There is a fairly radical car, built in the UK, called the Ariel Atom with exposed chassis/frame tubes. Very light and goes like the proverbial brown stuff off a shovel, but for sheer off-the-wall craziness, it comes nowhere near Spain’s latest supercar, the Aspid GT-21 Invictus.
Aspid has claimed the GT-21 Invictus to be the first four-seat GT car with an open-wheeled arrangement at the front-end. Aspid chief designer and founder Ignacio Fernández Rodriguez said the company had to retain the open-wheeled characteristics of their concept car, the SuperSport in order to set itself apart from the crowd.
Open-wheeler.
“This presented by far the biggest challenge in terms of packaging the interior volume for the driver and passengers,” he said, “but we’ve successfully achieved this and have therefore maintained our unique visual identity, so the car is perceived as an Aspid the instant it’s seen.” This of course may be so, but uncovered front wheels are just totally impractical, which is why the automotive industry invented “mudguards” about 100 years ago! Note the name, Senor Rodriguez “mud-guards”!
Despite this weird concept and very strange styling, it is again claimed by Aspid that the GT-21 Invictus will return a sub-3.0 second 0-100 km/h time and a top speed of 305 km/h. Another of the claims is that the all-up weight is less than 1,000 kg.
To go with the individual nature of this Aspid company, I was expecting an 11 cylinder radial engine, but no, they have opted for the latest generation Euro 5-compliant 4.4 liter BMW naturally aspirated V8 engine generating 331 kW of power at 8,300 rpm and 440 Nm of torque at 3900 rpm.
The power is transferred through the rear wheels and matched to a dual-clutch automatic transmission with paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
More claims include a “new-generation” hybrid technology, which Aspid says will improve performance while cutting fuel use and emissions, but no further details are currently forthcoming.
Underneath the composite bodyshell (with integrated roll cage) sits an all-aluminium double wishbone suspension set up with racing-inspired pushrod dampers that help the car pull a claimed 1.6 g in the corners.
Brakes are huge 400 mm discs all-round to dissipate heat at a faster than usual rate, giving performance that is said to be on par with carbon brakes without needing to be warmed up.
Dimension details are 4447 mm long, 1883 mm wide and 1226 mm high, allowing a 2+2 seating layout coupled with 275 liters boot capacity.
Senor Rodriguez says, “We aim to offer a unique and unforgettable experience when a customer buys one of our sports cars. We believe our factory model and our relationship with each customer will be unique and set a new standard in the market. It will be more like the relationship experienced between a professional race driver and his race engineer and race team.” (In some ways, this car is this century’s remake of the Bugatti Royale. Totally impractical. I have no idea what Senor Rodriguez has been smoking, but he should desist!)
