| Venturi tribute |
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VENTURI or Venturi Automobiles is a French
manufacturer of sports cars born under the name of
MVS (Manufacture de Voitures de Sport / sport car
manufacture). From the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s
they built mid-engined coupés and roadsters with
turbocharged PRV engines and Renault gearboxes.
Engine power ranged from 210 to 260 PS (190 kW)
for the Atlantique series. A limited edition 400
GTR was built for racing homologation
requirements, and later used in the 24 Hours of Le
Mans. Venturi also built the 1992 chassis for the
Larrousse Formula 1 team.
Venturi Automobiles was created as France's answer
to Italy's Ferrari. The first Venturi came out in
1984, created by Claude Poiraud and Gérard
Godfroy, two former engineers at Heuliez. The goal
was to present the only "Grand Tourisme" French
car capable of competing with the French Bugatti,
the Italian Ferrari, and the German Porsche. The
headquarters of the company were located in the
Pays de Loire in Coueron (44) where almost 700
cars were produced in 20 years.
The 400 GT remains one of the best performing
French cars ever produced, and it is in fact the
very first car in the world to have standard
carbon brakes. True to that claim the Atlantique
400GT with a 400 PS (290 kW) V6 delivered
excellent performance to put it on par with
Ferraris of the early 90s. The 400GT could hit 100
km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds and 300 km/h (190
mph) top speed, while the 300GT with a 310 PS (230
kW) V6 did 4.9 seconds to 100 km/h (62 mph) and
went all the way to 180 mph (290 km/h).
High level competition has also brought fame to
the brand. Venturi was at the origin of the
memorable "Venturi Gentlemen Drivers Trophy",
which gathered an impressive array of 75 drivers.
Venturi has also won fame through its brilliant
performances in the 24 Hours of Le Mans,
particularly in 1993 with Christophe Dechavanne
and Jacques Laffite on Venturi Jaccadi team, and
in 1995 with Paul Belmondo racing on the 600 SLM.
However it is in the BPR Global GT Series races
that Venturi established its pedigree defeating
Porsche and Ferrari on several occasions. In 1994
in Dijon-Prenois, with Ferté and Neugarten on the
600 LM Jaccadi, at the 1000 km of Paris with Henri
Pescarolo and Jean-Claude Basso on the 600 LM, and
finally at the 4 Hours Spa race, once again with
Michel Ferté and Michel Neugarten. In 2001 the
Monegasque millionaire Gildo Pallanca Pastor
bought Venturi and decided to focus on electric
powered engine, leading to the Fétish model. More
recent models are the Eclectic, the world's first
energy-autonomous vehicle, a low speed vehicle
which has solar panels, a built in wind charger,
and can be plugged in and the Astrolab, the
world's first solar-electric hybrid car.
Tags : venturi racing france car speed |
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Durée : 201 s |
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