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| 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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