Vemac - RD180

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Vemac - RD180

[July 01 2002]

I'm not entirely sure what a 'neo-historic sports racing car' is meant to be, but it sounds a right laugh. Apparently an example of such a thing has been built, raced (and named) in Japan, a '60s-inspired creation called the Cadwell. Now we're about to get a neo-historic sports road car of our own. It's partly based on the Cadwell, it's badged a Vemac RD180 and it's been developed (and will be built in Britain) by the team of engineers who previously brought us the Rocket.

The latter, if you can't remember, was a supremely exciting, bike-engined sports car that looked like a single-seater racer and was designed by Gor 24124s1824y don Murray, also responsible for the McLaren F1. Priced new at £44,000 10 years ago, it remained strictly a toy for toffs. The Vemac RD180 is also set to cost £44,000, spookily enough. It will at least provide its owners with a little more metal and glass fibre for their money, looking like the long, wide and very low love offspring of a last-shape Lotus Elise and a Ferrari 250LM.

Initial impressions suggest that the RD180 is a fixed-roof coupe, but in truth it has a hard top that is easily detachable via four latches to transform it into a roadster.

And it's worth doing - climbing in with the roof on involves hoiking a leg over the huge sill, keeping squashables away from the low-set Momo steering wheel, avoiding the gearlever in front and the fire extinguisher behind, then slipping down into the love-handle-squashing Kevlar bucket seat, whilst pondering what to do with your other leg.

Turn the key and the engine whirs away, just a few centimetres behind the occupants' backsides. It's mid-mounted to provide a 47 per cent front/53 per cent rear weight distribution. At present the Vemac gets a 1.8-litre, variable-valve-timing-equipped, four-cylinder Honda engine producing 180bhp, borrowed from a Japanese-spec version of the Integra coupe. A future possibility is the manic two-litre engine from the S2000, serving up a less moderate 237bhp.

My neo-historic sports road car driving moment has arrived. A hefty thunk is required to engage first in this final pre-production RD180's five-speed gearbox, which, by the way, you will confusingly find mounted up on the right-hand sill. The Cadwell's was there, so this car's is too, apparently. I swiftly find myself getting over the urge to grapple for my passenger's limbs in search of a shifter that isn't there.

The open, surprisingly traffic-free roads of north Essex await. A dose of acceleration is accompanied by the scream of a Stuka diva bomber coming at us from the skies overhead, produced by the straight-cut gears fitted to our example (not set to be standard on production versions). Trailing along behind is a refreshingly rorty exhaust rasp.

Weighing in at 940kg due to standard-fit niceties such as aircon, a CD player and electric windows, the RD180 proves quick, if not stonkingly rapid. The engine is smooth and rev-happy in its power delivery, without the frenetic peakiness I'd initially expected.

It's in the corners that the greatest fun can be had. Underneath are unequal length double wishbones, attached to a tubular chassis framework and matched to adjustable shock absorbers. Power is distributed to the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential.

There's next to no body roll and nasty road imperfections are kept well smothered. Traction is excellent, while grip levels are so high that frankly loopy speeds can be carried at most times. The steering helps, being well weighted, swift and informative.

The brakes are also monumentally effective. Cross-drilled, ventilated discs are fitted all round, with AP Racing four-piston calipers at the front and two-piston calipers at the rear. A TVR Tuscan is vastly more accelerative, but the RD180 will stick right up its chuff over a challenging, twisty road.

It's deeply impractical, but this is an uncommonly well sorted, exciting car to drive. With production set to move at Wembley stadium-like pace, it lays on big grins that only two customers a month will get to savour - for the price, Vemac will struggle to shift more.

The trouble is this mag has a long history of becoming rather over-enthused about the next radical specialist sports car to come along, only for its maker to instantaneously go belly up. So I'd better throw a precautionary 'it's awful, actually' in the Vemac's direction and hope that it doesn't disappear off into obscurity like our previously-recommended favourites, the Tomita Tommy Kaira, the Modulo, the Lea Francis, the Dare DZ, the Quantum and the Strathcarron.

VERDICT:

Expensive but great to drive and more exclusive than a Maybach