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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Prodrive boss David Richards says his firm’s P2 sports car has proved its engineering abilities – even though the Banbury-based operation has no plans to put the two-seater into production.
The P2, which is scheduled to make its first public appearance at this weekend’s Autosport International Racing Car Show in Birmingham, is based on Subaru running gear. The size of an MGF, its 345bhp tweaked Impreza engine propels it to 174mph and from 0-60mph in just 3.8 seconds. The car also features Prodrive’s own anti-lag and active torque dynamics systems.
Richards says the project, which only received the green light in March, has been a rewarding exercise for his staff. ‘One of the P2 team’s biggest achievements, apart from meeting the schedule, has been making a car that looks right, despite all of today’s limitations,’ said Richards. ‘I’ve learned a lot about the constraints on designers in this process.’
The Peter Stevens-styled P2 is set to start testing in February but Richards insists there are no plans for a production run. ‘The idea of the P2, apart from showcasing our engineering abilities, was to demonstrate to the staff what they can achieve when they are pulling together on one project,’ he said. ‘I’m confident it has achieved that.’
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