PH exclusive: Ascari KZ1 driven

We're first to drive the new 500bhp Ascari KZ1 supercar

Ascari KZ1

Side view

Car with barge

Barn

Rear view

500bhp BMW V8 engine

Interior

Badge

Some five years since it was first mooted in public, the Ascari KZ1 has broken cover. And PistonHeads brings you a world first: impressions of what it's like to drive this 500bhp, carbon-fibre, hand-built supercar.

Thrust comes from a tweaked BMW 5-litre V8 engine, the same unit that powered the old 5-Series, the £235,000 machine sits low to the ground.

Designed not in a wind tunnel but a computer, it's the brainchild of Klaas Zwart, who made money in petro-chemicals and fulfilled his dream of building a modern supercar.

The KZ1 follows the reasonably well-received Ecosse and is built in a 45,000 square feet factory in Banbury. Other activities at the factory include building GT racers destined for the Spanish GT series -- and maybe the FIA series too at some point in the future.

The carbon-fibre shell is mated to a tough, carbon-fibre tub which forms the car's chassis, and to which all other components are bolted.

Ascari bills the machine as a road car, but that didn't mean your scribe wasn't a tad nervous at sitting behind the wheel of a car which, if bent, would need the entire one-piece carbon-fibre body to be replaced. The fact that it was Zwart's own car didn't help. However, I wonder if owners would be happy to have to wait for a new bodyshell to be fabricated, painted and fitted in the event of a ding in Waitrose's car park.

With the car fitting snugly round me in a leather-clad Sparco race seat, I fired up the mid-mounted V8 with a dash-mounted aluminium button, one of many ally bits that adorn the interior. Everything that's going on under the glass engine cover behind comes through clearly, and the heat soak after a few miles threatens to overcome the otherwise effective aircon. Driving off is simple -- there's plenty of torque available, and the Ascari-tuned exhaust promises much aural delight.

The rear-wheel drive car is set up to understeer, according to PR man Chris Burton, and even on some nicely twisty A roads around the company's Banbury base we couldn't shake the back end loose. Burton said that customers could of course have the car set up any way they chose and, if I were spending this sort of money, I might want it just a touch more pointy, a bit more aggressive at the front end.

The car felt totally planted to the road, even when pressing the loud pedal down into the carpet. Acceleration is of course available in any gear: the use of carbon fibre has kept weight down to 1,330Kg, delivering 3.7 seconds for the 0-60mph sprint, though the torque delivery is so linear, it almost doesn't feel that fast. Until you look down at the speedo, that is. The speedo was calibrated in kilometres, up to 330kph - over 200mph. Top speed is said to be about that, though we didn't come within 50mph of that.

Handling and steering were benign even on broken blacktop, with little trace of tramlining, despite the fat 235/35/19 Pirellis up front. The 305/30 tyres wrapping the 19-inch rear wheels offer so much grip in fact that jumping on the throttle couldn't break traction -- maybe I wasn't trying hard enough.... The steering is commendably easy and feelsome, with just 2.2 turns lock to lock.

The notchy six-speed box offers ratios that allow you to bimble in traffic or beam past slower cars with a twitch of the ankle and a throaty roar from behind. Stopping is handled by six-pot Brembos up front, four-pots behind, and felt smooth and controlled, with just a touch of ABS kicking in at the limit of adhesion.

I found it hard to make comparisons at this level -- I was driving on public roads, and I don't pretend to be Tiff Needell. But my impressions after three hours with the car are that you'd have to really want the exclusivity it offers. Many other cars offer similar levels of performance for much less, and 500bhp is no longer that rare. A Ferrari 430 comes close and can be had for a trifling £118,000.

But there will only ever be 50 KZ1s built, so Ascari is aiming for exclusivity to add value to the car. Burton was keen to emphasise that the price, though higher than a Ferrari 612's £170,000, is one third the price of a Koenigsegg, and half that of a Pagani Zonda.

If I had that kind of money, I'd buy one of these individually numbered machines, simply because I'd know I'd never meet another. The looks, both of the car and on other people's faces, would just be added bonuses.

Manek Dubash

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