Ascari was a British car manufacturer based in England and founded in 1994 by Dutchman Klaas Zwart, who’s a racing driver and chairman of oil and gas company Petroline. The company was named after Alberto Ascari, who won the Formula One World Championship with Ferrari in 1952 and 1953.
The FGT was a concept car created by Lee Noble in 1992, with Noble launching his own automotive company a few years later. After seeing this car at the 1995 British Motor Show, Zwart saw the potential of the model and decided to purchase the blueprints and rights for it. With Zwart’s investment, the FGT was entered into the 1996 British GT Championship and had limited success, including a win at Silverstone.
The first production car from Ascari was called the Ecosse, arriving in 1998. This car was a more road focussed version of the FGT and only 17 units were built. While the concept car and race versions of the FGT used Chevrolet and Ford V8 engines respectively, the Ecosse was the first to use a V8 engine from BMW.
Ascari continued to compete in motorsport, with the A410 LMP car powered by a Judd V10 engine achieving only one win in the 2001 European Sports Car series. An updated version of the A410, the KZR-1, had little success throughout 2002-2003.
In 2003, Ascari decided to create another road going supercar, known as the KZ1. Again, just like the Ecosse, this car was produced in low numbers, with only 50 units built. It was priced at $400,000 USD, over twice the price of the Ecosse. Powering the KZ1 was BMW’s magnificent S62 engine, that also powered the E39 M5 and Z8 roadster. The 4.9 litre naturally aspirated V8 also had an increase in power, from 294 kW to 368 kW, and the car was fitted with a six-speed manual gearbox. This resulted in a 0-100 km/h time of around four seconds and a top speed of 320 km/h. The beautifully designed KZ1 was assembled in the United Kingdom but its engine was built in Germany.
A racing version of the road car was built, called the KZ1-R GT3. Improvements over the road car included a redesigned front splitter and large rear wing to maximise downforce. A carbon fibre body and chassis aided in weight reduction, as well as a stripped-down interior. Power windows were removed, carbon fibre racing seats were added and a roll cage was fitted. The S62 engine was still used and got a bump in power to 383 kW. In 2006, the KZ1-R GT3 achieved podium places and race wins in the European GT3, British GT and European GT Open Championship.
In 2006, Ascari’s last model was produced, the A10. The car used a modified version of the carbon fibre chassis used in the KZ1-R GT3. A race ready roll cage and fire suppression system was added, and creature comforts such as air conditioning, stereo and soundproofing removed, resulting in the car only weighing 1280kg. The S62 BMW engine remained; this time tuned to 466 kW. Like the KZ1, 50 cars were scheduled to be produced, however, as the company was already struggling by this point, only a single car was produced. The cost of producing Ascari’s cars was extremely high, and Ascari unfortunately succumbed to financial pressures in 2010.
Leave a Reply