Filed under: Motorsports, Sports/GTs, Supercars, UK, Special/Limited Editions

How many automakers, large and small, have referred to their latest ware as "race car for the road?" Too many to count, for sure. But if you're going to make a real race car for the road, where better to start than at an actual race car company? Take Reynard, for example. One of the leading race car manufacturers, Reynard has built the chassis for a wide range of formula racing series, Indy cars, touring cars...and have taken a room full of trophies to show for it. Their latest project is no less extreme in its performance, yet it is designed to be street legal (for our European friends) right from the start.

The Reynard Inverter is built around a precision-crafted steel tube frame overlaid with either a carbon-fiber or fiberglass body with full race-spec suspension. Buyers can choose from a range of motorbike engines for propulsion, including the engines from the Honda Fireblade or Suzuki Hayabusa, mated to a paddle-shifted sequential transmission with full throttle-blipping, flat-shifting capabilities. The high-revving motorbike engines coupled with low weight (only 400 kg or 882 lbs fully fueled) promises to return Formula One levels of performance, with cornering forces exceeding 4g's. The Inverter can be ordered in race or street trim (which essentially means the choice between slick or treaded tires), but if you're wondering about the name, it's derived from the Inverter's (claimed) ability to drive upside down on a tunnel ceiling at 100 miles-per-hour, thanks to its tremendous downforce. Now that the "race car for the road" mantle has been settled, we'd like to see someone build an upside-down race track to settle that score, too. In the meantime we'll just have to appreciate the salient details in the press release after the jump and the images in the gallery below.
Gallery: Reynard Inverter


[Source: Reynard]Continue reading Shiny Side Up: Reynard hits the street with the Inverter
Shiny Side Up: Reynard hits the street with the Inverter originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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