Manufacturer Ascari Cars Designer Lee Noble Body style 2-door coupe | Production 1998–1999 Class Sports car | |
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Platform Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive | ||
The Ascari Ecosse is a mid-engine sports car produced by Ascari Cars from 1998 to 1999. It was the second production car released by the company and is based on the Ascari FGT.
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FGT
In 1995 Ascari introduced the FGT at various European motor shows, with a design by Lee Noble. It featured a Chevrolet six litre fuel injected V8 engine placed midship behind the driver.
At the same time as the launch of the car, Klaas Zwart of the Netherlands chose to enter the FGT in racing, running a Ford V8 engine and entering into the British GT Championship. With the one concept car meeting the homologation requirements, Zwart won an event at Silverstone Circuit in the car's debut season of 1995. The car would also attempt to qualify for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but would not be fast enough to pass prequalifying. The car continued to maintain pace with newcomers to British GT in 1996, before Zwart would partner with William Hewland, owner of Hewland engineering, for a partial season in 1997 with only a best finish of fourth at Donington Park.
Following the 1997 season, Ascari built 10 production versions of the FGT.
Ecosse
The production version of the Ecosse was given a BMW V8 powerplant in place of the Chevrolet and Ford units, although this was further tuned by Hartge. The 4.4 liter engine produces around 300 hp (220 kW), while later larger 4.7 liter units produces around 400 hp (300 kW).
The last three cars were produced with the Hartge 5.0 litre V8 engine, around 420 hp and 520 nm. The last one was built at Blandford in 2000 with a sequential gearbox and is still in the possession of Ascari.
The spaceframe chassis and wishbone suspension carry a lightweight fibreglass body, weighing 1,250 kg (2,756 lb). The Ecosse, with the larger 4.7 litre engine, can accelerate from 0-to-60 mph in 4.1 seconds while top speed is achieved at 200 mph (322 km/h). Only 17 were produced, with nine of these remaining as the others have been destroyed.
The Ecosse was replaced by the Ascari KZ1 in 2003.