Along Came An Aspid...
Spanish design consultancy brings gawky hi-tech sports car to Salon Prive
You don't often get a chance to see an Aspid in the flesh, so if you think you've been missing out you'd better get over to the Salon Privé being held at the Hurlingham Club in London from 22-24 July.
Aspid will be making a rare UK appearance
Maybe that's a bit unfair, but to our eyes the euros 107k Aspid does look a bit of a dog's dinner. It goes well though, by all accounts, with the company claiming a super-bike rivalling 0-62mph time of 2.8secs, 0-100mph in 5.9secs, and 0-100mph-0 in approximately 9secs for a 400bhp powered version. (Which means it brakes from 100mph to a standstill in a lunch-losing 3.1secs, in case you were wondering.)
Oddly enough, the press release announcing these figures doesn't tell us what the Aspid packs under its hood, although less powerful versions get a 2.0 turbo four.
“It is very much a driver’s car and certainly has the ability to exhilarate,” says Fernández. “But it’s also a very safe car and easy to live with on a daily basis, whether driving into town or on a long distance journey.”
"Despite its lightweight construction, the Aspid actually comes better equipped than most supercars that are typically twice the weight," the company claims. "Inside the climate controlled cabin the sophisticated electronic system incorporates a touch screen in the centre console that controls everything from the sensitivity of the power steering to the integral data logging. Another screen in the steering wheel displays all relevant data in a simple and clear presentation."
Apparently the Aspid meets both FIA safety standards as well as European road car homologation requirements and is unique therefore in being a genuine ready-to-race high performance road car.
“Prospective customers interested in racing the car have worked out how cost competitive the Aspid is compared with preparing and equipping other makes of cars for the race track,” says Fernandez. “With the Aspid it all comes as standard.”
I think you'd just end up with a car that is the worst of both worlds. Having said that, good luck to them because they have obviously set out to build a car with bonkers performance and i think that should always be celebrated!
Interesting car the Aspid.
Had a chat with the guys on their stand at Autosport in Jan. Its a really well engineered bit of kit. The concept is essentially a Caterham 7 re-engineered with modern materials and hi-tech gadgets like aircon, touchscreen controls, wi-fi, sat nav etc. Plus there are twin-disc brakes and some other innovative stuff.
I know someone who's driven one and they rated it highly.
Of course the downside is that it has looks only a mother could love, and at 100k+ you won't be seeing many at trackdays anytime soon.
I think it started out as more of a tech demonstrator than a real production car proposition, but they realised they may be able to part some rich eccentrics from their cash on the side
They claim the car is quicker that the Citroen World Rally car Soeb uses across the tarmac stages of Spain, so if that is the case I can see it having those performance figures!
I personally like the car, and having a (sort-of) rally background is right up my street.
Great looking little machine just a but too expensive for me.
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