Marussia supercar in the blocks

The country's first high-performance sports car will be ready by the middle of this year as the company involved, Marussia, accelerates plans for production of 10,000 cars a year in the sports car and SUV classes. Marussia is a youthful start-up company staffed mostly by 20-something design and computer boffins in Moscow, but it is tapping a range of British companies - including Formula One engine supplier, Cosworth - for leading-edge components.

Apart from performance, the man behind the Marussia brand says the company's point-of-difference in a crowded sports car sector is advanced computer technology. He promises everything from direct internet access with Skype to six onboard cameras and a giant dashboard display, with hopes for a pop-out steering column - which is hidden behind the dash while the car is stopped - in a future model.

"Marussia from Russia is strange, but I am absolutely serious. The design is absolutely futuristic," Nikolay Fomenko tells Carsguide at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where his company is one of the backers of the all-new Virgin F1 team.

"This is not like the old Russian cars. It is like a modern Lamborghini. It's good quality, not top quality, but still good quality. We work very fast because this is young people. We are not afraid of a mistake. The design is absolutely futuristic and a free design."

Fomenko has already built 20 running prototypes of his $150,000 B- Series sports car, a two-seater with 270 kiloWatts and a 0-100km/h sprint time of 4.5 seconds, but he is not stopping there. Even before the car is displayed for sale in Monaco in May he is talking about an SUV and an electric car, both to be into the prototype stage before the end of 2010.

"We need to make the car, not the money. Just now we want to make the cars," he says. Fomenko bubbles with excitement and it is backed with surprising experience, as the 47-year-old has raced around the world and even driven across the heart of Australia in an Audi. His company is completely privately financed, not driven by new money from the collapse of the USSR. "There is a big future in Russia," he says.

The B-Series car is built from aluminium and steel, with carbon fibre body panels. It is relatively conventional for a mid-engined go-fast car, apart from tapping Cosworth and using a high-tech robotised six- speed manual gearbox.

"It's a real engine from Cosworth. It's a first for the road. We had a three-hour meeting in Paris and the deal is done. The powerplant is a 2.8-litre turbo and there are plans for other designs in future.
Fomenko believes there is no limit on the potential for Marussia because Russians have been starved of locally-made cars. He wants to use the B-Series cars as a spearhead before building serious sales with SUVs, which are massively popular in Russia.

He is also promising value prices, although he refuses to discuss the bottom line in Bahrain. "I can't say now. But people tell me 'I don't believe you'," Fomenko says. "Our company is not the biggest, but our ambition after five years is 10,000 cars. But this is not only in Russia, it is outside as well."