Thursday 25th May 2006

Images of Melling's Hellcat emerge

700bhp 6-litre V10-powered sports car revealed

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Al Melling

Pictures of Al Melling's Hellcat, the £100,000 supercar with 700bhp delivered by a 6-litre V10 we reported on a couple of weeks ago (see link below) have started to emerge -- albeit only very small ones.

The Manchester Evening News has one, as does the local paper, the Rochdale Observer. We'll try and bring you better ones when we can.

The car is at the late prototype stage now. Block and heads are milled from solid billets of aluminium rather than cast.

Links

• Rochdale Observer: Move over Ferrari – Hellcat’s in top gear
• Manchester Evening News: Al's revved up to take on Ferrari
• PistonHeads story: Melling to launch £100,000 supercar

[bruciebonuz]

From the little you can see of it it looks pretty nice......the next Delorean?

[J111]

The car is at the late prototype stage now.
I don't think that term means what you think it does

bruciebonuz said:

From the little you can see of it it looks pretty nice......the next Delorean?

DeLorean managed to build some cars.

[dick dastardly]

Doesn't look like a £100K car to me. A car of that price calling itself a 'supercar' needs to be much more striking visually.

[FourWheelDrift]

I've posted some bigger images on here - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=268223&f=23&h=0&p=4

[runnersp]

I'll believe it when I see it. Move over Ferrari? Ever the optimists at the Rochdale Observer...

[errek72]

Does not float my boat. Take the design to captain swoopy or Andrea Zagato and come back.

[LuS1fer]

Can it fit that fat bloke in it then?

[hugh_]

It looks like a cross between:
- Nissan 350Z
- Bristol fighter
- TVR Sagaris

Not a fan of the looks tbh, but if its function over form I could live with it.

[GTRene]

FourWheelDrift said:

I've posted some bigger images on here - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=268223&f=23&h=0&p=4

Looks a bit like the Nissan 350Z and a Corvette have made love together strange look...maybe nice, have to see it in the reall world...
GTRene

>> Edited by GTRene on Thursday 25th May 11:01

[centaurus]

FourWheelDrift said:

I've posted some bigger images on here - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=268223&f=23&h=0&p=4

All surfaces "seem" to match perfectly ...
I can imagine : the mock-up was finished in a madness hurry with kind Al shouting like a pig on his poor pattern makers ...

[RichardD]

hugh_ said:

...Not a fan of the looks tbh, but if its function over form I could live with it.

I think the potential sleekness has been compromised a bit since with rather a lot of power, it needs a bit of frontal area for good cooling! Saying that TVR's are sleek since they do not go through the same regs as say an Aston (clearance above engine for pedestrian impact) - which are sort of chunky nowadays.

[ianf]

My local TV station ran a small feature on it (I live in M/cr) It was on the 3 Sisters track doing some shake down laps and looked a complete dog! It looked like it was doing around 20mph the whole lap!

[Wacky Racer]

Looks remarkably like a Hyundai Coupe from certain angles to me........

[SiH]

bruciebonuz said:

From the little you can see of it it looks pretty nice......the next Delorean?

Doesn't look much like a car, more like a fat bloke sitting next to an engine!
He does look like a jolly chap though!

[alexkp]

dick dastardly said:

Doesn't look like a £100K car to me. A car of that price calling itself a 'supercar' needs to be much more striking visually.

I agree. Looks like a mis-proportioned Nissan 350Z.

[FourWheelDrift]

For a car that appears to have been designed by Doc Brown I would have expected it to fully utilise a flux capacitor to enable the user to travel back and forth in time.

Doc Brown unavailable for comment, yesterday.

[Bedford Rascal]

FourWheelDrift said:

That's just crying out for some caption about "...on the register for the next five years" or somesuch.

[wedgie]

Never mind the car, just sell us the engine (see if we can shoehorn it into a Tuscan!)

[DennisTheMenace]

Girls ! feck ! booze !

[LuS1fer]

I don't mind the looks but it doesn't shout Hellcat to me, more Puss, puss, puss.