Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Argentinean Donto wants to battle Ariel and KTM with its P1


Donto Motor Company of Argentina has been working on a competitor to take on some world-class track day stars, the Ariel Atom and the KTM X-Bow. The South American two-seater has apparently been in development for the past 18 months and is called the P1.

Exterior designer Lucas Lopez says, "The P1 has a split body and the exoskeleton of an invertebrate, almost floating." Under the removable roof and that "floating" body of unspecified material (maybe some form of carbon fiber / FRP mix) will be an FIA-approved chassis built by Hector Perez, a chassis builder in Argentina known for a variety of racing chassis.

Donto wants to export the adult go-kart to Europe using a German engine with a price of $55,000 / ~ €43,400, but hopes to also have it street-legal (or at least available for track days) in all markets. With a target weight of under 700 kg / 1,543 lbs and using VW's 1.8T in the prototypes, this could be another crazy little track monster that's also emissions-friendly.

By Phil Alex

Via: Autoblog.com.ar & Worldcarfans