A Completely New Kind of Supercar Planned.

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A completely new kind of supercar, based on Subaru Impreza components, is under development at Prodrive (who builds Subaru's rally cars and the Aston Martin DBR9 GT) at the moment. The amazing thing is that it will be around the same size as a Ford Fiesta.

The 160mph, hard-top two-seater, codenamed P2, has no equivalent among the current production cars. It'll be a rally-bred car like old Lancia Stratos and Ford RS200. The car will be extremely fast and the purchase price will be around £40k.

The engine will be the same as Subaru's 2.0-litre flat-four and will have over 300bhp on tap. The car will weigh aroung 1000kg, which will make the car match the Ferrari F430's and Lamborghini Gallardo's performance. The car being so small, light weight and Subaru's 4x4 system should make the car more agile than convention mid-engined cars. Suspension, brakes and steering are also from the Impreza. The coupe should also feature new stability and anti-turbo lag systems both devised at Prodrive.

There is no production plan at present and Prodrive haven't got an official name for the project yet, but I hope they do get it into production. It looks pretty good so far. 👍

All information from Autocar magazine.


Sorry for the pictures being so small (from Autocar website), There's one of the rear of the car in the magazine but it wasn't on the site. Please post it if you find one. :)
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I'd figure that Prodrive would take a more liberal design attitude, making radical changes to the coupe mold, considering they have nothing to build on. Kind of a shame that they didn't take a larger step forward on the design, the whole industry would benefit from it.
 
I get what you're saying eliseracer, but I still like that design. I do see some of the new Jag XKR in the front but only the front. I think Pro drive are more than capable of making this work, IF they find the backing to get it into production.
 
To me the front of the car reminded me of a Ford, maybe the Ford Puma.
 
I can guarantee you it will look like nothing really else, when it gets released and someone sees it in person. Proportionally, this thing looks tiny. Sub-Miata size. All of those original inclinations towards "it looks like this, looks like that" will most likely be eliminated once you see how small it will (should) be. I'm not liking the design very much, but that's mostly credited to the rather amateur rendering. I might not be able to do better, but I can spot many things that owuld definitely make the car look more serious. I hope this isn't the material they're using for their propositions and presentations to find a manufacturer.

And you're right. There isn't anything new. It is a All Wheel Drive front motored car. Whoa.
 
yeah, it DOES kinda have the styling cues of a Puma. I saw a couple on the road while Brit Immigration was hauling me to Dungaevel. I also like that one as a sleeper in GT2.

this is the kind of thing Ford should be doing instead of retro design cues...tart up the focus like...thing is, if it's not an american company, it'll be too small for the US market. americans don't like to be squeezed.

I'd rather be squeezed...I hate having to reach all the way across the cabin just to find the fan blower switch.
 
I can see a few cues being made. It has some Aston Martin DB9-style headlights, kind of a long front grill as the Scion tC, side air ducts like the Maserati MC12, and if I had a view of the back, I'd see what cues are made from there as well. It's perfectly fine to have cues and inspirations in car design, and I think this one looks surprisingly nice. I kind of tihnk of it as an Impreza evolution, much like Pokémon fans know about Pikachu evolving into Raichu (rarely happens).

Overall, pretty nice design. If I had to modify its looks in one respect, I'd say the side duct. Maybe it should be a bit smaller like the most recent Lotus Elise. That is, unless the engine needs a huge side duct to cool the engine off or the rear brakes.

I'd give the design a 7.75/10.00.
 
Sounds a lot like a AWD Lotus Exige, i doubt any manufacture could make a car that weighs less than a 1000kgs these days, not with a heavy AWD drive train. I can't really see the point of having AWD on a car of this size anyway.
 
I think it looks like a cross between a hyundai coupe and a ford cougar, and at the back, an alfa spider from about 1998
 
looks like a focus had some threeway sex with a tC and a subaru and all kinds of junk.

but yeah, it definitely looks ford'ey.
 
Wow the bastard child of the the Aston Martin DB9 and Ford Puma after having sex. Now if the RX-8 and Miata had sex and somehow grew a twin turbo 13b.......
 
I don't think it looks TOO bad. And I figured from my Gran Turismo gameplay that four-wheel drive makes cars heavier. I wouldn't go on the level of saying "copy somebody else = new car." I did throw in the cues I mentioned: Scion tC, Aston Martin DB9, Maserati MC12... but it doesn't mean that a car was simply copied and then had all this stuff tacked onto it. Only once have I seen someone mod his car to having parts from other cars to make this purely unique machine. I think someone had a Honda... Prelude or Accord, I don't know... but his ride had the headlights of an R34 Skyline, side ducts of a Honda/Acura NSX, and tail of an R33 Skyline. I'm not sure because I haven't found the magazine I seen it in recently. There's a difference between using cues, and then just stealing from them. If you want someone perhaps guilty of stealing, look to China's Chery brand. They say their designs are completely original, but not Chrysler and GM.
 
I like it alot except for the grill. I've seen that on several concept cars lately and it's almost as bad as audi's massive, inverted trapezoid shnoz. They clean it up a bit for volkswagens but that chrome thing looks goofy on any color other than silver...but I'm straying off topic now so I'll just stop.

[EDIT]
I can't really see the point of having AWD on a car of this size anyway.
Click to expand...
Well, the "need" for all wheel drive is more conguent with the power to weight ratio, also taking into consideration the size and compound of the tires.

[EDIT2]
Anybody remember the Mitsubishi CZ3 tarmac evolution? It was some kind of little minicar with the engine and drivetrain out of the evo 7. sure this is a bit more shapely than buble thing but it's about the same proportions. Well maybe not the height but this thing is still sub elise size.
 

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