New British sports car - Wells Vertige

Temujin · 8 Jul 2021 at 12:47

Just read up on this, not sure it has been discussed on here as yet!

It's great to see something British coming up for sale but I'm not sold on the looks, seems to be an amalgam of nearly all small two seater sports cars; possibly their worst bits IMO!

Still, manual and £40k in this climate is fairly good going! Thoughts?

chroniclard · 8 Jul 2021 at 12:53

Hmm no, looks really old fashioned and the proportions dont work quite right for me.

wolfie138 · 8 Jul 2021 at 13:01

don't like it, certainly wouldn't pay 40k for it.

Housey · 8 Jul 2021 at 13:02

A failure in the making like 99% of these 'launches'

Not my cuppa at all.

Armageus · 8 Jul 2021 at 13:05

Like the idea of it (Lightweight, small wheels, sensible amount of power), however the looks aren't great (the elongated rear is particularly bad imo)

lordrobs · 8 Jul 2021 at 13:07

This...

Wells did a great deal of research, buying several sports cars, both classic and current, in the target area to inform the Vertige’s styling, which, although a totally bespoke effort, nods to some of the world’s greatest sports cars.

Is quite evident and unfortunately taking bits you like from a number of cars and putting them into one has left a slightly awkward looking end result. Oh, and I hate the doors.

That said, good on him for getting out there and doing it. I just hope he keeps it as a personal project selling a few more beyond the initial run of 7 before sitting back and ticking it off as an achievement rather than bankrupting himself chasing some dreams of going in to production only to find out the reason behind the fact that nobody had designed the car he wanted to buy.

Dyson · 8 Jul 2021 at 13:41

I actually really like the looks, good luck to them, but will probably fail to make an impact

ianh · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:01

Armageus said:
Like the idea of it (Lightweight, small wheels, sensible amount of power), however the looks aren't great (the elongated rear is particularly bad imo)

Yeap, the front 1/3 upto the windscreen looks early "Elise vs E-Type"-ish but from the A-Pillar rearwards the car's looks go badly wrong and very quickly. It feels like they used an Elise as the base car, added an Opel Manta back end and just couldn't figure out how to join the two together.

However, looks aside, 850kg with 200+hp and a narrow body but very grippy tyres would make for a fun experience I'm sure!

dlockers · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:04

I like it. The looks are subjective but there is nothing too distasteful there.

Rich1988 · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:11

I think it could be a good looking car but the bonnet just seems out of proportion with the cabin/boot giving it a bit of a 1960's space bubble car kind of feel

MikeTheNative · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:27

I always hope people like this do succeed, I don't think it will to be honest though.
I think it looks awful but at least it does look unique so it will stand out, whether you would want to in that is a different question.

alec · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:44

Can't recall last properly light sportscar. Very nice

Wish they made more than 25 a year. And cheaper ...

Conscript · 8 Jul 2021 at 14:53

I'm not sold on the looks, but 208BHP, 850KG and a manual gearbox in a package no larger than a Fiesta sounds like it will be great fun, whilst not breaking the bank (not accounting for any potential reliability concerns, of course). Perfect for B-roads.
Good luck to them

Nasher · 8 Jul 2021 at 17:07

Nice idea but it doesn't look right.

thenewoc · 8 Jul 2021 at 17:15

Maybe they did this so no one could criticise the panel fit.

hurfdurf · 8 Jul 2021 at 17:38

Housey said:
A failure in the making like 99% of these 'launches'

Not my cuppa at all.

I really like the idea of a tiny light raw sports car, but like many of these kinds of projects, as well as the hyper cars that never really see the light of day, I don’t hold my hopes that it’ll last or make money.

rodenal · 8 Jul 2021 at 19:11

Looks to me like it was styled 25 years ago and has taken this long to even become a pseudo reality.

That said good luck to them, got the right sort of ingredients bar the looks

MeAnBoY · 9 Jul 2021 at 11:26

Love child between a TVR speed 6 & Lotus Europa

ahar · 9 Jul 2021 at 11:40

Love a lightweight car and the figures look very sensible to me - cost vs power vs weight.

Love the look of the front end, however the rear end just looks awful

sigma · 10 Jul 2021 at 10:56

It looks like a rear diffuser would help make the rear a bit less awkward. The front doesn't look too bad. It seems a bit too cheap for a low volume car. You have to wonder where they cut the corners/saved costs.