Wednesday 13th July 2011

YKYWT... Make A Small Fortune In The Car Business

Yep, then start with a big one. (But at least you can have fun trying!)

---

If you think that this thing looks a bit like the Prodrive P2 then you'd be right, but if you think the makers of this car copied the P2 you'd be wrong. This car is, if you like, a 're-bodied' Mitsubishi Evo VI whereas the P2 was Impreza-based. And while the P2 was unveiled in 2006, this car was finished a couple of years earlier...

Stourbridge concern Xtreme began building this car in 2003 from a carbon composite tub and nailed on all the Evo VI running gear (all-told it weighs just 1100 kilos). It was developed by renowned former Ralliart Technical Director and WRC Team Manager Toney Cox, who decided to replace the Mitsubishi Active Yaw Control with a Limited Slip Differential - a set-up supposedly preferred by the purists.

The car was completed with glass fibre panels and registered as a 'Mitsubishi X1 Prototype', after which it went out with just a standard-tune (300bhp) Evo VI engine and proved to be very, very fast. Xtreme looked for investment to allow them to produce the X1 - and attracted interest from both Russia and India - but it all came to nought in the end.

Having moved premises, Xtreme says the X1 and all of the moulds required to build other X1s are now available for sale, unless of course you'd rather use the car in competition in some way. Anyone who wanted to produce these would need to secure some premises, staff, a truck-load of backing, and then a supply of Evo VIs - many of which will have been pranged once or twice over the years whereas all the greasy bits required for the X1 will still be in rude health. Xtreme would also be on hand to offer any assistance they can.

Frankly I have no idea how you'd go about pricing this car and its associated package of moulds and advice, but the claim that they have sunk £300,000 in it so far is entirely plausible. The British independent car manufacturing industry is a fickle mistress though, with a long list of glorious and not-so-glorious failures...

Prodrive reckoned that the P2 would have retailed at about £40,000 - which some think was a bit optimistic - but either way you have to wonder why they didn't put the car into production.

Perhaps the best way to go would be to complete the development of the X1, proclaim its dazzling 'Ring lap times, and take it from there. Then again, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it...

[britsportscars]

Strange looking thing... I've seen it before on the Xtreme website advertised among all the EVOs they sell. I would have thought that the AYC would have been a good thing to leave on.

If I had won on the Euromillions, I would sink some money into this!

[wab172uk]

That looks Crap. People will just think you've built a Kit car in your garage.

[GTEYE]

+1

wab172uk said:

That looks Crap. People will just think you've built a Kit car in your garage.

[ukaskew]

They've used this as the safety car at Castle Combe quite a bit and it can often been seen at various events there. It's actually quite a nice bit of kit up close.

[Caruso]

Styled by engineers by the look of it.

[Alfa numeric]

Wasn't the P2 based on the Justy?

Edit- no it was the R1 kei car: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodrive_P2

[annodomini2]

[X5TUU]

personally, i would have thought it would have been a whole lot more than that with the development costs plus salary costs of the people involved etc... seems a little cheap to me

i think there would be a market for it too... esp around the high 30k's

[don logan]

Surely this is what a LOT of "us" want?

Imagine a mapped EVO 9 engine in it (an 1100kg, small car)

[Martin 480 Turbo]

So essentially they are trying to sell the tooling instead
of scrapping it.

If the design was that successful, why didn't they ship more
cars in the first place?

And the styling is the deal breaker here, really. All the
engineered bits may be competitive today, the styling of the
hull isn't. So why buy the molds for that?

Martin 480 Turbo

[soad]

I bet it's fun to drive, cabin looks good

[don logan]

[quote=Martin 480 Turbo]

If the design was that successful, why didn't they ship more
cars in the first place?

Not really a mystery -

"Xtreme looked for investment to allow them to produce the X1 - and attracted interest from both Russia and India - but it all came to nought in the end."

[silversixx]

don logan said:

Martin 480 Turbo said:

If the design was that successful, why didn't they ship more
cars in the first place?

Not really a mystery -

"Xtreme looked for investment to allow them to produce the X1 - and attracted interest from both Russia and India - but it all came to nought in the end."

Having spoken to them it sounds like they were the first to try to find out what you got if you bolted EVO bits to a really light shell. It worked too in that the car was mega-fast...they just didn't manage to secure the funding to produce them full-time.

I would have guessed that Prodrive were in a better position to produce their P2 but of course they didn't go for it. Maybe both cars are just too challenging to look at regardless of their performance?

[smash]

+2

wab172uk said:

That looks Crap. People will just think you've built a Kit car in your garage.

[don logan]

silversixx said:

don logan said:

Martin 480 Turbo said:

If the design was that successful, why didn't they ship more
cars in the first place?

Not really a mystery -

"Xtreme looked for investment to allow them to produce the X1 - and attracted interest from both Russia and India - but it all came to nought in the end."

Having spoken to them it sounds like they were the first to try to find out what you got if you bolted EVO bits to a really light shell. It worked too in that the car was mega-fast...they just didn't manage to secure the funding to produce them full-time.

I would have guessed that Prodrive were in a better position to produce their P2 but of course they didn't go for it. Maybe both cars are just too challenging to look at regardless of their performance?

I think the reality of designing and building a car is impossibly hard, I think THIS is quite an amazing achievement from a small company, a carbon composite tub isn`t what you normally find in someone`s kit car is it!

[smash]

Don - It's not what you're saying - it's all this stuff you're not saying. Insinnuendos!

To paraphrase the late, great Eric Morecambe "It's got all the right curves . . . but not necesarily in the right order"

[p1doc]

it had potential and would have been great to see x1 vs p2 on the top gear track-real shame prodrive did not mass produce the p2,lucky i have a working murtaya instead!
martin

[don logan]

smash said:

Don - It's not what you're saying - it's all this stuff you're not saying. Insinnuendos!"

"You are just going to have to turn this opprtunity yes" :-)

[Gizmo!]

wab172uk said:

That looks Crap. People will just think you've built a Kit car in your garage.

Because effectively, you will have done.

Those shutlines look like they've been designed so you can't trap your fingers in them

edit: and if you want an ugly car that goes like an Evo 6, why not buy an Evo 6?

[ktm301p]

The rear on that thing is hideous, rather have an evo imo