It’s the first time one of Arash Farboud’s cars made it to the Geneva Motor Show, and he put two cars on display with a combined output of 2,630 horsepower and manual transmissions.
If you aren’t familiar with the Arash Motor Company, don’t worry, I can walk you through the basics real quick: Arash is a British low-volume supercar manufacturer. That says it all.
Arash’s first real volume seller—meaning three units per year—is supposed to be the AF8, a V8-powered supercar with a hybrid chassis and a dry weight of just 2,645 pounds. Arash told me the original car wasn’t really catching on, so for 2016, they upgraded the whole thing, giving it a facelift, improved aero and a better interior with more visible carbon.
Starting at £168,000, the AF8 Cassini has a 7.0-liter V8 producing 550 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque, a hybrid carbon-steel chassis, an aerodynamic carbon fiber body and a zero-to-sixty time of 3.5 seconds. It can also be ordered with either a manual or an automatic gearbox, while it’s top speed is claimed to be 200mph.
Moving on to the 2,080hp hybrid.
The AF10 is what Arash calls ‘naughty’.
It comes with a patented carbon fiber tub, and if you want it with only the 550hp 6.2 V8 and the gated manual, it will only set you back £350,000. But since Arash wanted to step into hypercar territory, he also jammed in four German-sourced electric motors, each with its own two-speed gearbox.
The resulting car is the AF10 ‘Warp Drive’, with a combined power output of 2,080 horsepower and a list price of £1,1 million, or £1.2M if you opt for the racing version. Because of course there’s a racing version with a fire extinguisher, roll cage, intercom and center-lock magnesium wheels.
Arash says the AF10 Warp Drive is ‘really, really, really, REALLY fast’. Thanks to the four-wheel drive, it’ll reach 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds.
The electric motors produce 200 foot pounds of torque each, and while the AF10 is available with a paddle shift automatic, if you’re crazy enough to buy one, there’s no question you should go for the 6-speed manual. Mostly because it’s also gated, and you don’t get that option with other hybrid supercars.
The rest of the interior is all carbon fiber. The seats, the dash, the lot.
Arash will run both cars up the hill at Goodwood this summer, so we’ll see how fast ‘really, really, really, REALLY fast’ really is.
Last time I checked, it was this fast.
Photo credit: Máté Petrány/Jalopnik
Contact the author at mate@jalopnik.com.