Matt Prior
Walk 10m barefoot over Lego? He will if…
If Milan sells 99 cars at £1.8m each, I will walk 10 metres barefoot across Lego
I’ve had emails from one or two of you agreeing that the ideal sports car I described in the 25 July issue – a two-seat coupé as compact as a Toyota GT86, and not much more powerful, but with a front-mounted 3.0-litre V12 engine – sounds like something you’d also like to drive.
Disappointingly, however, no offers for me to become the CEO of a company creating this £200,000 (before options) masterpiece have been forthcoming. Which is a pity. I’d have taken COO. Head of engineering. Head of dynamics, design, catering... whatever, really.
Such is – genuinely – the respect I have for anybody who tries to build a new sports car. It’s a more noble career than writing about them, certainly. But nevertheless, with a heart that I fear is heavy rather than full of beans, I need to tell you more about the Milan Red, the Austrian 1325bhp hypercar that intends to show the world what Austrian companies are capable of. Some of them are pretty good at Photoshop, clearly. But beyond that, Austrian companies have given us Red Bull and Swarovski, Spar and KTM. This is a country I’m confident already knows about highly profitable syrupy drinks, glass, and convenience minimarkets. Plus motorcycles and niche sports cars.
The Milan Red is an example of the latter. Milan says that it’ll weigh 1300kg, will get from zero to 62mph in 2.47sec and go on to 249mph. Milan will sell 99 of them at around £1.8 million each. If it is or does all of these things, I will walk 10 metres barefoot across Lego.
It is possible to get 1325bhp from the quad-turbocharged 6.2-litre V8 engine Milan proposes to use. People in the US do it for giggles, mostly with off-the-shelf parts. But given this 6.2-litre V8 presumably won’t come from Austria, I don’t know how that’s of particular benefit to the country’s reputation.
The rest of the statistics are harder to digest. Some cars can have this much power and weigh just 1300kg, but they would be dragsters. A Bugatti Chiron makes this kind of power, and such are its cooling demands that it weighs two tonnes.
The Red is said to have a tub and suspension made from carbonfibre, which would help, no doubt, but also active aerodynamics and four turbochargers. The Mclaren Senna’s dry weight is 1198kg. Adding two turbos, 2.2 litres and the cooling required for an additional 500bhp sounds like more than 102kg to me.
No rear-drive road car, meanwhile, goes from zero to 62mph in 2.47sec. And why 2.47sec, precisely? Not ‘under 2.5’ or ‘about 2.5’? Somebody has gone away with a spreadsheet and done some calculations, and they are wrong. It’s possible to achieve 250mph with that kind of power; bagsy not being the one trying it.
But the thing about this all is the money. Bugatti will spend well over £1bn engineering and producing the Chiron, it’s a rolling laboratory for new production, aerodynamic, materials and cooling technology and even then the VW Group, with all of its engineering (if not moral) integrity took some serious convincing that it’d be worthwhile. The Veyron had cost it lots of money.
I’d love to be wrong. I’d love the Red to become more than what looks like a model with no interior. And for these noble, brave spirits to win. The Lego awaits.