You might mistake it for a particularly complex Lego set, but this is actually the GTM 40TR, a road-legal track car which should be on our roads this July. GTM, a small Midlands-based sports car manufacturer, is producing the car to celebrate its 40th anniversary. And it's just announced that it'll get even more power than we'd thought.
In January GTR introduced the 40TR, a featherweight two-seater with an extruded aluminium spaceframe and a rear-mounted engine. Back then the plan was to bolt a lightly overhauled 2.0-litre four-pot into it, donated by Honda's Civic Type-R, and serving up 220bhp. Considering the car's 650kg kerb weight, that was deemed to be enough power at the time.
However, in response to customers requesting more urge, GTM have worked up a new turbocharged, 300bhp version of the 40TR, giving it 460bhp per tonne. It is expected to get to 60mph in 3.5 seconds and have a top speed of 150mph.
This positions it firmly as a competitor to the Ariel Atom Supercharged, which uses the same motor, albeit with a different form of induction. However, GTM's plan is to sell the car for around £15,000 - a third of the Atom's price - and there's also the potential to run the car on biofuel for even more power.
With the equally obscure, Atom-rivalling KTM X-Bow also in its final stages of development and the awesome Caparo T1 due soon too, anyone craving a car with minimal bodywork and a ridiculous power-to-weight ratio should be spoilt for choice this summer.
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