Ascari KZ1-R: Don't forget your golf clubs

SPECIFICATIONS

Price £225,000
Maximum speed 200mph (estimated), 0-60 in 3.7 secs
Engine BMW V8, 520bhp
Combined fuel consumption 15mpg
Rivals Koenigsegg CC, Pagani Zonda, Ferrari 360 Challenge, Noble M14

SPECIFICATIONS

Price £225,000
Maximum speed 200mph (estimated), 0-60 in 3.7 secs
Engine BMW V8, 520bhp
Combined fuel consumption 15mpg
Rivals Koenigsegg CC, Pagani Zonda, Ferrari 360 Challenge, Noble M14

Where I live, speed cameras outnumber phone boxes and even the country lanes are gridlocked most of the day. I often think I could make faster progress aboard an electric invalid trolley than in the preposterously quick and powerful new cars that come my way on a weekly basis. At least then I could drive on the pavements and wave to people.

Or perhaps I should buy an Ascari. The Banbury-based sports-car company has just opened its own luxury race resort near Malaga, Spain. Here, customers can take delivery of one of its delectable new, carbon-fibre, BMW V8-engined two-seaters, and enjoy a day's intensive driving instruction. For an additional £100,000 joining fee, plus an annual subscription of £6,000, the happy owner can then become a member of Club Ascari and "stable" their car at the circuit, letting their hair down responsibly during regular club days.

Ascari makes two models, the KZ1 and the KZ1-R. Both look essentially the same, but the latter is more track-orientated. So, with a view to taking up membership (just as soon as I get my hands on the Booth's Gin fortune that I believe is rightfully mine), I had a go in the "R".

Prior to my drive, I had a quick tour of the Ascari factory. This was a bit of a let down, being little more than a glorified assembly line. The KZ1's carbon-fibre tub, engine, interior, wheels, transmission and brakes are all made elsewhere. Thus there is none of the forging from the smithy of the soul that you find when you visit Ferrari. Instead, Ascari's production line looks more like a very clean, very expensive KwikFit. I don't doubt the excellence of the components, but you start to wonder if it isn't just a glorified Airfix kit, albeit put together with the help of a very skilled chassis engineer (in this case, an ex-Lotus boffin).

The KZ1-R (Ascari would like the "R" to have stood for Rebel, but someone else owns that name and MD Mark Waterman seems a little lost as to what it might now signify - hmm, how about Racing?) is waist-high and wide- bottomed, but still relatively compact compared to a Pagani Zonda or even a Ferrari 360. My first thought was that this was a good thing as it would make it less intimidating on normal roads. Unfortunately, the interior is as tight as an airplane's loo. This makes entering a fairly undignified process, and getting out requires an act of David Blaine-style escapology. After my drive, it crossed my mind that I might do better to crash and have the fire brigade cut me free.

Being a racey car there is no sound proofing, so the noise is utterly discombobulating. There is also no air con, so the heat is intolerable, and little suspension travel, so you can feel the road. It also smells of cabbage and you can only really see straight ahead. On a track, its savage acceleration and communicative brakes would be a thrill a second. On the M40, they was fearful.

I suspect things are little improved in the "softer" KZ1, and, frankly, for all their technological and performance prowess neither car has the pedigree or presence to make my £235,000 short list. But, as the mysterious multi-millionaire behind Ascari is well aware, use of an exclusive racing circuit, within a five iron of the best golf courses in Spain, in the sunniest part of Europe, is a USP not even Ferrari can match.

It's a classic: Here's one they made earlier

Readers of 'Autocar' and other social misfits will recall that the KZ1 is not the first car to carry the Ascari name. The company started life in Scotland, where its mysterious Dutch owner, multimillionaire Klaas Zwart (he's not really all that mysterious, I was just trying to jazz the story up a bit), made his fortune in the oil industry.

Zwart had a passion for Ferraris and, like Ferruccio Lamborghini before him, became a customer turned poacher when he built his own rival. The name of his company grew from a mangled acronym for the Association of Scottish Automobile Constructors, into the surname of a former two-time World Champion racing driver - Alberto Ascari.

The first Ascari was a Ford V8-powered mid-engined two-seater - called the Ecosse (right). Similar in style to the KZ1, it ran at Le Mans and did well in the British GT Championship in the mid-1990s. Zwart attempted to put the Ecosse into production, but only 28 were made. He hopes to build 50 KZ1s, but has only a handful of orders at present.