Ascari Woos Buyers with 'Race Resort'

By Feann Torr - 26/10/04

It's official - supercars are big business. Take British supercar maker Ascari, for instance.

It now offers buyers of its KZ-1 models a single days worth of circuit driving on its privately owned luxury race track resort in the south of Spain - the first resort of its kind.

And if you like the race resort, you can even take up a full membership for just £100,000 (about $A246,000) and have your carbon-fibre supercar stored there all year round, rocking up whenever you feel like putting in a few hot laps.

But before you even have a chance to look at the exclusive Ascari club swimming pool, you must first fork over a healthy six figure sum for one of its cars, which includes the KZ-1.

The KZ-1 is built using a 'tub-central' carbon honeycomb monocoque chassis, complete with a carbon composite honeycomb front crash structure. This not only ensures a light weight, but impressive torsional rigidity as well, and together with the smooth styling, it offers superior aerodynamics.

The Ascari KZ-1 is quite a small supercar, measuring 4.3 metres long, 1.85 metres wide and just over 1.1 metres tall. The car weighs 1100kg, which, when combined with a Hartge tuned BMW 5.0-litre V8 engine, results in supercar levels of acceleration. Which is quite fitting really.

This BMW-sourced 4941cc 8-cylinder engine sits behind the driver in the mid-mount position, gifting the car with an optimum front:rear weight distribution, and its low ride height helps improve its centre of gravity.

Driving through a 6-speed sequential transmission, the 5.0-litre V8 has been tuned to dish out 388kW or 520hp @ 7000rpm, fulfilling that supercar requirement of high revability that many enthusiasts crave.

Peak torque of 550Nm @ 4500rpm ensures that the rear wheel drive super can sprint from rest to 100km/h in the Lambo-quick time of 3.8 seconds. Furthermore, it will do the 0-160km/h dash in less than 10 seconds - 9.1 seconds to be precise - and has a top speed of 319km/h, or just under the Imperial double ton - 200mph.

The Ascari KZ-1 will dispatch the quarter mile in a claimed 11.8 seconds @ 196km/h (122mph), which in anyone's book is pretty bloody quick.

And if the abovementioned stats mean little to you, let's just say the Ascari is one of the quickest vehicles money can buy.

To balance up its devastating acceleration, the KZ-1 gets a race-bred braking package that is comprised of AP Racing 6-piston calipers up front and and 4-piston calipers on the rear, clamping massive cross-drilled and ventilated discs all round.

High levels of grip are possible thanks to massive 19-inch alloy rims, shod with 235/35 rubber up front and wide 305/30 low profile tyres at the rear.

The interior of the car has leather Recaro sport seats and a Connelly leather dashboard, though if it's interior space you're after, you may want to look elsewhere - perhaps one of those Porsche Cayenne's or maybe even Volkswagen's new 12-cylinder Touareg.

Supercars are all about performance, about shaving one thousandth of a second off your personal best lap times, and as a result of this intense pursuit of performance, to be the quickest, no comprises are made for interior space. If an average-sized person can wedge themselves in the cockpit, then its a supercar mission accomplished.

As well offering all the usual supercar goodies, such as carbon fibre 'tub', a screaming mid-mounted V8 engine and an exotic interior, the Ascari KZ-1 also offers buyers the chance to join a very special club, and as more mainstream car manufacturers enter the supercar market at lower prices, the smaller, more traditional supercar makers have had to offer that extra something to stay competitive.

Buying a supercar in the 21st century is unlike buying any other car today. Sure, you get a vehicle that will (most of the time) go down in the annals of motoring history as a ludicrously powerful road car wrapped in a lightweight carbon fibre body, and that many will refer to as a "work of art".

But the number of supercar makers today vying for the executive dollar is increasing rapidly, and in a bid to woo would-be road warriors, these supercar makers are increasingly offering more bang for your buck, with accompanying lifestyle vehicles like Porsche's Cayenne, track days with racing celebrities, extensive service and after sales support and now you can add race resorts to the list as well, which is exactly what Ascari hopes will tempt buyers to southern Spain.