Vuhl 05RR: Super Lightweight Coming From Mexico

16 May 2019 Redazione News, Tested

VUHL 05RR

SPEED CARTEL

Words by Richi Makie

A couple of years ago we had our first encounter with the 05, the debut model from Vulh, a small factory that enters straight leg in the world of lightweight British-style sports cars. To make it even more spicy – and I don’t choose this word by chance – there’s the fact that this is what we can call the first real sports car coming from Mexico. No siesta for this street legal Speedy Gonzalez track weapon, but the good old recipe that sees a car body reduced to the bone and where the resemblance with a car suitable for everyday life can be found pretty remotely, given that everything is aimed to the essentiality and to the most extreme weight saving.

The 05RR is its natural evolution, where the fiberglass body is replaced by carbon fiber panels and where the output power undergoes a further injection of horses, with the 2.3 Ecoboost supplied by Ford which now reach 400 horses and 500Nm of torque. Exaggerating the driving experience there is a design sacrificed to the most generous kilograms savings, barely covering the wheels and showing off the enormous spoiler hanging at the back. Combining traction on the rear wheels, we have a 6-speed Sadev sequential gearbox, precise enough to emphasize the feedback once you cling yourself to the steering wheel in the raw cockpit, but just as fast to let you have at hand a 0-100 kph of just 2.7 seconds – hypercar territory. I almost forgot, but seems to be pretty obvious: the overall weight of the 05RR is nothing short of amazing, barely exceeding 660 kg and confirming how much the designers at the court of Iker Echeverria have kept their focus on lightness, without however forgetting pure firepower. The combination of these two factors translates into a reactivity made even more explosive by a chassis prone to track use. In addition to an impressive downforce generated by the rear wing and side splitters, the Vuhl has a flat underbody and an equally extreme air diffuser at the back, just under the single pipe barking from the middle of the same tail, part that you will probably chase if you have the unfortunate luck of meeting a Vuhl during your Sunday track days.

As logically as it was, the passenger compartment is made of two carbon bucket seats, the indispensable instrumentation you’d possibly need and a racing-type digital display, through which to assess the degree of danger directly proportional to the speed you will be able to reach. The 05RR touches 275 kph of top speed, but if you like to play racing-snob, always keep in mind that in a situation that sees your back just a few centimeters from the ground, conceptually protected by a microscopic windscreen and with the skull at the mercy of atmospheric agents, even reaching 175 per hour would be a moment you will remember for a long time, above all fighting with the reactions of a chassis that disdains modern comforts of sports cars too tamed to be compared with the Mexican rocket.

Of course, the 05RR does not represent a contortion in the automotive industry (actually, it is for the Mexican one), but it goes to water that panorama populated by the various BAC Mono, Ariel Atom, KMT X-Bow and the like that keep alive the most authentic relationship between pilot and car. And I say pilot not by chance, because once tied on these uncomfortable seats, you will have no intention of being a simple driver. These are special cars, which give up every minimal need for rationality and are not ashamed to represent expensive toys for the weekend on the track (the 05 standard costs about € 65,000, so put in mind to pay something more for the more extreme 05RR) in a period in which all car makers are focused on more mature themes, but far less engaging for the eternal child waking up as we find ourselves in front of these stuff.

VUHL 05RR

Layout   –  mid-rear engined, rear wheel drive

Engine  –  4 cylinder – 2.3cc – turbo

Transmission  –  6-speed sequential gearbox

Power  –  400 hp / 500 Nm

Weight  –  660 kg

Acceleration  –  2,7 sec.

Top Speed  –  175 kph