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The team behind the McRae Enduro cross-country rally car has confirmed its intention to turn its new 240bhp competition special into “the world’s first fully-fledged sports car for offroading”, by putting it into series production for use both on and off the road, within the next three years.
The pictures in our gallery have come from them this morning. They provide a very early indication of what the finished road-going version of the Enduro – the Super Sports Utility Vehicle, or SSUV – will look like. They show a car very close in concept and appearance to the Baja racer that’ll form the basis of a new one-make rally series in 2008.
The SSUV will use the same tubular steel body construction as the Enduro, and many of the same mechanicals. It’ll have a two-plus-two cabin seating format and full time four-wheel drive. Once a production partner has been found and a deal set up, the McRaes hope to build them in volume, mostly for export to developing markets and to the Middle East, where dirt roads are more common.
And the price? It’s unconfirmed at the moment, but expect it to be much less than the 150,000 Euros of the competition car.
The McRae’s next big project
“We always planned a production offroad sports car,” Enduro engineer Barry Reynolds said. “Even today, 83 per cent of the planet’s roads are dirt roads with loose surfaces, and we think there’s huge market potential, in places like Russia, India, China and the Middle East, for an offroad-style sports car built to exploit those roads.”
“It wasn’t until we’d come so far during the development of the rally car that we realised that we already had the ideal basis for it. We’ve done 10,000km of development on the Enduro to date. Nearly 30 customers have already driven it, and most agree that it’s unusually quiet, comfortable and civilised for a competition rally car."
"We’re pretty sure that, by adding some sound-proofing and a proper cabin, and by altering the packaging slightly, we can turn the Enduro into a production-feasible sports car.”
"The car will be available with both petrol and diesel power; diesel first. In broad terms we are talking about around 350bhp of power, 550lb ft or torque, and a kerbweight of around 1550kg."
“We hope to have a prototype on the road within a year.”
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