AutoCar:
A completely new kind of supercar, based on tweaked Subaru Impreza components but barely bigger than a Ford Fiesta, is under development at Prodrive, the Banbury-based engineering group which builds both Subaru’s world rally cars and Aston Martin’s DBR9 GT racing car.
The 160mph hard-top two-seater, code-named P2, has no equivalent among current production cars, though it bears a superficial resemblance to rally-bred supercars of the past such as the Lancia Stratos and Ford RS200. Like these cars it is potentially extremely fast and agile, but unlike them it’s designed to use a far higher percentage of production components, and to be built to a ‘notional’ purchase price of around £40k.
The engine is a front-mounted version of Subaru’s familiar 2.0 litre turbocharged flat-four engine with well over 300bhp on tap. The car will weigh only about 1000kg, so performance should match a Ferrari F430’s or Lamborghini Gallardo’s.
A completely new kind of supercar, based on tweaked Subaru Impreza components but barely bigger than a Ford Fiesta, is under development at Prodrive, the Banbury-based engineering group which builds both Subaru’s world rally cars and Aston Martin’s DBR9 GT racing car.
The 160mph hard-top two-seater, code-named P2, has no equivalent among current production cars, though it bears a superficial resemblance to rally-bred supercars of the past such as the Lancia Stratos and Ford RS200. Like these cars it is potentially extremely fast and agile, but unlike them it’s designed to use a far higher percentage of production components, and to be built to a ‘notional’ purchase price of around £40k.
The engine is a front-mounted version of Subaru’s familiar 2.0 litre turbocharged flat-four engine with well over 300bhp on tap. The car will weigh only about 1000kg, so performance should match a Ferrari F430’s or Lamborghini Gallardo’s.
