, 2023, completely takes the brand Blender-built, redefining the company's image, and finally giving the company a car that attracts looks. After a week of driving the car, be it on baseplates, in the streets of Anagawa, or on the track in Untergelrich, I've had the chance to truly get to know this model. While there's a lot to like here, calling it perfect is definitely not in the cards. Saregati's Serpiente is a relatively good car, but the quirky design holds the car back. But it takes a "eh" tune and makes the most of it, and maybe the fun driving (at certain times) may be enough.
Let's start with the looks, and calling them "ambitious" wouldn't serve them well. The Serpiente's front has a very round shape, but with thin, angular headlights, and these grille cutouts that does not fully match the shape language. The main grille looks undersized and oversized at the same time, and the long shape of the headlights also do and do not match the same shape.
As for the rear, it follows closely to the fascia, with three grilles, thin and long taillights, and the Saregati wordmark splayed across the rear.
The front hood feels overly long compared to the rear, and this is a rear-engined automobile, with four seats, but the design seems more oriented towards a front-engined design, which would also benefit something we'll get to later.
But the weird design doesn't mean it is a bad one, but trying to pin down distinct feelings for the design is leaving me wordless aside from one: smooth. There are very little cutouts, no sharp angles, the bodyline is also quite soft. From silhouette to fenders, there's nary a sharp line. There's barely a cutout for your license plate. Overall, it looks like a used soap bar, and while being rounded or keeping sharp edges to a minimum perfectly fine, the Saregati Serpiente does not wield that style gracefully enough to make it work.
The Serpiente is nothing that is so distasteful it'd bring tears to the eye, but it looks weird, in the most uninteresting of ways possible.
Moving over to the interior, the oddities continue. The design of the interior is actually quite good, it's clean, it's well laid out, it high quality, the interior is genuinely well made, but where ever the thought of covering everything -- and I do mean everything, from the steering wheel to the dashboard to the floor -- in leather should never touch leather again. There's so much leather here, that making out parts of the design becomes hard because not only is everything leather, but it's the same patten for the most part as well. There is varying shades of a similar brown mixed with black and dark brown, which those colours do not pair well.
But probably the most egregious crime of this interior is the fact there's not two, but four seats. Those seats are tiny thanks to the rear-engined body on a front-engined design, and there's a lot less legroom. It is manageable, but those seats are better off on smaller people because there's not a lot of room.
A quick word on tech: it's good. Working doors, working frunk door, lights set up, animated gauges and steering wheel -- the works. It's the industry standard, and Saregati is finally meeting those standards (their previous models were quite underwhelming)
But enough about how it looks, how does it drive? Surely the driving experience The answer to that is much more simple: it's good.
The Saregati Serpiente accelerates with a 0-60 MPH time of 4.3 seconds from first gear with no build up, and 2.6 seconds if you shift from N to 1, which is quick, very quick, but there's nothing more to add there. The car handles corners good enough, but lacks enough grip on the rear wheels to handle turning at high speeds, which will send you sliding if you cannot master the car. It also sometimes feels stiff when turning,
The car's max speed is something that unless you're doing a drag race, you will never reach, and that's a-okay.
The braking distance is honestly mediocre and requires you to brake early, especially if you're going over 70-80 MPH, because if you don't begin stopping on time, you will blow right through an Untergelrich traffic circle, or more annoyingly for me, right off the edge of a cliff, and then again, right into the sea.
But despite the specifications being business as usual with a big good enough as your everyday traffic car, if you give it plenty of road, it'll shine. Saregati's car is fun to drive, and even more fun to master, especially since it's paired speedy acceleration with handling that, while not flawless, adds to the experience, and challenges drivers.
If anything should be improved in future generations of this vehicle it's this: alter the front, the sides, the rear, everything. The design impressively is weird and uninteresting at the same time. It needs definition, it needs more character, and please, get rid of all that leather, you only need so much. The next big change would be to make it front-engined. Give the rear seats more space, fit the design better. Finally, maybe improve the tuning, or keep it the same.
This car is recommended to those who want a fast coupe, who want something that will give them a little something to master, and can look past weird design choices to a engine of gold. Or who want to shuttle 3 other people at 140 MPH and don't want to die in the first-generation Electility Fremtid and would like something faster than the Fumi Ena and/or McCormick Scorpion.
Similar Vehicles
Note these suggestions are based on opinion.
- 2021 Kenzo Hiroto XS-GT has better looks but lesser handling and performance
- 2022 Fumi Ena is one of two LHD options, and also has a better design but worse performance, and the GUI may be gaudy to some
- 2021 Konian Clone is the second LHD option, has an EV variant, but performance is just fine, and the GUI on the Clone is extremely cluttered and weirdly laid out.
- 2023 Sedagli Fulmante is another Italian company, with it being a brick car also, but has eugh looks and eh performance
- 2022 McCormick Scorpion is for those who want an all-American muscle car, but the looks are just above fine, and it's significantly slower
- and the gracefully aging 2020 Lagopus Kawa FX Coupe has better looks, on-par handling, and a sedan version, but it is aging, and the Serpiente feels more fun to take out on the track, while the Kawa FX is more suited for normal roads.
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