Equus Bass 770: 21st-century Pony Car

Published Sep 26, 2013

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This, Equus automotive would have us believe, is a unique driving experience - the Equus Bass 770, a Detroit-born and bred muscle-car that delivers 1960s sound and styling in a new-millennium, USB-connected, EPA street-legal package.

So what are the Ford Mustang GT500KR, Dodge Challenger, Chev Camaro and Corvette - chopped liver?

The name is certainly derivative: Equus is the Latin for horse (a mustang is an American wild horse) and Bass is one copyright-cheating vowel away from Boss - as in Shelby. Equus is also a Hyundai sedan that's only available in Korea, but we won't go there.

The company badge is a prancing horse that actually looks like a cross between a chrome-plated Ferrari logo and a Toyota badge, while the number, well, that refers to the car's 6.2-litre Corvette ZR1 LS9 V8, each cylinder of which displaces 770cc.

OK, so it's a very, very expensive kit car.

But what do you actually get for a base price of $250 000 (R2.5 million)?

What you get is a sophisticated (by Detroit standards, anyway) all-aluminium chassis with a built-in roll cage and adaptive magnetic dampers all round.

Front and centre, there's a bog-standard GM LS9 'crate engine' rated for 472kW at 6500rpm and 822Nm at 3800, driving the rear wheels through your choice of a six-speed manual or dual-clutch transmission.

The 770 runs 19” alloys and 255/40 front and 285/40 rear Michelin Pilot sports over carbon-ceramic discs and Brembo callipers - six-pot in front and four-pot at the rear.

MUSTANG CLONE

The body panels, styled to look like a late-1960s Pony Car (other than that weird, angry-looking grille), are superformed in aluminium sheet over carbon-fibre inner sections, which helps to keep the weight down to a creditable 1650kg.

Equus quotes 0-100km/h in 3.4 seconds and 322km/h flat out, but doesn't quote fuel=-consumption figures which, on a car of this nature, are arguably irrelevant anyway.

The base interior is all in black leather and alcantara, with air conditioning, satnav, radio/CD /DVD player, USB port, tyre-pressure monitor, cruise control and airbags, but the Equus website includes a 'design-your-own' page offering almost limitless option at equally limitless prices.

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