A look at Mexico’s own supercar: The Vuhl 05

When we hear of Mexican car manufacturing we think of their workforce producing for the big players like Volkswagen, Chevrolet and Nissan. However, a new homegrown automaker aims to make a name for the country by manufacturing their own premium lightweight sports car.

Meet the Vuhl 05, an aggressive, barebones open-cockpit racer. Pronounced “Vool” it stands for Vehicles of Ultra-High performance and Lightweight. It’s a brand new road car built by the Echeverria brothers and designed to take on the likes of the Arial Atom and BAC Mono.

Typical of a sports car like this, weight is a significant factor in keeping the vehicle nimble in and out of corners. With this in mind, the engineers took on a barebones design approach. It features an all-aluminum monocoque and full carbon fibre body bringing the overall weight to a staggering 695kg.

Under the hood is a 2.0-litre Ford EcoBoost motor producing 212kW (285hp) and 420Nm of torque, it channels power to the wheels via a 6-speed manual gearbox. Thanks to its lightweight chassis, the vehicle’s power to weight ratio becomes an incredible 306kW per tonne. Vuhl claims the 05 will sprint to 100km/h in a low 3.7 seconds with a top speed of 245km/h.

Mounted between the seats, is a small HD video camera enabling the driver to record any spur of the moment spirited driving. Activating the camera is as simple as hitting the dash mounted record button. Retrieving the video is just as easy, plug in a memory stick and it will download the footage.

Preorders started late 2014 with the first batch of vehicles delivered to customers recently. The company reports a flurry of positive feedback from owners and media alike. Vuhl aim to produce 100 vehicles per year at a starting price of $114,000 AUD.