26 June 2011

Blast from the past - Sogna supercar of 90's


90's is the time zone when super and hypercar rules. This is the era of excessive power, extremely flashy design and explosive (not necessarily controllable) performance. Cars from this era makes current crops of supercar appears tame, clinical and nerdy.

One of the most interesting looking is this car, Art & Tech Sogna, which is based on Lamborghini Countach.
Read more after the jump.
Details are very scarce. I read about this car for the first time in mid 1992, in malay car magazine, aptly named "Sensasi". The car was offered by Mofaz for sale for around RM 1.9m .


The car flourished with extremely intricate design detailing. Look at the double-layer hood above. The upper section is kind of "floating" and connected to the main assembly only at the trailing edge of the hood. Popup headlight complete the 90's trend.


Flush glasshouse cover most of top area of the car including the roof.  It then connected to the most attractive feature of the car, which is the rear of the roof. There are a lot of inlet and outlet there, but was arranged to look really solid and futuristic, even by 2011 standard.


This is most beautiful butt of any supercar, ever. Slit tailight, quad vertical exhaust and look at the shape of rear glass! As an ex-car engineer, this car represent and engineer nightmare, a very difficult shape to produce consistently and correctly.


This is one of the complicated part of the car, the rounded side window. I've never find any concept car (let alone production car) with this kind of glass treatment.

Mechanically, the car is based on Lamborghini Countach running gear. Below are the details:
Engine PositionMidship
Maximum output (ps / rpm)450 / 7000
Maximum torque (kgm / rpm)51.0 / 5200
Automobile rankSuper Sports Car
Drive system2WD rear wheel drive
Length4150mm
Width2000mm
Vehicle height1110mm
Heavy Vehicles1530kg
CylinderV12
BrakeDisc
SuspensionDouble wishbone

The figure might not looks delicious anymore, as even a daily sedan ( like BMW M5) can have more power. But its the flamboyant design that surely is timeless. Below are some video I've found on You Tube.