With track car specialist startups like Zenos and Elemental basically ceasing communication, and even TVR running into more and more delays, sports car fans have every reason to be skeptical about yet another company’s entrey into this limited market. Especially from the niche-end, which already seems to be full of BACs, Ariels, Ginettas, Radicals and Vuhls. But the Vandal One is no joke.
Vandal is a U.S.-based company with development facilities at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan. Its FIA-standard carbon fiber chassis are assembled in North Carolina, while the cars get completed in Troy.
Vandal
Vandal’s first product is built around a carbon fiber monocoque, with a pushrod suspension and fat racing slicks providing over 3Gs of lateral acceleration. In standard form, the One packs a 2.0 Honda engine tuned to 340 horsepower. However, the range-topping One R comes with a whopping 560 horses, and a six-speed sequential gearbox capable of 40ms shifts. Prepare your neck muscles.
With a curb weight of 1223 lbs. and up to 1760 lbs. of downforce (30 percent of which is generated at the front), on paper, this single-seater is all set to lecture whatever else might roll up next to it at a race track. What’s more, with its 12-sensor data acquisition system and optional camera, it could also teach you how to make the most of its tech.
With pre-orders open now and the launch edition limited to fifty units, the 340-horsepower Vandal One starts at $119,700, plus local taxes and delivery. If it can deliver the goods, that’s not a bad deal for this much performance.
Vandal