1971, a year when India was fighting the Bangladesh war, a youngster by the name of Gerald Wiegart, fresh from college teamed up with a man named Lee Brown to create a design house called Vehicle Design Force. The first car that they conceptualized and built was called The Vector. The first Vector was just a body without an engine. It was announced that the Wankel engine from the Mercedes-Benz C111 would be used in the car. Although the car appeared in Motor Trend after its debut, it was never seen on the roads since.

7 years later, Wiegart conceptualized the W2. Like the Vector, this car was also immobile when it debuted at the auto show in 1978. He got the car running only in 1979. In its entire lifespan, it got 100,000 miles on its odometer – the most by any concept car. The W2 was extensively tested by Motor Trend and British automotive TV show Top Gear. The Vector was able to touch a speed of 230 mph. Thus, the company received a lot of positive response from the public as well as press in the 1980’s.

1991 began the era of the Vector Aeromotive Corporation. The first car that the company produced was the W8. Few know that the production of this car began from the money Wiegart earned from suing the Goodyear Tire Company for illegally using the Vector name on one of its products. The W8 was basically a W2 re-engineered. In early 1991, 2 prototype mules of this car were made and production of the car began only in late 1991. That year, the company sold a W8 to the famous tennis player Andre Agassi. Agassi’s insistence on its early delivery resulted in its hurried assembly and delivery to Agassi with a warning not to drive it around since it wasn’t complete since it was hand built. Because of the negative publicity generated by Agassi’s cars failure and ensuing refund to him by the Vector Automotive Corporation, only 21 units of the car were sold in all.

By 1993, Vector began work on the Avtech WX-3 and its racing counterpart the Avtech WX-3R. When the Avtech debuted in 1993, Vector was bought over by an Indonesian Company MegaTech. MegaTech offered Wiegart a retirement plan and a position as a designer. He refused and was thus fired from the company. During MegaTechs administration, two unsold W8’s were destroyed and its production was stopped and the WX-3 was cancelled.

Wiegert took back all the Vector assets, including the W8 prototypes, the WX-3s, and the M12 molds. An Ohio based company called American Aeromotive bought the remains of the MegaTech which had gone bankrupt years later. The idea behind this was to restart production under the Vector banner. Since then, Wiegart renamed the company several times – Avtech Motors, Vector Supercars and then Vector Motors – but neither he nor American Aeromotive produced cars. Though the SRV8 (Whose production began under the MegaTech banner) was completed by them, the public reaction was negative owing to its similarities with the M12 (another car whose production began under the MegaTech banner.) and Top Gear calling it the worst car ever made.

Vector Motors was created with the intention of finding America’s answer to Lamborghini and Ferrari but it ended with the shutting down of the company.

-Aditya Sunilkumar

Reliant has provided design for many companies, including Autocars Ltd (Israel) and Otosan(Turkey) in 1960s and MEBEA (Greece) and Sipani Automobiles (India) in the 70s. Reliant Sabra, the sports car designed by the company for Autocars in the year 1960, was actually designed incorporating the Leslie Ballamy chassis and a modified Ashley 1172 body powered by a Ford Consul 1730cc engine. The car was manufactured for sale in America. It was a huge success in the US and lead Autocars to broaden its market to the UK as well. They changed it to a right hand drive model and renamed it ‘Sabre’, for the British. Two variants of Sabre, Sabre 4 and Sabre 6, were produced in the year 1961 and 62 respectively. In 1971, Autocars went into liquidation and thus ended the partnership between Autocars and Reliant.

Reliant Scimitar, another sports car manufactured by Reliant, has been the one model which was produced for a long time and with many variants. About 14 models were produced in the span of more than 25 years.

The company collaborated with Ford, Britain, for powerful engines for Scimitar and Sabre. Later on, Reliant absorbed Bond cars, a three-wheeler car manufacturer. They used the Bond name for the iconic three-wheeler sporty car of 1970s, Bond Bug.

Regal and Robin got its four-wheeler version built – Reliant Rebel and Reliant Kitten, in 1965 and 1975 respectively. The Kitten was superseded by Reliant Fox, a utility/pickup vehicle, was produced between 1983 and 1990. This was based on a model by Greek company MEBEA and was jointly produced by both the companies. A small three-wheeled commercial vehicle, Reliant TW9, was also produced by the company. It was later sold by other companies as Ant; to which a custom rear body was attached used by public utility companies. Production rights for Reliant Robin was sold in 2001 to Sudbury-based B&N Plastics, but the production was ceased in 2002.

The company’s expertise in composite car body production helped it produce lightweight body shells for Ford RS200 rally cars and MetroCab, a glass fibre-bodied taxi, which even had a full wheelchair provision.

Reliant mostly used the engines produced by other companies. But later, Reliant’s own engines started being used as a replacement for the Austin 7 engine in Formula 750 motor sport by the 750 Motor Club.

In 1988, the company was acquired by Beans industries, and again went into receivership in the year 1994. Reliant is owned by Glen Investments now and is working in collaboration with Piaggio and Ligier to distribute each other’s products.

- Devu Narayanan

All models produced in the Ultima range have always been primarily supplied in component form that means Ultima produces the parts required for an owner/builder to construct their cars offsite, and this is the only way to receive such a vehicle in the USA.

The Ultima GTR is described by commentators as a supercar. The car is available both in kit form and as it is assembled by the factory vehicle. It is considered to be the fastest accelerating and decelerating supercar and even the multiple world speed record holder. Its success story is that for over 20 years extensive research and development on this product was done and it took various levels of fit, finish and performance. In 2006 the GTR was tagged as the fastest production car in the world, leaving Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo and McLaren F1 behind in the field of speed acceleration and deceleration records.

The Ultima Can-Am is an outstanding convertible road car that gives ultimate performance as that of the Ultima GTR. It has been officially verified as the fastest supercar which is available anywhere in the world and today it exceeds the performance statistics of even supercars like Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo and Mclaren F1. The Can-Am has a complete range of road car options which are available for fitment which includes a fully waterproof soft top roof which has been designed so that it remains watertight even if the speed of car exceeds 200mph.The Can-Am also has interchangeable front screen options.

Lately in news it came that the Ultima GTR720 recorded a scornful 1min 9.9secs lap time, which left the previous record of 1min10.7secs behind which was set by seven-time world Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher in his popular Ferrari FXX track car. In other way we can say that the Ultima is almost 10 seconds per lap faster than the fastest road car which is Ferrari and which is renowned at £450,000 Enzo. The time was verified and recorded by Plans Motorsport using their efficient GPS DL-1 data logging equipment.

- Nitika Malhotra

Trevor Wilkinson was born on 14 May 1923 in Blackpool and left school at age of 14 with an idea to start an engineering apprenticeship at a local garage nearby. In 1946 he bought a wheelwright’s business in Blackpool and in 1947 he renamed it Trevcar Motors. He started of this with the purpose of selling and repairing the cars and light engineering.

In 1947, Trevor Wilkinson built his first car which had a special two-seater body later he with his partner Jack Pickard then started a separate company that was TVR Engineering, with a name derived from Wilkinson’s initial name – TreVoR.

From 1947-1965 founder of the company was Trevor Wilkinson but in 1962 he left. From 1965-1981 the company was taken care by Martin Lilley but later on from1981-2004 it was handed over to Peter Wheeler and lastly from 2004 till present, Nikolay Smolensky is successfully handling the company .

On 22 February 2007 it was exposed that Nikolay Smolensky is once again the owner of the company after being the highest bidder and on 28 February 2007 that was not even a week after reacquiring TVR, he reportedly announced his plans to sell the company to Adam Burdette and Jean Michel Santacreu they intended to export TVRs to the market of United States. But on 8 October 2007 it was noticed that Smolensky was still in control of the company and was in a hope to restart the production with a ultimate target of 2,000 cars which were to be sold in 2008. On 11 July 2008 it was reported to the sources that TVR announced a relaunch of the Sagaris with a new name as Sagaris 2, at its new centre near Wesham in Lancashire.

There are many models of TVR and some of them are TVR jomar, TVR Grantura I, TVR Grantura II, TVR Grantura IIa, TVR Grantura III,TVR Grantura 1800s, TVR Griffith 200, TVR Griffith 400, TVR Grantura IV 1800S, TVR Tuscan V8, TVR Tuscan, TVR Vixen, TVR Vixen S2,TVR Vixen S3, TVR Vixen 1300, TVR Vixen 2500, TVR Vixen S4, TVR 1600, TVR 2500 and the list is long but all of them are quite popular in market and latest in TVR Sagaris produced in the year 2006.

- Nitika Malhotra

In mid-2009 there was boom in market created by Tesla as they produced about 25 cars per week. The company’s first vehicle was Tesla Roadster and it was the first car which worked with lithium-ion battery cells plus it gave range greater than 200 miles that means 320 km per charge. Its base model accelerated 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.9 seconds and it is said that it is twice as energy-efficient as the Toyota Prius according to the environmental analysis done by Tesla Motors. Till September 2009 Company delivered more than 700 Roadsters to customers in the United States and Europe.

The Tesla Model S is a new model which was launched on March 26, 2009. Almost 1,500 reservations for Tesla Model S have been done and its production is expected in late 2011 for the 2012 model-year. The company is named after electrical engineer and physicist called Nikola Tesla who basically invented the AC induction motor.

Recently in August Tesla disclosed about its plan to move its corporate headquarters and even to build a powertrain development facility at 3500 Deer Creek Road, in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto. Electric vehicle components for Tesla and even for other automakers, which includes Germany’s Daimler, which uses Tesla’s battery packs and chargers for an upcoming electric version of its Smart city car will produce the powertrain facility. Initially the numbers of employees were about 350 employees who were based at the Stanford site, but the number increased by 300 that is making it 650.It is said that Stanford Research Park is also home to Facebook, Hewlett Packard, Xerox PARC and other Silicon Valley companies.

Tesla puts a plan forward to build a Model S assembly plant in California with a annual output of 20,000 sedans using approximately $365 million in federal low-interest loans. But till date there is no confirmation of location given. Tesla motors said it will soon develop a Brownfield site on the existing industrial property that is a preference of the federal government by approving candidates for interest-bearing loans from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program.

In Europe Tesla’s headquarters are in Windsor, UK. According to the sources the model Roadster’s chassis is currently being assembled by the contract manufacturing division of Lotus Cars in Hethel, England. The Roadster is said to be longer and wider as compared to the Lotus Elise. In June 2009, Tesla inaugurated its first store in Europe which was a showroom located in central London’s Knightsbridge district and in September 2009, Tesla opened its first store in continental Europe which was a showroom in downtown Munich. Tesla also has plans to open an upcoming store in Monaco in late 2009.

- Nitika Malhotra

The body and interior of Car are a mix of aluminum and carbon fiber on the other hand, the twenty inch wheels are a mix of carbon fiber and magnesium. The suspension is a double wishbone suspension. If the two seat option is chosen then the passenger sits directly behind and little higher than the driver. The bonnet badge is firmly made of solid white gold.

As its cost is very expensive only 12 a year are manufactured, Tramontana launched a closed top model named Tramontana R in 2009. Tramontana Chassis 100% carbon fiber and it’s for the first time that street sports car (tramontana) resembles like Formula 1. It is the first time in the market that a sports car has been incorporated a 100 % carbon fiber monocoque chassis which is inspired in the design of a Formula 1 and it is manufactured with the same criteria plus in addition it guarantees a high protection for its passengers.

It has Engine, in the competition to the asphalt, the Engine is12 cylinder in V 60º biturbo with intercooler and Power Selector 550 Hp – 404 kW to 5.000 rpm and 720 Hp – 529 kW to 5.750 rpm. The Car body, its beauty and its functionality are outstanding. All the pieces of the Tramontana car body are also elaborated in carbon fiber and it assures the maximum lightness of the vehicle with a total amount of weight of 1.250 kg. In the car Suspensions are there plus balance between sportsmanship and comfort level is present.

Tyres in this car are Rear: 335/30R20″ (Y) and Front: 245/35R20″ (Y).The Steering is very smooth. Even the steering column with double cardan system is very adjustable in reach and can easily be lifted up and permits the drivers to adapt the driving position according to their choice.

There is Ensured safety in this car. Tramontana got Crash Test done and it is said that the Tramontana emphasizes plus offers a double security. It is ensured due to the structure of the car. The Tramontana has three possible regulations in it that is Standard, Obstacle, Sport Kit: 85 mm, 130 mm and 50mm with respectively. Its Fuel capacity is of 100 liters and its Luggage is of 55 liters.

- Nitika Malhotra

Superformance a Hi-Tech Automotive transferred its ownership in December, 2005 to another company named Hillbank Automotive Group, which is privately owned by Lance Stander, current CEO of Superformance. In Port Elizabeth, South Africa All Superformance cars are originally built at Hi-Tech Automotives 270,000-square-foot that is around 25,000 m2 plant before they are disassembled for shipping.

Superformance has many of its model’s which are very successful. Superformance MkIII is one of their classic models at the Scarsdale Concours. It is basically the replica of the third generation 427 Shelby Cobra and it is available in both semi-competition and street roadster body styles. The SPF MkIII is sold in bulk and it gives lot of sales to the company.

The SPF MkIII is also built under the license from Carroll Shelby. When the Customer purchases a MkIII the product has a complete rolling chassis which only requires an engine with accessories, transmission, drive shaft and various hoses, nuts and bolts to complete. MkIII have capacity of 351 Windsor and has Ford base engines. The MkIII is different from most of the other Cobra replicas because it consist of 100% new parts and not decades or old and rebuilt items.

Superformance Daytona Coupe was made in Chicago and is originally known as the “SPF Brock Coupe” and it is said that it is a replica of the 1965 FIA GT World Championship-winning Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. The SPF Coupe was designed by Peter Brock and he only designed the original Daytona Coupe for the Shelby American.

From 2003 to 2009 the production of Superformance Daytona Coupe took placed, but recently it has been discontinued and currently Several modifications were made to the car and it is now being sold with a slight change in the name that is Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe (CSX9000 series) by authorized Shelby Automobile dealers. Like other Superformance replica’s, the CSX9000 coupe is also available with either a fiberglass or an aluminum body. The Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe is also licensed by Carroll Shelby and each vehicle’s registry is recorded in the account.

The Superformance GT40 is Superformance is the newest model and it is the first superformance model to be built replicas of the famous Ford GT40 MkII and even the Superformance GT40 is an authorized continuation series which is licensed by Safir Spares LLC. Corvette Grand Sport continuation series which came in 2009 Jan was also successful. One of its former models is Superformance S-1 roadster was produced till end of March 2004 after the production of 56 cars.

- Nitika Malhotra

No wonder then that GSM stands for Glass Sport Motors, referring to its fiberglass body. Glassport Motor Company (GSM) was a South African automobile manufacturer situated in Cape Town during the years 1958 to 1964 and famous for its originals: GSM Dart and GSM Flamingo.

A tiny Sports car that entered the racing world way before it should have, GSM Dart first broke cover towards the end of 1957. Although its origins can be traced back to South Africa, the car’s form, structure and design were styled by Verster de Wit in England. Once the production was set-up in Cape Town, South Africa, it was also exported to England. It used different engines including the Coventry Climax and Ford Anglia 100E and 105E units. The Darts had a fiberglass two seat body which was open. A hardtop which had a reverse slanted rear window was later available. This design was later adopted by Fords too.

While the manufacturers were delighted that the Dart was so successful in competition with its predecessor GRP Protea, they couldn’t help but notice that GSM Dart was largely seen as a racing car. To counter this image, they planned a revised version of the Dart, called the Flamingo.

The Dart was out-sold by the considerably heavier Flamingo. The Flamingo’s greater popularity was due to its beautiful shape and much more luxurious specification.
But on the racetrack it was the Dart that stole the show and won races at Silverstone in England, and in Europe. In fact, Dart was so good that it was winning even in the 1980s. Roddy Turner, a famous racer, used a later Levy Dart to win in the Western Province Clubmans Championship.

The Levy Dart was a regeneration of the original car in the 1980s by Jeff Levy and the late Verster de Wit. Very similar to the original Dart in terms of engineering and structure, the Levy Dart had a few modern touches. In the 1990’s, a more loosely accurate replica under the guise of the Hayden Dart was manufactured. These are still being made.

A remarkable percentage of the GSM cars still survive. Considering how long it has been since these came into production, this only speaks for the quality and class that was GSM!

- Nikita Sarin

With the exhibition of the first Vertigo prototype at the 71st Brussels Auto Show in January 1992 and a display at the Paris and Geneva car shows in 1993, this power packed machine had won the hearts of many admirers. A second prototype and a production car followed. The chassis of the production Vertigo was fabricated in carbon fibre and honeycomb materials, saving in chassis weight and insuring greater stiffness and strength. More fluid lines with higher side windows and retractable headlights were added in the body.

Most of us are likely to come across a Gillet Vertigo only in racing games of the order of Gran Turismo, but it does exist in the real world and has a similar record pace and style. Gillet has recently introduced a new version of the car called the Vertigo 5 some 15 years later at the same show as it was launched. Light as a feather, this new baby is powered by a big 4.0L version of Alfa Romeo’s V6, that propels this regal race car to 60 mph in just 3.26 seconds. It is expected to cost €135,000 when it goes on sale.

Philippe Streiff, a former Formula One racing driver who is handicapped after an accident in 1989 is known to have bought a Gillet Vertigo which was slightly revised to be joystick-controlled and given an automatic transmission. The racing version of the Gillet, The Gillet Vertigo Streiff, was named after him and is vastly used in motorsports.

Almost everything in the car is through and through original Vertigo. Windows are specially produced for this car. Doors, lights and the dash-board are exclusively made for the Gillet Vertigo. Keeping with its style, every Vertigo is 100% man-made. Once a purchase is made, everything, including the seats, is customized for the buyer!

The “Butterfly” doors of the Gillet Vertigo open with an effortless single push. Once opened, you get the view of the most elegant and carefully crafted interiors. It is fitted with excellent leather ‘racing’ seats that aid a comfortable position while driving the car. The steering wheel is on the lines of an F1 steering wheel. Through the steering wheel one can get a good overview of the dashboard and also all the information one could hope for.

The colours of the interior are well chosen. A blend of white with grey leather gives a sober and stylish mood to the interior. To top it all, this roadster offers an unbelievable boot of 130 dm3.

What one can surely say from Gillet’s impressive styling and aggressive stance is that the Gillet machines are designed to WIN races.

- Nikita Sarin

Aetek AS is one of the leading car manufacturers in Norway that engages in concept development, innovation management, creative communication, design, engineering, prototype production, project management, research and development for international clients in the technology and energy sectors.

As a principal sponsor and fuel-supplier of FYK, Statoil’s commitment to FYK is in conjunction with its involvement in testing eco-friendly fuels for the future. According to Statoil, naturalhy can be regarded as “a bridge-builder in the transition from use of gas as a fuel to use of pure hydrogen”. Hence, the launch of FYK was made to coincide with the opening of Norway’s first hydrogen/NaturalHy/natural gas filling station in Forus, Stavanger by Statoil.

With an efficient engine that burns and utilises all the oxygen in the exhaust gases, FYK is powered by a fuel comprising of 92-80% compressed natural gas and 8-20% hydrogen. The hydrogen mixed in the natural gas makes it possible to run the engine on a leaner mixture of fuel and air and this makes it a better fuel than pure natural gas. It not only contributes to lower emissions, but also helps to make the vehicle more fuel efficient. Another benefit of HCNG is that it is relatively cheaper than petrol and diesel.

Thus, HCNG is less harmful to the environment than the existing fuel options. Electric vehicles do produce lesser waste (in fact, none at all) than a HCNG-powered car, but they cannot be called good substitutes for conventional cars yet, partly because of the limited range of such fuelling. What makes the use of HCNG as a fuel very convenient is that it requires only minor adaptations of the existing internal combustion engines. This means that a HCNG-driven motor that provides minimal emissions still runs smooth and fast.

FYK’s body- exterior, chassis, motor, wheels, suspension and even the interior – is made up entirely of recyclable Aluminum. This further adds to its pro-environment charm. The entire designing and structuring of the interior and the exterior shows unique surface treatments and aluminum-shaping techniques.

Using a perfect blend of breakthrough technology and sensible ideas, through FYK, Norway has given the world a taste of what future cars will or indeed SHOULD be.

- Nikita Sarin