New Zealand-based company Supercars Limited has released these sneak pictures of its proposed 450bhp Hulme.F1 road car. Named after New Zealand’s 1967 Formula 1 championship winner Denny Hulme, the car has been under development for two years and the makers say that the first full-size prototype is currently under construction and will be unveiled in 2005.
According to Jock Freemantle, managing director of Supercars, the idea was to create a car ‘that would give the driver the feeling of driving an F1 car on the road’.
The Hulme.F1 is powered by a 450bhp BMW V8 engine from the previous M5. It’s mounted longitudinally behind the cabin and hooked up to a specially-engineered six-speed transaxle with a sequential gearchange.
Combining a carbonfibre monocoque and tubular chassis, it’s 4.6m long and weighs in at 1175kg. There’s no news on the potential performance of the car, but the company said it has been engineered to meet European regulations and has already undergone crash testing.
The design is being co-ordinated by Tony Parker, a professor of industrial design. The planned production run is 500-700 cars at a rate of 100-150 per year.
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