RE: Kamala Futuro
Tuesday 18th May 2004

Kamala Futuro

Super quick and super quirky two seater is ready to go






Kamala Cars has announced that its new sports car is ready. The Futuro is the result of two years of research and development.

The distinctive new model is built to order and comes with a Ford 2 litre engine, achieves 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds and boasts a top speed in excess of 160 mph.  It has a patented innovative wishbone suspension.  Manufactured with Ford Power Products the car can be serviced at any Ford service facility in the world.  You can also specifiy the Duratec V6 220 engine, air conditioning, satellite navigation, reverse sensor cameras and leather trim.

The Futuro’s fibreglass body is based on the original concept car, the Kamala RT which was designed in 1997.  Originally the brainchild of a former Ford Engineer, since 2001 the car has been developed and improved by Kamala Cars based in Wymondham, Norfolk. 

Mark Keen, Partner of Kamala Cars said “The Kamala RT and Futuro are fast, agile and great fun to drive, making them excellent road and track cars.  Each car is solidly built by hand to the customer’s specification and offers an exhilarating ride, close to that of a Formula One car.  After 20 years experience handling high performance cars, I’ve found nothing as thrilling as the Kamala.  We are very excited to be in a position to now produce these cars for true speed enthusiasts and are pleased to announce that we have had much acclaim from Ford Power Products, we are now Powered By Ford, giving us a quality stamp for our design, engineering and craftsmanship over the last two years ”.

Already a World Registered Sports Car Manufacturer, Kamala are currently in discussion with motorsport and engineering companies in Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia to establish agencies worldwide.  Plans for the future also include producing a model purely for the race track, with concept designs currently on the drawing board and track days to be announced over the next 12 months.

The Futuro is priced at £31,500 for the base model (RT is £27.500). Potential customers can visit Kamala’s premises in Wymondham by appointment or visit their new website at www.kamalacars.com

They will also be exhibiting at the forthcoming motorshow at the NEC (Hall 8/Evo stand).

Author
Discussion

PeetBee

Original Poster:

1,036 posts

277 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
Ooh, ugly car, those headlights don't look right at all.
It looks like it's not going to be available as a kit anymore either.

britten_mark

1,602 posts

275 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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Yuk.
Shall I start the writing on the wall now, or wait 18 months??

JonRB

79,087 posts

294 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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The original Dax "duck-billed platypus" Kamala had challenging styling, but just about carried it off as it was so different. Not that my wife agreed, so I guess that is an indication that it was not to all tastes.

Unfortunately, the faired-in front wheels and the new nose has turned it from quirky to pig-ugly (in my opinion only, I hasten to add).

Really can't say those front lights work for me.

shadowninja

79,198 posts

304 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
one day they'll design nice cars. :/

fuoriserie

4,560 posts

291 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
WOW!!! !








Edited by fuoriserie on Thursday 2nd April 18:53

daydreamer

1,409 posts

279 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
the article said:
Each car is solidly built by hand to the customer’s specification and offers an exhilarating ride, close to that of a Formula One car

I take it that this is to be read literally (i.e. no travel in the suspension and 'kin uncomfortable), rather than actually comparing the experience to an F1 car.

If not then wtf are Ross Brawn and co doing - they can throw away all of the aero and slip in a 2.2l standard engine. .

It'd sort the costs out for F1, and also possibly give better racing thanks to more evenly matched cars not dependant on donwforce

I hate it when salesmen make stupid claims

Edit to fix smiley

>> Edited by daydreamer on Tuesday 18th May 14:27

gt5s_1985

703 posts

278 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
I read the replies before blowing up the photos to get a good look at the car and thought that this was another bandwagon "Boy is that ugly" thread. Unfortunately, after looking at those photos all I can think is "boy is that ugly!" As said before, not "quirky-ugly", just "butt-ugly ugly".

FourWheelDrift

91,668 posts

306 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
The back end of a Lotus Elan, the front end of a back end.

No sir, I didn't like it.

bertie

8,568 posts

306 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
Christ on a bike, that's one ugly car!

jam1et

1,536 posts

274 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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Holy cow thats horrible!

I went to their website to see if they had any flattering pics of the front end - unfortunately not. Although the gallery pics of the rear look good.

Also £27500 is for the older RT not the futuro. Prices for that start at £31500, with leather and air con being a whopping £4k extra. And I wonder if those performance figures are really for the base model or the V6 220 optional engine at an extra £4500....

GregE240

10,857 posts

289 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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Nice to see the designer of the FBS Census is back from the pub.

dick dastardly

8,325 posts

285 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
This car is uglyugly.

Simpsons Moe said:
I've been called ugly, fugly, pugly, pugfugly...but not uglyugly


Are they a not-for-profit organisation?

John Nowak

108 posts

266 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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I like it!

John Nowak

108 posts

266 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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JonRB

79,087 posts

294 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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Hmmm. Looks like they have a market in America, at least, then.

But then American automotive tastes have traditionally been quite different from European ones anyway.

dinkel

27,588 posts

280 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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Messerschmidt trike on acid. It is ugly but it gets you there . . . Well done Kamala for making an exceptionally looking car.

robbo64

299 posts

265 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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Oh dear...

rebelstar

1,146 posts

266 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
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I think I saw one of these in bright yellow going anticlockwise round the M25 on Saturday evening. It looked like nothing else on the roads. I applaud them for that, at least!

robbo64

299 posts

265 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
[quote=fuoriserie]WOW!!! ! what happened????!!!!!

I hope no car designer was involved in the styling of it, for his own good, but then beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say!.

My only question would be WHY?............

With little design modifications the Kamala could have been updated, but this is..............

I wish them luck!!!! because if they can sell it as it is, they are great salesman.

I wouldn't want to be seen in one though!!






Nice point about the salesmen-They will deserve a big shiny medal!!

PeetBee

Original Poster:

1,036 posts

277 months

Tuesday 18th May 2004
quotequote all
John Nowak said:
Looks good to me here:

www.youngbabez.com/kamala/futuro/pic02.jpg


No it doesn't
Ugly with a capital UG. I prefer the fbs census to this, no really. I agree with the others, the back end looks good but the front is a disaster, it looks like they faired in the wheels quite well and then realised at the last minute they'd forgotten the lights so tacked them on using some drainpipe they had lying around.