It’s an insane time to be alive because a Williams Advanced Engineering will now happily sell you a 2,200-horsepower, all-electric platform, called EVR, on which you can build your crazy dream car.
Years of technology projects and building Formula 1 and Formula E cars means that Williams has more than enough know-how to create a car from scratch. There is no vehicle development cycle more advanced or punishing than modern racing. And while Williams has a brand that’s historically well known for its technology, it’s not a brand that anyone would necessarily buy a car from.
It’s therefore brilliant and not at all unexpected that Williams has created a platform like the EVR to help “accelerate the ambitions of hypercar manufacturers, from start-ups to OEMs.”
There are a lot of would-be hypercar makers out there, from well-established brands like Pininfarina to upstarts like Austrian company Deus.
The stats are appropriately bonkers: 2,200 hp (well, 2,212 hp when you convert kW into hp), a sub-2.0-second 0-60 mph time, top speed of more than 248 mph, and a range beyond 279 miles. These are the kinds of numbers I’d normally ignore if it weren’t from a completely reasonable source.
If you were curious, these are basically identical to the specs of the Italdesign-penned Deus Vayanne, which is the first vehicle I know of to have the EVR underneath.
So what do you get? The EVR example shown (these can be adjusted based on what the OEM wants) shows a complete chassis with a rear/mid-mounted battery behind the passenger compartment. In this version it’s an 85 kWh battery with all the necessary management systems. Placing it behind the passengers is smart and gives it dynamics similar to most mid-engined hypercars, as opposed to a skateboard approach with batteries in the floor.
Upfront there’s a bolt-on crash module and a wicked looking pushrod suspension that’s extremely racy and F1-inspired, though the Ariel Atom and Lamborghini Aventador also use a pushrod setup.
The company says they’re offering it in various forms:
EVR can support a range of electric hypercar configurations, from track-only vehicles where power-to-weight is maximised to roadgoing models, both open-roof Targa and fixed-roof GT architectures. This is made possible by the architecture’s central tub which has been designed from day one to allow for such flexibility, including open roof design, whilst still featuring the very latest performance technology such as active aerodynamics.
Again, Williams isn’t going to have their own brand, this is just while label production work for other people who will eventually add a steering wheel made from the rarest elk foreskin, or whatever, to cover the cost. Williams says they can tool up a concept in 12 months and a production car in just two years if the checks clear.
They’re looking for partners, so all you need is a dream in your heart and probably a few million dollars in startup capital.
What would you do with such a platform? Obviously, I’ll take a 2,200-horsepower, rear-wheel drive street targa el camino please!
It’s a solid idea but how much does it cost?High-end pricing will rule out anything but low volume supercar/hypercar builders.
Maybe they can supply to ferrari or porsche for some components?
I think it’s targeted at the likes of Pininfarina, Zagato, and maybe DARTZ. Price isn’t really much of a factor there.
Batmobile. ‘Nuff said.
we really need a base model version of this with a 250 hp setup that is upgradeable. A whole new hobby could be born from that. Maybe in the 15k range, to make it feasible.
This doesn’t look like a great design. The batteries are all behind the driver and high up. What’s the weight distribution 10/90?
I’d take it down to Zagato and tell them to do what they do best.
Mind you, if I had enough money to do that, I could buy two and take the other one to Pininfarina.
What would I do? Bring all those awesome 60s-70s concept cars to life!!!
AMX II and III
Carabo
Stratos Zero
512 S Modulo
Can we just buy it the way it is? I’ve always wanted a hypercar with Mad Max-style stabby pipes on the front.
Need to put this platform into a geo metro. talk about a sleeper.
I would take a body off an older car and slap it on here. I am thinking of sales I see where there is a good body, but the rest is gone to history. Or was a half-assed attempt at a dragster.
Based off listings in my area:
Dodge Dart Swinger
50’s era Chevy.
70’s wagon
late 70s early 80s Camaro/Mustang
Or go nuts with a Shelby Cobra replica.
That is my million dollar idea, use the look of the older cars/your dream with the underpinnings of a modern car.
1963 cream colored VW Beetle body on top of this thing. Let me live my Herbie dreams, dammit.
Hmm. I’m kind of wishing they’d made this a front and rear subframe kit instead. Having existing hardpoints very much limits things like wheelbase length and weight distribution for the batteries, and means that no matter what the shape of the car has to conform to where the cabin is. You can’t make a stupid 1930s sedanette homage or a cab forward supervan or even a classic long nose grand tourer without serious work done to essentially build your own chassis. As a result the silhouettes of many of the coachbuilt cars are going to end up extremely similar with that cab forward modern supercar look.
So you can live out your Latifi fantasies
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I would not be angry if mine ended up looking like an Alpha Romeo 33 Stradale. Imma go buy a lottery ticket and stand in my garage “thinking” now.
It’s nearly perfect the way it is, just add a windshield.
Or for desert use, windshield, long travel suspension, skid plate, rally tires, and life insurance.
Super Rally Fighter
Ooooh. I like that idea. Some long travel suspension, knobby tires and lots of lights.
I’d want to make a scaled-up 1967 Panhard CD Peugeot 66C LeMans race car for this. It had a drag coefficient of only 0.13. Accounting for increased frontal area, it is possible that an 80 kWh pack could get greatly more than double the range quoted in the article under those circumstances. And acceleration after about 120 mph would be maximized as a result of the streamlining.
Due to the high top speed, some drag might have to be added to get the bare minimum downforce required for stability. I don’t need thousands of pounds of downforce at top speed, I need just enough to where there is no net lift on the front or rear, and no more. There would be no wings/lips/spoilers/scoops, it would all be ground effects and rear diffuser, and maybe fins, in the interest of getting the lowest possible drag without the car being uncontrollable at top speed. This could still mean the drag coefficient is somewhere in the high 0.1X region or below.
I don’t know what this platform weighs, but ideally, I’d want the completed car to make about 1 horsepower per pound of vehicle weight, so I’d want it to be around 1,000 kg, and would do everything possible to get it to that point. There would be no luxuries in this ride.
I’m tired of so-called “sports” cars and “super” cars that weigh as much as SUVs and compromise their performance potential greatly in the name of marketing, aesthetics, and/or planned obsolescence. They also end up being gas hogs(at least when ICE),, or have greatly compromised range as EVs. Screw that garbage. I want hot, nasty, badassed speed, as much as I can get, and I want it to be in a deliciously light and tossable package that is as nimble AND efficient as possible.
Wow. This brings up all sorts of bad ideas. Is the configuration variable? Like coe? This could make a fun Greenbriar if you could switch stuff around. Had I 8 or 9 figures in the bank, I’d want to do something completely stupid/weird-like a Vega Kammback. Or a Stutz Bearcat. Ooo! Jaguar XK140 or Mark II. With enough $, it would be fun to come up with several vehicles with the same wheelbase and have different bodies to drop on it over a couple weekends.
Sucks not to be a bazillionare!
Same answer I gave in regards to the GrabCAD Supercar from a few years back:
“I’d be tempted to do something retro. And Malaise-ish. And wedge.
“Pop Culture Wag Thought A: Remake the Cody Coyote from HARDCASTLE & MCCORMACK
“Pop Culture Wag Thought B: Make the Gibson Griffon Boomer car from BUBBLEGUM CRISIS: REVENGE ROAD
“Heck, I’d like to remake one of my favorite Matchbox Superfast cars, but the wheelbase is too short. ????”
Superfast, yes! Gruesome Twosome (in gold with two big fake engines sticking out the front and rear), Fandango (in white with a necessary and functional fan in the back,or…a Stoat (with a little guy that spins around on the roof).
I wonder how hard it would be to stack an ID Buzz body on this…
I have an unhealthy desire to try and shoehorn this thing into the bodywork of a Fiero now.
Ooooo!!! Good idea! Then you put a Fauxrrari kit on it!
Reconfigure the suspension for more height and travel and boom: best dune buggy and SCG Boot/008 competitor I can think of!
Easy. Cover it with a Pontiac Banshee body shell.
Boom.
Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE, the company behind this platform) is tenuously linked, if at all, to the Williams F1 racing team in any official manner. Nowadays they are simply neighbors and there is little to none cross-pollinization between them, even though the name and branding persists.
WAE was founded and spun-off by WF1 in 2010, and they kept some shares as WAE expanded and attracted investment. Then WF1 itself was sold do Dorilton Capital (not a garagiste like Sir Frank, you’d be safe to assume). Lastly, all shares in WAE (including WF1’s remaining participation in the company) were sold to an Australian mining company for some carbon offset reasons.
So WAE have the Williams name, some branding queues and some (substantial) history together, but are no longer linked in any way to the racing outfit. In fact, I doubt you’ll se the F1 team acknowledge it or do anything to promote it. Why would they, when they don’t earn a penny for doing so? Unfortunate, as it could make the prospect of partnering with Williams more appealing for a manufacturer.
Regardless, I’m sure it’s a fine piece of engineering. Well done to them.
And it’s also a nice to see anything associated with Williams make the news. I was an obsessive Williams fan until Sir Frank passed away. Legend.
There are a fair number of Williams Advanced Engineering parts (and labour) in the Singer DLS.
How close to De Tomaso Pantera can you make it.
Just too much style.
De Tomaso P72. Wrench drop.
With a bit of modification and thought this could be the basis for a useful all terrain camper van .
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“Obviously, I’ll take a 2,200-horsepower, rear-wheel drive street targa el camino please!”
Sounds like you should take your millions in startup capital to them so we can all have that!
Yeah, I’m tired of this website thing. More utes!
Yes! If the unofficial car archetype of Jalopnik was a brown manual diesel wagon, the for the Autopian it should be a targa EV ute. Preferably with enough bed space to haul a Peel P50.
“complete chassis with a rear/mid-mounted battery behind the passenger compartment” you’d have to put the body on backwards to make a ute 😀