It wouldn't be a big European motor show without a far-fetched hypercar concept, and Paris 2018 has proved no different with the debut of this - the Aspark Owl.
Brainchild of Masanori Yoshida, the Owl is another ludicrously powerful - at least 1,150hp, apparently - EV hypercar, promising to be the fastest accelerating car on the planet when it reaches customers in 2020. At present test cars are clocking 1.99 seconds to 62mph on road legal tyres, with slicks apparently taking that down to 1.89. A 1,500kg dry weight will help that, though don't bank on being able to run down the strip too often - the maximum range is only quoted as 300km. Still, that could be for the best, given that there's no storage space beyond the glovebox.
As for the styling, Yoshida has suggested the front end has been designed to be menacing, with the tail lights resembling a "smug grin" as you out-accelerate all around. The inside ticks many of the concept car boxes, with screens in place of rear-view mirrors, a flat-bottomed wheel smothered in buttons and a fantastically impractical white leather interior.
While Aspark is aiming for 50 Owl customers, there's still a lot to be decided before deliveries in 2020. The Paris show car is just a shell, for example, with the functioning prototype still in Japan. The powertrain isn't fully completed yet either, with the engineers apparently still deciding on some details. Like how many motors to use...
One or two things to be ironed out, then. What has been finalised, though, is the Aspark's price: €3.1m, with non-refundable €1m deposits being invited at the show - despite no member of the public having driven the car yet. 'Ambitious' is what the Aspark project might best be described as then, but who knows what could happen in the automotive world over the next 18 months, perhaps the Owl will manage to turn more heads than we think.
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