RE: Elise-based 700hp 'Blackbird' launched

RE: Elise-based 700hp 'Blackbird' launched

Tuesday 6th February 2018

Elise-based 700hp 'Blackbird' launched

Rezvani is only a few years into its manufacturing career, but it's determined to make an impression



It's conceivable that the Rezvani brand might have already popped up on your radar - not necessarily for the way its product line looks, but for the Californian firm's apparent deference to English expertise when chassis shopping. It's first effort, the bashfully titled 'Beast' was based on an Ariel Atom's underpinnings, while it's follow-up, the 'Beast Alpha' is actually a Lotus Elise underneath the carbon fibre body and silly 'sidewinder' doors.

Of course, when dainty English handling nous meets American investment we all know what happens - and sure enough Rezvani has shown a tendency for dramatically ramping up engine output alongside its penchant for extreme appearance. Consequently, the Beast Alpha (already available in 400hp and X-badged 600hp flavours) has now added the 700hp "Blackbird" to its lineup. Why Blackbird? Because SR-71, obviously.


Naming your latest model after the world's fastest airplane comes with a certain amount of expectation (along with head-shaking and sighing), but Rezvani clearly feels it has lived up to the hype with the power extracted from what might otherwise be considered a fairly humble 2.5-litre turbocharged four-pot. The confirmed Anglophile has stuck rigidly to its formula, too: apparently enlisting the help of Cosworth when it came to developing what you'd imagine is quite a highly-strung in-house engine.

Thanks in no small part to the Elise underneath, its maker claims that the completed BlackBird weights just 975kg. Which makes its power-to-weight ratio absurd and its quoted 0-60mph time a pithy 2.9 seconds. To put that into context, the quickest version that Lotus will sell you - the Elise Cup 260 - only has a measly 250hp and 0-60mph time of 3.8 seconds.

Of course, Hethel's version costs about £50k and handles like a dream. Rezvani's Californian interpretation is priced from $225,000 and probably doesn't - or at least not in a way that wouldn't be overtly terrifying to a standard issue human driver. Nevertheless, there will only ever be five of them made, and at the very least that makes it another interesting notch on the British-American automotive bedpost.

Author
Discussion

Vergis

Original Poster:

549 posts

241 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
Hands up all those that think they saw the new Vantage and decided to use it as inspiration for yet another limited edition Elise !

snuffy

9,589 posts

283 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
Cars that look like that have to be big. And this isn't - it' Elise sized. Therefore it looks like a joke.

Gameface

16,565 posts

76 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
No mention of how the doors open?

AWG

854 posts

155 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
snuffy said:
Cars that look like that have to be big. And this isn't - it' Elise sized. Therefore it looks like a joke.
Completely agree.

Bencolem

1,008 posts

238 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
snuffy said:
Cars that look like that have to be big. And this isn't - it' Elise sized. Therefore it looks like a joke.
Agreed - need to see an interior picture as I’d be amazed if they’ve been able to make this inhabitable enough for the target market.

chucklebutty

315 posts

242 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
http://www.rezvanimotors.com/rezvani-beast-x-perfo...

0-60 is quoted as 2.5s on the, erm, company website at 700bhp. How do PH get their numbers?

Caddyshack

10,471 posts

205 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
Bencolem said:
Agreed - need to see an interior picture as I’d be amazed if they’ve been able to make this inhabitable enough for the target market.
Do you mean habitable enough?

Gecko1978

9,579 posts

156 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
chucklebutty said:
http://www.rezvanimotors.com/rezvani-beast-x-perfo...

0-60 is quoted as 2.5s on the, erm, company website at 700bhp. How do PH get their numbers?
while the car is not for me the Tank they sell looks more like it

snuffy

9,589 posts

283 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
chucklebutty said:
http://www.rezvanimotors.com/rezvani-beast-x-perfo...

0-60 is quoted as 2.5s on the, erm, company website at 700bhp. How do PH get their numbers?
Since that link says 2.9 seconds and PH also says 2.9 seconds then I assume get their number from, erm, the manufacture's web site ?



jcl

227 posts

242 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
"Launched" straight into the nearest tree.

Oilchange

8,396 posts

259 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
Or,
upon departing onto a main road the overconfident driver will floor it in the turn, spin up the rear wheels and tank slap down the road.
It will then either;
spin around and impale itself backwards into the dribbling crowd of smartphone videoing morons that are giving said driver so much undeserved attention
or,
spin around, jump the central reservation backwards and impale itself into the oncoming Pickup.

One way or the other they will all be smashed to pieces.

Piginapoke

4,714 posts

184 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
One for the Badly Modified Cars thread

Demonix

474 posts

211 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
Looks like someone has done a Batmobile pimp my ride job on an Elise, dodgy styling but that much ooomph in a tiny car must be hilarious, right up until the first set of corners!

Bright Halo

2,944 posts

234 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
Bencolem said:
snuffy said:
Cars that look like that have to be big. And this isn't - it' Elise sized. Therefore it looks like a joke.
Agreed - need to see an interior picture as I’d be amazed if they’ve been able to make this inhabitable enough for the target market.
There is no target market if they are only going to make 5.
They will all be snapped up as amusing trinkets by people with loads of spare folding.

This is marketing exercise designed to attract attention for less extreme models that will follow.
“From the people who bought you the extreme Blackbird here is the Bluetit”

wuddie

509 posts

249 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all

bosshog

1,574 posts

275 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
God thats ugly.

SpunkyM

250 posts

243 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
I think it looks pretty good actually!

kambites

67,442 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
Those headlights are clearly far too low down for either US or EU type approval?

snuffy

9,589 posts

283 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
ash73 said:
Just needs a cylon eye on the front.
Like this you mean ?


jakesmith

9,461 posts

170 months

Wednesday 7th February 2018
quotequote all
For these types of cars do they have an agreement with Lotus? Or do they buy a number of the cars whole?
Or would they pay a special price & tell Lotus to not bother with bits that they aren't using so it comes as a bare / rolling chassis or what?