By: IOL Motoring Staff
Newcastle upon Tyne, England - If you must borrow, borrow from the best. Start-up luxury brand David Brown has announced the outline specifications - along with these three teaser images - of its first car, code-named Project Judi.
Under its hand-beaten aluminium skin, it uses the power train of the Jaguar XKR, tweaked for the purpose by the engineers of the Envisage Group, a modern five-litre supercharged V8 with 375kW and 625Nm, driving the rear wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission.
Given that Project Judi should be significantly lighter than the XKR, it's expected to deliver 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of more than 250km/h.
“I couldn’t find what I wanted so I built my own!”
Brown explained: “I wanted all the impact and style of a classic sports car, but with modern capabilities and conveniences. However, it's not something anybody really offers, so I've created it myself.”
His design team is led by Alan Mobberley, who was chief designer at Land Rover from 1986 to 2005, and the car has been developed for production by automotive engineering specialists Envisage Group.
CLASSIC STYLING
Its body is made of traditional hand-crafted aluminium panels formed over computer-machined bucks and bonded to precision-machined aluminium-alloy structural members for close tolerances and structural integrity.
The classic styling, Brown said, had already been through comprehensive aerodynamic and performance simulations before a single panel was cut.
“Project Judi” will be shown in public for the first time at the Top Marques Show in Monaco, on 17 April 2014.