Is it a car, a plane or a motorbike? We're not quite sure, but its maker claims that it's a bit of all three; you're looking at the Acabion GTBO, a motorbike-engined, aeroplane-inspired 'vehicle'. A peculiar mix of Swiss and British engineering, Italian design and American dragster components, it’s the creation of Swiss engineer Dr Peter Maskus.Underneath the ultra-streamlined carbonfibre body is a 1.3-litre Suzuki Hayabusa motorbike engine, with a turbocharger and strengthened internal components made by US hot-rod builders. Acabion claims it can produce up to 700bhp, and is capable propelling the GTBO to speeds of up to 342mph.And it’s a hybrid. Two small electric motors take over to propel the car when parking or manouevring at low speeds, although they don’t contribute to powering the car at higher speeds. The whole thing weighs 370kg unladen, which helps to give the car another remarkable set of figures – fuel consumption of just 70.62mpg at 62mph. Equally remarkable is the proposed price: if you want one of the 26 cars Acabion says it will produce between now and 2011, it will cost you £1,260,000. For more information, visit acabion.com.
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