I like a little minimalism… Back when I was a youngster, I had a few cars that were very bad at compromise. They were fast… but less than comfortable. I didn’t care… I wanted the performance. I drove my autocross car as a daily driver. Race on Sunday, Drive to Work on Monday. For a long time, my Jeep was a trail rig and it was what I had to drive home.
Back when Panoz was introducing their first car, the Panoz Roadster, I photographed the first one while doing an assignment for the SCCA. Loved it… cycle fenders and a big engine. The Lotus 7 has been a favorite of mine from the time I was a teenager. And when I caught on to the Ariel Atom, I was hooked. OK, not hooked enough to talk my wife into it… but I really want one.
And it is high time that a major manufacturer took one of their sport offerings and amped it up in a MASSIVE way. This would be a step beyond Dodge Viper or Chevy Corvette ZR1… and even more than the incredible Ford GT.
Since it looks like Dodge has axed the Viper program… and the Corvette ZR1 is already a world beating beast, Ford should be the company to make a move… kind of a GT, without all of the extra junk like a windshield, doors, bodywork.
Can you imagine a 600hp street-legal sports racer than weighs less than 2000lbs? The Ariel Atom, with a 2L 4 cylinder can go 0-60 in 2.7 seconds… It weighs in at 1100lbs, and develops 300hp in supercharged form.
A little steel, some carbon fiber, a touch of aluminum and some seriously sticky tires… it might be able to hit 0-60 times faster than superbikes. And 0-100, too. I don’t think that a properly sorted vehicle like this would have too many issues getting close to 2.2 seconds to 60 and 9 seconds to 100mph. And the braking would be incredible with some good technology and a complete lack of weight…
It would be really fun…
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