Mexican Vuhl pocket rocket unleashed

Published Jul 4, 2013

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It sounds German - just the sort of thing you'd expect from a country where almost every village has its tuning guru - but the Vuhl 05 track-day special is actually Mexican.

The name is a slightly mixed-up acronym for ' V ehicle of U ltra- L ightweight and H igh performance' and the car itself was shown this week for the first time (after months of hype-enhancing 'leaks' and 'rumours') at the prestigious Royal Automobile Club in London's Pall Mall, ahead of its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Now that we've settled that, does this overgrown go-kart - aimed straight at the Ariel Atom and KTM X-Bow - have any kind of a pedigree?

Well, actually it does.

It was designed by Mexican brothers Guillermo and Iker Echeverria, second-generation petrolheads whose father was a professional driver with 30 years' experience of building his own racing cars.

Guillermo worked for a number of years in the performance-car industry, while Iker beat top Mexican designers, agencies and university studios to win the prestigious Quorum industrial design award while he was still a student, before joining his brother to set up their own Mexico City/Detroit-based design agency, ETXE, where they earned their chops working on projects for a number of global brands before starting work on the 05.

Iker explained: “Our background means the 05 has been developed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. We wanted to build a highly intuitive car that was seriously quick and immense fun to drive - a car we ourselves would want to own.”

And this is how they did it:

The 05 is built on a three-section bonded monocoque tub made from aerospace-industry aluminium extrusions and aluminium honeycomb, that weighs just 78kg, with a chrome-moly tubular-steel sub-frame for the engine and rear suspension bolted directly to it.

The body, including a flat underbody, front and lateral splitters, rear diffuser and rear spoiler, is made from RTM reinforced plastic, although carbon fibre is an option.

Even with the standard body, the whole car weighs just 725kg ready to go; it has a mid-mounted two-litre version of the Ford DOHC turbocharged EcoBoost engine rated at 210kW and 420Nm driving the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox, giving it a power-to-weight ratio of 290kW per tonne. The brothers confidently quote a 0-100 sprint time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 245km/h.

Suspension is by unequal-length double wishbones front and rear, steering by a high-ratio rack and pinion system. Braking is by four-pot alloy callipers all-round, operating on 310mm ventilated cross-drilled discs at the front and 280mm platters at the rear, inside forged-alloy OZ rims shod with 205/45 x 17 front and 235/45 x 18 rear Michelins.

Interior options include carbon-fibre bucket sports seats, a quick release, water-resistant suede-covered steering wheel, an electronic data-acquisition instrument panel with built-in high-definition camera and water-resistant Dinamica suede trim.

NOT A BUDGET BUGGY

All of which doesn't come cheap; orders are being taken now for delivery in the second quarter of 2014, with pricing starting at £55 000 (R840 000) plus tax and shipping. It will be sold only in the UK and North America to start with (Vuhl is busy appointing dealers in both countries) but the brothers intend to make it available in due course where the real money is at - China and the Middle East.

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