Tuesday 14th July 2015

Venturi Atlantique: Time For Tea?

A rare slice of French supercar for Bastille Day, with some bloke called Richard on presenter duty

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In the book of obscure 90s supercars, the Venturi Atlantique should be right up there with the Cizeta V16T, Vector W8 and Lister Storm. Not quite as extreme as those, granted, but probably just as rare and left-field.

It was pitched - wouldn't you know - as a 911 Carrera rival, using a turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 to reach over 170mph and 62mph in less than six seconds. Despite reasonable reviews, it never really picked up many sales. At all.

To mark Bastille day then, and one of our favourite Frenchies, here's a contemporary review of the Atlantique 300 with Richard Hammond. Remember when car reviews didn't feature any tyre smoke? Or anything on track? Simpler times. In fact most of the video appears dedicated to Hammond's dubious similes and metaphors but it does at least allow plenty of opportunities to admire that very pretty shape.

Venturi even dabbled in motorsport, with a few outings at Le Mans and the Atlantique is something of an unrecognised gem in our book. Watch the vid and see if you agree.

See the video here.

[Image: BenjiAuto via Flickr]

[Turbobanana]

They more than dabbled in motorsport, appearing in national GT series as well as Le Mans if I recall.

And my Venturi LM is the fastest on my Scalextric track

[Ruffy94]

Same one for sale at a dealer not too far from me, not sure ive even seen one in real life. Could be in the lotto win collection as something a bit different.






http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Edited by Ruffy94 on Tuesday 14th July 19:17

[HeMightBeBanned]

I saw one once, in Henley-on-Thames in the late 1990s. I recall the contemporary reviews placed it very favourably against the V8 Esprit and they cost similar sums of money. £60k+ really was rather a lot, the best part of 20 years ago.

EDIT: Oh, and the Atlantique shares its wing mirrors with the Esprit!

[cerb4.5lee]

These have always fascinated me big time.

[massivesi]

I used to work in that castle - Peckforton in Cheshire!

[wildcat45]

HeMightBeBanned said:

I saw one once, in Henley-on-Thames in the late 1990s. I recall the contemporary reviews placed it very favourably against the V8 Esprit and they cost similar sums of money. £60k+ really was rather a lot, the best part of 20 years ago.

EDIT: Oh, and the Atlantique shares its wing mirrors with the Esprit!

And the Citroen CX.

The previous generation MVS badged cars had back lights from the original BMW 3 series I think.

Lovely looking cars. Made I think in Nantes. I take it the engine is a PVR lump reworked.

I wonder how much of a nightmare ownership would be?

There is something so desirable about certain French cars. Alpine GTA, Citroen CX XM and C6.....

[Baryonyx]

Probably my favourite (and definitely the sexiest) of all the 'forgotten' supercars.

[williamp]

remember going to the London mews in the late 90s and seeing Coys, etc. One of the Aston specialist was the importer for these. I liked them, but in that showroom, next to an Aston. Well...

[tomtom]

Last one I saw was in a hedge near Brooklands

[Ozzie Osmond]

Baryonyx said:

Probably my favourite (and definitely the sexiest) of all the 'forgotten' supercars.

Totally agree. I dread to think how few were built with right hand drive - but some were.

[Ozzie Osmond]

[BIRMA]

I nearly bought an immaculate Bi Turbo silver one for £24K a few years ago, the twin turbo is quite rare, prices are silly at the moment.

[R_U_LOCAL]

Ruffy94 said:

One for sale at a dealer not too far from me, not sure ive even seen one in real life. Could be in the lotto win collection as something a bit different.






http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Isn't that the car from the video?

[alpgta]

wildcat45 said:

There is something so desirable about certain French cars. Alpine GTA, Citroen CX XM and C6.....

Yes first post and all that. Long time listener, first time caller etc but I thought I'd pitch in.

Well here's my GTA Turbo, owned 20 years+ now and a total of 190K on the clock (110K of which was me!) They're not as fragile as you might think, but I really do need to get out in it more this year as it's been sitting far too idle of late.

[wildcat45]

alpgta said:

Yes first post and all that. Long time listener, first time caller etc but I thought I'd pitch in.

Well here's my GTA Turbo, owned 20 years+ now and a total of 190K on the clock (110K of which was me!) They're not as fragile as you might think, but I really do need to get out in it more this year as it's been sitting far too idle of late.

Pretty decent first post. What a cracking car.

[Asterix]

wildcat45 said:

alpgta said:

Yes first post and all that. Long time listener, first time caller etc but I thought I'd pitch in.

Well here's my GTA Turbo, owned 20 years+ now and a total of 190K on the clock (110K of which was me!) They're not as fragile as you might think, but I really do need to get out in it more this year as it's been sitting far too idle of late.

Pretty decent first post. What a cracking car.

Agreed. Nice first post.

Love the Venturi as well. Very understated.

[j90gta]

alpgta said:

wildcat45 said:

There is something so desirable about certain French cars. Alpine GTA, Citroen CX XM and C6.....

Yes first post and all that. Long time listener, first time caller etc but I thought I'd pitch in.

Well here's my GTA Turbo, owned 20 years+ now and a total of 190K on the clock (110K of which was me!) They're not as fragile as you might think, but I really do need to get out in it more this year as it's been sitting far too idle of late.

You're not the only long term owner of a GTA Turbo; bought mine in August 1994[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/WqzSUZzm[/url

In the process of being refurbished - just waiting for the rear brake calipers to be done and then hopefully of to be MoT'd. The paintwork and the wheels have been done. Can't wait!

[krallicious]

There is a French reg Atlantique that is sometimes at the 'ring for TF. Caged with a bloody big wing to boot and it looks lovely.

[Ruffy94]

R_U_LOCAL said:

Isn't that the car from the video?

Apologies meant to type 'same one for sale near me' was on my phone!

[alpgta]

Thanks guys. It scrubs up well. ('scuse the bottle of polish resting on the spoiler)



Alpine is unknown to most people and massively under-rated; particularly if you think that they're pretty much the same weight as the 964RS (on the lead article) and there are now a number of cars in the RAOC club now that are producing more power than that. Not that the 964 isn't hugely desirable, but it does comes with a price tag to match.

We've got a few Venturis in the club also. The 400GT is like a French F40 and were bargain money a few years back, but have ramped up a lot since then.