Immense strength comes from a carbonfibre and aluminium honeycomb central tub. Cro-mo steel subframes support the engine and suspension front and rear, and there are aluminium crash structures. Suspension is racecar-type double wishbone with horizontally mounted dampers for extra leverage and therefore control. At the moment, Chrysler doesn't expect to use electronic adaptive damping.
It's dressed in a body of carbonfibre, designed by Brian Nielander. Chrysler chiefs are well chuffed with the look. For a start it embodies some Chrysler cues - the straked bonnet and crisp lines, even the boat-tail if you squint, are a bit Crossfire - but it integrates all the necessary aerodynamics very neatly. An Enzo Ferrari looks like an aero test-bed to some eyes and could never be called lovely. The ME is far more handsome. The show car's cabin used blue LED-light and polished aluminium to dress up the featured carbon structure, but the test car was strictly basic, with a racecar LCD instrument/datalogging pod and generic switches. Even the seat was fixed, but fortunately I fitted.
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| Dash in production model will get blue-lit displays |
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So what's happening next? There's deep significance in Chrysler's choice of having it run at Laguna Seca. This was the weekend of the Monterey Historic Races, when the track is filled with the best old cars in private hands. Eight recent Ferrari F1 cars were there. A couple of dozen 1963-64 GTOs. They are several million apiece. The richest car enthusiasts in the world congregate there by the thousand. There were three Enzo Ferraris and a Carrera GT just in my hotel car park. Chrysler wanted these people to see this car, because if they reacted positively there might be sense in pushing the project further.
Chrysler boss Dieter Zetsche says he had 10 people ask to buy the car after its first Detroit showing, but at 10 copies they'd have been roughly a million pounds a go. If Zetsche approves investment in more tools, the price could come down to say £150,000 for 1000 copies. But to make that investment and then fail to sell the cars would be a huge loss - of face and of money. So Chrysler needs to know where the right point is on the price-numbers curve. Or even if an economically viable point exists at all. Zetsche is adamant that if there's no profit he won't say yes.
If it's hand-made in tiny numbers, Zetsche says it could be done in about a year. If he elects to tool-up for a longer run, he reckons 18 months should do it, after the decision is made. Mind you, the SLR was hit by months of delay, despite McLaren and Mercedes having vastly more combined fast-car experience than Chrysler.
But why would people buy it, Dr Zetsche, when Porsche and Ferrari and Mercedes-McLaren have apparently saturated the market? Why pay their prices and get a Chrysler badge? Because, he says, it's American and there are rich Americans who want to see a bit of Euro ass kicked (OK, I paraphrase him here). Because it's better looking than they are. And because it's not just insanely fast, it's the insanely-fastest.
On that last point at least, I can't argue.
