Autocar, one of the UK’s best known weekly car magazines, has decided that after decades of reporting on the worlds latest and greatest sports cars, they’d have a go at developing their own. Digitally.
The Autocar BS1 (I’m not entirely sure whether the BS acronym translates quite the same in UK-english) is designed to to be an out-and-out driver’s car. The brief for the BS1 – short for British Sportscar 1 – was dreamt up by Steve Sutcliffe, Autocar’s Editor-at-large. Essentially he wanted a back-to-basics, open-top two-seater with a mid-mounted engine, rear-wheel-drive and an overall weight less than 1,000 kgs (2,200 lbs). The car was then brought to digital life by Autocar’s Picture Editor Ben Summerell-Youde.
Commenting on his creation Steve Sutcliffe said “As the world of cars gets ever more complex and produces machines that are increasingly sophisticated in their design and engineering, there’s still a desire for something at the other end of the scale. A sports car that’s simple to understand and interact with. And, most of all, dead good fun to drive.”
The spaceframe chassis is formed from a mixture of aluminium and steel. While the bodywork is constructed from a combination of fiberglass and carbon fiber.
The proposed engine is a 3.0 litre V6 turbodiesel sourced from Volkswagen. It would also have a paddle shift gearbox and no ESP. The target figures are fairly optimistic, as is normal for cars which haven’t got a hope in hell of ever making the jump to production. 250 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque will be on offer, while still returning 60mpg and only 199g/km of carbon dioxide. 0-60 mph takes just 4.5 seconds, and the top speed is 147 mph.
All-in-all it’s nice to see a car magazine which prides itself on producing unbiased and honest reviews on on everyone else’s automotive creations, taking a risk by showing what they come up with when left to their own devices. The downside is that there are a few flaws to the design. Firstly, for a car designed to be lightweight, such a wide and low stance, coupled with an open roof (requiring a more substantial chassis) would actually form quite a heavy structure. Secondly, the wrap-around windscreen, low-seating position, high doors and non-existent rear-view would offer the driver fairly limited visibility.
Even some with in Autocar’s ranks expressed doubts as to how the car would fare in the real world. Jamie Corstorphine, Autocar Features Editor, said “I’m loving the images and I’ll definitely be first in the queue if Sutcliffe’s blueprint reaches production, but he has his work cut out to meet his twin targets of 1000kg of kerb weight and a £35,000 ($56,000) price tag.”
That’s in line with our opinion. Nice pictures, nice idea, but not quite fit for the real world.
Source: Autocar
