This is the Ares Design S1 Project Spyder, a roofless version of the Ares S1 that was unveiled last month. If you’re wondering who Ares is, it’s an Italian-based coachbuilder and car designer that was founded by former Lotus boss Dany Bahar after he fell out with Lotus. A thing since 2014, the company tends to re-body and customise supercars for wealthy clients.
The S1 is a completely new car though, built on a custom chassis heavy on carbon fibre and aluminium…so not literally heavy by any means. The coupe version, which will be built in the company’s Modena base – ergo near Ferrari’s HQ – will start production in January next year and will set buyers back £450,000. Ish. Only 24 will be made.
So, this open topped one then. It too will be limited to just 24 copies but it’ll be more expensive again, largely because of the extra work it’s taken to fabricate it into a speedster type car. Imagine how much it would have cost if there was a retractable roof to factor in too, but there isn’t one. Reckon on around £550,000 to £600,000.
In true speedster style it has no windscreen either, although it does have a pair of screens designed to send air away from the occupant’s faces and towards the side of the car. Mercifully.
It really is merciful too because as you can imagine, this thing is quick. Really quick. It comes powered by a naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 engine with 705bhp, driving the rear wheels only through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. And because the relatively simple nature of taking the roof off without adding a soft top (or hard top) means it doesn’t have any additional mechanisms, it’s about the same weight as the coupe and therefore hits 62mph in the same 2.7 seconds. Top speed is post-200mph.
The interior is fairly spectacular too, including a carbon fibre steering wheel, lots of Alcantara and even more leather. The digital instrument panel, whose angular design has shades of Lamborghini, puts an analogue rev counter centrally in front of the driver, while all the cars major functions are neatly laid into the centre console. The gear shift is evidently by wire, using three buttons.
Interestingly the passenger has their own little instrument display too, so that they can see the speed of the car and the navigation instructions, stuff like that.
You can order one now if you like, and for this price we expect you can have a conversation with the man himself, Mr Bahar.
Keyword: This is the new Ares S1 Spyder. It’s amazing both inside and out