When thinking of lightweight sports cars with high power to weight ratios, manufacturers like Lotus, Caterham and Ariel spring to mind. Here in Australia, race driver Ray Vandersee designed and built the Skelta G-Force S/C, a car with an incredible power to weight ratio.
The G-Force features the same engine that was used in the Honda S2000, but it’s also mated to a Rotrex supercharger, lifting power to 230kW at 8500rpm. As the car only weighs a miniscule 725kg, the Skelta achieves 317kW per tonne. To put that into perspective, it’s well over double the power to weight ratio of my E36 BMW M3.
The lightweight nature of the car is achieved through a carbon fibre/epoxy-glass composite bodyshell and no door trims or sound deadening in the cabin. For extra body rigidity, the S/C comes standard with a half-cage and carbon-fibre windscreen surround. The 2.0 Litre four-cylinder supercharged engine sits in the front of the car, with power sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. It costs $160,000, but has ADR compliance so can be road-registered.
The 0-100km/h sprint is covered in only 3.7 seconds, with an impressive top speed of 270km/h. Other features of the car include an adjustable rear wing, 17-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, 298mm Wilwood ventilated brake discs all round with four-piston callipers and an adjustable MCA spring/shock suspension set-up. The G-Force also uses ground effects, utilising a flat undertray, which commences at the front splitter and continues to the two venturi diffusers at the rear of the car. This results in an incredible 200kg of downforce at 150km/h.
The G-Force S/C was primarily built to compete at various Targa rally events throughout Australia, with Vandersee’s main ambition to win the legendary Targa Tasmania event. At the 2009 Mt Buller Sprint, (where I took the photos of the car) Vandersee finished fourth overall, but at the 2010 Targa Tasmania, Vandersee finished second overall, only beaten by the White’s in a Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo. The Skelta also achieved success internationally, with a podium finish at the 2012 Pikes Peak International. Ray Vandersee should be admired for designing and building the Skelta G-Force; a car that proved to be more than a match for the more well-known performance cars that compete at Targa events throughout Australia.
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