What a Beast!

Words by Max Gonzaga

I always loved ambitious projects, just how much I hate all the difficulties that must be faced to realize them and that often, unfortunately, leave these works unfinished. This is not the case of the Beast, an incredibly sexy sports car produced by Rezvani, small American factory/coachbuilder. The manufacturer has traced one of the top examples of recent years, that of the genius of Horacio Pagani, who with his Zonda and the Huayra took a specially finished AMG engine for the needs of his hypercars and won a place at the table of the big names. The Beast, a name that does not need to be translated, in its own way, does the same thing and is thus able to please our love for cars with the Speedster.
Under a dress completely in carbon fiber there is in fact the chassis of an Ariel Atom 3, with the four-cylinder Honda of 2.4cc that delivers 300 horsepower. The Speedster should however be also available with 500 and even 700 horsepower (stay tuned for the Beast X), but for a small roofless two-seaters of just 750kg, trust me that the 300hp supercharged engine is more than enough. Certainly, thanks to the fact that there is a real bodywork, some tens of kilos in addition are here, but once sit in the cockpit and well tied to the shell seats and with your hands on the tiny steering wheel, you will feel in every way like driving a race car. As it should be, there is no power steering or power braking even while the transmission is a 6-speed manual, which then promises a total driving experience. Thus it is: the Rezvani behaves as the Ariel, but with a more extreme accent, although in a different way, due to the steering rack which is really short and direct and that transmits even the slightest thing on the asphalt, from the wheels until it reaches the driver’s seat. There’s a windshield ok, but it’s so small that the air will manage to find a way to slap your face at high speed and the constant hiss of the supercharged engine is always there to peep, at the precise moment you push the gas pedal.
Unlike the Atom, the Beast is bigger, longer and larger and you have to drive it like a completely different car; if this one gratifies the eye with a body that sometimes pays tribute to the past of automotive, long hood, pointed tail and thin headlights, the Rezvani transmits its racy savoir faire when driving it it puts to rest your beliefs in fact of sporty driving. It’s not easy to tame and the rev scale runs up at almost 8,000, with a torque that, once the supercharger comes in, it’ll ask you a firm grip on the steering wheel and great concentration through fast cornering. Every mistake is paid, just like the car itself, for sale at around € 150,000 ($ 165,000) and produced in a limited edition. It may seem an exaggerated figure for a dressed Atom that still fits a 4-cylinder Honda engine, but try to look beyond these technical details and tell me a so aesthetically exciting car produced today and definitely more manageable than a Veritas (I see a similar style). Probably we would have expected a more user friendly handling, but we got tired of all those aids and electronic controls that make even your grandma a sort of pro driver: perhaps this is the purest experience that we were waiting for, without having to give up the pleasure of looking at it even when standing still. We wait for the 500hp version, because we believe that it will be able to wipe out any reasonable doubt remaining.

REZVANI BEAST (2015-)

Layout – mid-rear engined, rear wheel drive

Engine – 4 cylinder 2.4cc – supercharged

Transmission – 6-speed manual gearbox

Power – 500 hp @ 7350 rpm

507 Nm @ 5950 rpm

Weight – 750 kg

Acceleration – 2,8 sec. Ca.

Top Speed – 265 kph

Price – from 150.000 €