The Prodrive P2 is a prototype two-seater sports car designed, engineered and built by

Prodrive Prodrive is an England, English motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. History Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards (motorsport executive), David Richards. Prodrive sold its 51% s ...

at its

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

and

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

sites. The car is based on the platform of the

Subaru R1 The Subaru R1 is a kei car manufactured by the Japanese carmaker Subaru from 2005 to 2010. Design Entering production on January 4, 2005, the R1 is a two-door version of the Subaru R2, but with a shorter body and wheelbase. The R1 is unusual in ...

kei car Kei car is the smallest category of Japanese expressway-legal motor vehicles. The term ''kei'' is a shortening of , (kanji: ), which translates to English as "light vehicle" (). With restricted dimensions and engine specifications, owners ...

and has a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STi engine along with many Prodrive systems originally designed for their World Championship and Sports Car Racing programmes. The car's styling was done by Peter Stevens, who also designed the

McLaren F1 The McLaren F1 is a sports car that was the first Motor vehicle type approval, type approved road-going sportscar manufactured by British Formula One team McLaren. It was the last road-legal, series-produced sportscar to win the 24 Hours of Le ...

. The car includes rally-inspired

anti-lag The anti-lag system (ALS) is a method of reducing turbo lag or effective compression used on turbocharged engines to minimize turbo lag on racing or performance cars. It works by retarding the ignition timing and adding extra fuel (and sometimes a ...

to prevent turbo lag, as well as an active center and rear differential that maximizes grip. A fully working car was built, and was tested on the TV motoring programme ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...

'' — it had , obtained a 0-60 mph time of 3.8 seconds, a top speed of , and had a Power Lap of 1:24.3, beating such cars as the TVR Sagaris,

Audi R8 The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi's trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG in 2006. Production ended in the first quarter of 2024. The car is ...

BMW M5 The BMW M5 is a super high-performance variant of the BMW 5 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand. It is considered an iconic vehicle in the sports saloon category. The M5 has always been produced in the saloon (sedan, US English) body s ...

and

Aston Martin Vanquish The Aston Martin Vanquish is a grand tourer introduced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin in 2001 as a successor to the Aston Martin Virage (1993). The Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, designed by Ian Callum and unveiled at the ...

. It also made

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...

appear to vomit after driving around a circle of cones extremely rapidly to demonstrate its computer-controlled differential system's anti-understeer capabilities. The car's active rear differential automatically shifts torque to whichever of the rear wheels needs it most during manoeuvring, based on spin-slip sensor readings; this is a common rally-car technology rarely seen on road cars. Prodrive claimed that the car could have retailed for around £40,000, but also said there were no plans to put the car into production.

References

External links

Prodrive P2: The Evil SubaruJeremy Clarkson Top Gear test
Concept cars All-wheel-drive vehicles Sports cars {{modern-auto-stub