In days of old when a car company wanted to give their cars a feel of performance or agility, they would name it after an animal, think Jaguar or Panther. Sometimes they woud use an animal as a branding design (Ferrari or Lamborghini) or name their cars after fast animals: Cobra, Mustang, Gazelle or Lynx. Then came the competition, a Mangusta (Mongoose) was the enemy of the Cobra for example. In recent years the naming has got more blunt, Ducati brought out the Monster, Zagato developed the Maserati “Il Mostro” concept and now we have a piece of one upmanship: the Rezvani Beast!
The Beast is a rare hand built supercar in the US but based on a British chassis. This is quite a common occurrence – right back to the Shelby Cobra. The Hennessy Venom is based on a Lotus – just like the Tesla Roadster was, and a Noble has been used for basis of the HVR.
Ferris Rezvani, an ex employee of Vencer who developed another supercar, the Sarthe, has built a team to develop his own special car. His father was a fighter pilot so the company emblem includes some aviation and racing themes, similar to Spyker and BMW, even the Ferrari logo is based on a fighter pilot’s personal stallion emblem.
California is a burgeoning car development and assembly State and the Rezvani is designed and built in Santa Ana. Many niche players are looking at California, possibly due to Government tax benefits.
The Car
Let’s start with the design – close your eyes and think of a futuristic sports car. That’s the Beast! It really fits with what you would expect a supercar to look like. Kudos to Samir Sadikhov, the designer, he cut his teeth at the right end designing concepts for Ferrari and Aston Martin plus some designs for Lamborghini, so he has excellent credentials. The car comes in a coupe or speedster form.
The carbon fibre design has focused on air flow with tunnels and elements that help with ground effect downforce management. High pressure air flow is used to suck heat out and to create the downforce needed for better grip and road holding.
It is powered by a K24 motor – a 2.4 litre powerplant from Honda originally found in the CRX, Acura TSX and Accord Euro models and found in the donor Ariel Atom. In it’s base form it puts out 150-200hp. Rezvani have added a Rotrex supercharger to push it to an amazing 500hp!
Rotrex is a Danish company that has developed an electrically assisted, variable speed supercharger for the Honda motor. Their claim to fame is their traction drive supercharger that uses friction between rollers rather than gears to help increase power. Caterham is another sports car company that uses Rotrex. The combination of Honda and Rotrex power combined with a 6 speed manual gives the car a fast (under 3 seconds) 0-60 mph time.
What I find interesting is that the car only has an 11 gallon (42 litre) fuel tank, given that the car has 500hp and weighs in at 750kg with lightning acceleration, you’re not going to get far on each tank – but you’ll enjoy every mile!
US$140,000 before taxes will get you into one of these cars which by comparison to other supercars is right in the market sweet spot. Rezvani will build on receipt of your order and you will be sitting in one twelve weeks later! Buying one will guarantee you exclusivity for sure.
Rezvanimotors.com. All images are owned by Rezvani.
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