Barnard Endurance Racer Prototype: the new home-built supercar
By Andrew C., 30 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
A new car called Barnard is being finished up in South Africa (Perana Z-One by Zagato is also from South Africa) just outside Bloemfontein. The name may not get one all excited but it will certainly match the performance of some of the finest brands in Europe.
The Barnard was conceived, designed and produced in South Africa and comes with an acceleration rate of 0-100km/h in under four seconds and moves on to attain a maximum speed of more than 300km/h. There are also plans to make a variant that will bump top speed to 400km/h, but performance is not attained in a straight line. The mind behind the car belongs to Chris Barnard, who has a true passion for endurance racing and always envision making a race car the Le Mans style. More details and photos after the jump!
As such the Barnard does not come with power steering, vacuum-assisted or anti-lock brakes, traction control and power windows. It comes, however, with a monocoque chassis made from advanced steels and a body built almost entirely out of composite materials. Assisting performance is a number of aero enhancements with a flat undertray, rear air diffuser, and remarkable cutouts in the wheel arches at the front. The arrangement of the chassis has been designed to look like that of the original Porsche 962 and its powerplant option, a twin-turbocharged V8, also comes from Porsche.
Considerable modified inside and out, the Porsche powerplant is rated at about 617hp (460kW) but that figure can still be bumped appreciably prior to production. The Barnard, unlike other well-know and established brands, can be built to suit the customer's specifications based on the powertrain. The car was built to go with most overhead camshaft V8s made by the luxury brands of Europe. The work on the Barnard is still ongoing, bit delivers should be here by the middle of this year and expected pricing will be around $110,000.
Latest Auto Shows
