Countries like Italy and Germany may be well known for designing some of the best high-performance sports cars, but a Montreal automaker is changing all that with its new car, the HTT Plethore.
Plethore, French for Plethora or overabundance, is the first Canadian-made supercar and it is exactly what the name suggests.
With 750 horses under the hood, a top speed of 388 km/h and a 0-to-100 km/h time of 2.8 seconds it certainly offers a lot more than the average sedan. And yes, the doors lift with a remote control.
"It's the best-balanced car that's ever been built," said HTT president Sebastien Forest, who joined company co-founders Luc Chartrand and Carl Descoteaux in 2008, in a recent Toronto Star article. "Power is pretty easy to get, handling is difficult."
Helping get so much power out of the V8, 7-litre super-charged engine is the 100 per cent carbon-fibre body and frame, which allows the car to weigh only 1,250 kilograms, or about the same as a Volkswagen Golf.
"And it is a central driving vehicle," said Forest in a Financial Post article. "This means you sit in the middle. A passenger can sit on either side of the driver. This affords advantages in weight balance."
While the car looks like a blast, Forest admits the market is small for a vehicle that costs $795,000. He hopes to one day take 50 orders per year, but as of now they have seven orders worldwide. No Canadian orders have been placed.
"We're realistic, we don't expect to take 10 or 15 orders in Canada," Forest said in the Star article. "If we get one or two orders (in Toronto) we'll be more than happy."
If the car looks familiar, it is currently making its second appearance at the Canadian International AutoShow and was featured last week on CBC's Dragons' Den.
Dragons Brett Wilson and Robert Herjavec made a deal during the taping offering $1 million plus a $500,000 operating line of credit for 20 per cent of the company and three cars. Since the taping, Robert took the car for a test drive, but ran into transmission problems so the deal is on hold.
Forest says the problem has been fixed and Robert has been invited back for another test drive. HTT plans to move forward with plans for the car with or without the Dragons.
The Plethore is on display at the Canadian International AutoShow from now until the show ends on Sunday.
source: ca.news.yahoo
