Feast your eyes on F1 road car

Carmaker Hulme is expected to start production soon of a V8-powered Formula One-style mid-engined road car for Europe and the US. Australia is also on the cards if the car can be engineered to meet Australian design rules, says Hulme Supercars managing director and project co-ordinator, Jack “Jock” Freemantle.

 The company will start production of the 350km/h Commodore-sized two-seater (pictured as an artist's impression) next year, with an initial build of 25 cars a year.

Two models will be available, the Hulme coupe and the Can-Am convertible. Freemantle says the cars are aimed at the high-end market. Rivals include the 388km/h Swedish super car Koenigsegg and the Pagani Zonda.

“The car was at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed last year and created a huge amount of interest,” Freemantle says. “We've shown that car in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and we could have sold 10 cars easily straight away.”

Freemantle says he wants to plug a gap in what he calls the competitive but highly profitable super car market.

“The car we have today is the 15th incarnation of the original design,” he says. “We wanted something that redefined the super car mould.”

The Hulme is expected to cost about $745,000 and the Hulme Can-Am about $470,000.

Both models will be powered by a rear-drive BMW-sourced 5.0-litre V8 from the M5, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.

The V8 develops 410kW and considering the car weighs only 1175kg (thanks to its carbon-fibre and composite con-struction) it will deliver zero to 100km/h in 3.2 seconds. Harnessing that power is a limited slip differential. Freemantle says the idea is to make it as close to an F1 experience as possible, so the car comes with a mid-mounted engine and full carbon-fibre construction.

The company and cars are named after Kiwi Formula One racer Denny Hulme. Hulme won the 1967 world championship for Brabham. He later raced for McLaren in F1, the CAN-AM sports cars series and at Indianapolis. Hulme died after suffering a heart attack driving a BMW at Bathurst in 1992.