German sports car firm Wiesmann has made a hard-hitting comeback after years of media silence with the reveal of its new Thunderball project – not only its first electrified product, but also the world’s first rear-wheel-drive electric convertible sports car.
The marque – best known for a series of retro-styled sports cars using BMW straight-six, V8 and V10 engines – is on its way back after a tumultuous period since filing for bankruptcy in 2013.
Wiesmann was acquired in 2016 by international technology company Contec Global, whose chief executive Roheen Berry is now the automaker’s CEO.
He hailed the arrival of the new car as “a remarkable moment in time for the Wiesmann brand and the culmination of a dream of years of design and engineering excellence”. It will be, he said, “the most exciting electric sports car in the world.”
The Thunderball features a pair of motors on the rear axle delivering a combined output of 671 hp and 811 lb-ft – enough, Wiesmann says, to take the roughly 1700kg roadster from 0-62mph in just 2 .9 seconds. The powertrain was developed in partnership with fellow German sports car manufacturer Roding Automobile, which specializes in lightweight carbon fiber construction and is best known for its flagship model, the Roding Roadster, which uses a six-cylinder in BMW line and weighs only 950 kg.
Roding also supplied the Thunderball’s 83kWh battery, which features 800V hardware for charging at speeds up to 300kW and should be good for a range of 311 miles.
The company is keen to emphasize how closely dynamically the new electric vehicle will be to its combustion engine ancestors.
He claims the regenerative braking system was developed specifically for the Thunderball and, with five settings, can be used “to give a powerful engine braking effect in the corners” and thus give “a moment of deliberate pleasure to the driver, whatever something missing in most EVs on the market today.”
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-27 09:01:25
