Here at zerotohundred.com we don’t just like cars that go fast, but we’re completely obsessed with cars that are insanely fast but yet economical to run and environmentally friendly. That’s why you’re reading about a car that you have never heard of before simply because it’s worth mentioning here on zerotohundred.com.
Weighing in at a featherly 700kg, IFR, the award winning Spanish automotive design and technology company that built the Aspid also equipped their ‘luxury’ sportscar with features that use modern technology to save fuel and CO2 and runs throughout the chasis, suspension, brakes and electrical system.
Powered by a 2 liter supercharged engine that is good for a total of 400hp, the Aspid can easily take on a Bugatti or Koenigsegg in a century sprint, which it easily demolishes in 2.8 seconds and goes on to 160km/h in 5.9 seconds. If that is too wild to you or your wife feels she could be widowed faster than what she is comfortable with, there is a detuned version churning out 270hp that is good for a 3.7 second century sprint.
The Aspid is also very compact – with a wheelbase smaller than a city car – and cleverly packaged to accommodate even the tallest driver and passenger. Despite its size, the fully enclosed two-seater is comprehensively equipped and as far removed from being a ‘stripped down to the bare essentials’ track-day special that you could possibly imagine, which its performance figures would also suggest. It is first and foremost a premium sportscar designed for the road.
Underpinning its massive weight saving is an ultra-lightweight aluminium extrusion composite panelled chassis with a mass of just 75kg. The new and innovative construction method offers up to ten times the torsional stiffness of a conventional un-panelled space-frame and enhanced crash protection.
Similarly, the car’s major innovation in its suspension is an ultra-lightweight aluminium extrusion, developed for the double wishbone system, with a special profile that provides immense stiffness and rigidity in all directions and minimises stresses under torsional, longitudinal and vertical bending loads.
The Aspid also introduces an ultra-lightweight stainless steel brake system comprised of thin twin discs each with turbine-shaped slots for maximum air cooling and braking efficiency. The design results in a low un-sprung mass and rotational inertia and a weight saving of more than 70 per cent compared with normal brake systems.
The impressive weight saving, however, doesn’t end there. Aspid features an all-new and fully-integrated electronic and electrical system developed for the whole car. The company has reduced the usual complexity of these systems by eliminating countless components, assemblies and microprocessors.
The result is a significant reduction in the weight of electrical systems and harnessing to around one-third that of current layouts with a comparable reduction in the number of microprocessors to about one for every four that would typically be specified in a modern car. IFR has achieved this without compromising the myriad tasks that need to be performed. In fact,the opposite is true and the level of functionality has actually increased.
The most noticeable change for the driver is the elimination of traditional instrumentation replaced by one or more interactive touch screens. These allow the driver to change many parameters such as the rev limit, valve timing, power output, steering assistance, ABS, noise valve, brake balance, ride height, traction and stability controls, as well as influencing the pitch, roll and yaw of the car by adjusting its damping characteristics.
For motorsport enthusiasts the system offers an in-built and extendable data logging capability, readily configured for all OBD (onboard diagnostics) and CAN (control area network) sensors with 24 analogue channels available and upwards. For the road this is complemented by GPS satellite navigation, GPRS/GSM mobile communications, motion sensing accelerometers, Wi Fi wireless technology, Ethernet interface connections, as well as touch screens for both driver and co-driver.
The system can help reconfigure the car to suit different drivers and different driving conditions and can ensure the Aspid is set-up correctly for the road or track. It can even direct the driver through a series of tests and operations that will enable it to calculate engine torque and power.
And the best thing about this car? It is as economical as you could never imagine, returning a very respectable 4.8 and 5.5 liter/100km, what more could you want from a performance car? A Ferrari? Really? You’d better start getting used to playing catch up then.
