Venturi Fetish

New sports car from revived French manufacturer

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 6 March 2002 / Loading comments

Have you got a Fetish? A French Fetish? If you haven't now, you could do next year if Venturi put their concept car into production. They've named it the 'Fétish'.

After some years of turbulance, the French manufacturer is back in safe hands after Gildo Pallanca Pastor took control last year. He set the company the challenge of designing a 100% new French sports car. Now, after eight months of top secret development, the Fétish offers a bold statement of Venturi's vision of the future.

Venturi position the car as a 'GT Light' - a car that is accessible, easy to drive yet has sufficient stowage to make touring possible. It's also been designed to be low maintenance.

Venturi are trying to position themselves in a niche where they could produce around 500 cars a year for €35,000 (£21,000). They no longer want to be seen as a French Ferrari or Porsche, but as a company producing a new range of very stylish products with no competition.

France is not the target market though. Venturi are aiming at thirty or so cities around the world with significant populations of young execs with plenty of buying power and a favourable view of French products and style.

They'll have to rely on selling the style as unique though if they reckon there will be no competition. The car is built on a welded aluminium chassis with a 2 litre, 180bhp engine driving the rear wheels. Target weight is 850kg and it should reach 140mph.

Links: www.venturi.fr, History