Moscow lines up on super car grid

Italy and England both have a pedigree for supercars, now Russia is trying to join the fold.

Cars from Russia's Marussia. Christian Alminana / AFP

Think hotbeds of exotic sports car production and the chances are you'd conjure up visions of the traditional super car heartlands in northern Italy, home to legendary marques such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

Or perhaps to the less glamorous English Midlands where Aston Martin and Jaguar have their roots.

In the future, though, you might just have to think unlikely Moscow rather than revered Maranello because the Russians are coming.

Founded in 2007, Marussia Motors is Russia's first high-performance car maker and in the past few months the fledgling company has unveiled a couple of dashing two-seaters, the B1 and B2.

More significantly, Marussia has underlined the seriousness of its aspirations by entering global motor sport's top tier by taking a majority shareholding in the Virgin Racing Formula One team - now rebadged for the 2011 Grand Prix season as Marussia Virgin Racing.

This is all part of a far-reaching international strategy - already successfully employed by the likes of Ferrari and McLaren - to use F1 as the perfect platform from which to market exclusive sporty super cars.

As you would expect, both B1 and the mechanically similar but more aggressively styled B2 are potent, lightweight, mid-engined two-seaters. Despite their track pedigree and skeletal weight, neither model is a stripped out road-racer; they are designed to be comfortable as well as quick, with the hand-stitched luxury of leather. They are comprehensively equipped too with advanced instrumentation, air conditioning, electric windows plus plenty of other mod-cons.

Taking a leaf out of the F1 programme, power comes from a specially commissioned Cosworth engine producing up to 420 brake horsepower - ample to give a predicted top speed of about 250kph. Although the V6 engines are sourced from the UK, Marussia claims 80 per cent of the end product is designed and built in-house at its Moscow production facility.

In preparation for imminent customer sales, a prestigious showroom was recently opened in Red Square and the company has announced plans for similar sales centres in other major European cities.

Further highlighting its ambitions, Marussia gave a striking F2 multi-purpose SUV its world debut in Moscow earlier this year. Clearly the Russians have Range Rover as well as Ferrari in their sights.

Q&A

Are the cars any good?

With their sweeping lines and muscular haunches the Marussia two-seaters certainly look the part. They also appear to have the right ingredients beneath their stylish skins: mid-mounted Cosworth engine, lightweight and strong semi-monocoque structure, six-speed paddle-shift transmission, high-tech infotainment system. As always, though, it’s the overall driving experience that will be the make or break factor and as yet no one credible from the outside world has been allowed to put the cars through their paces.

Who’s behind the project?

The energy comes from the showman Nikolay Fomenko but the funding comes from Andrey Cheglakov, a Russian billionaire. He made a fortune selling the Dendy game console and has subsequently developed an expanding business portfolio. He says his personal challenge is to make the Russian motor industry as impressive and inspiring as the Russian classical music scene – another area in which he invests and participates.
Nikolay Fomenko is quite a showman isn't he?
Indeed. Internationally he may be known as a semi-successful sports car racer but back home he really is something of a star. In the 1980s he was lead guitarist and singer in the band Secret before turning to acting and more recently has become a major television celebrity.

When will we see Marussias on the road?

No date has yet been confirmed.

THE QUOTE:

"The launch of our Marussia car is very much like the launch of the first Russian Sputnik or Sergei Diaghilev's 'Russian Seasons' in Europe," says Andrey Cheglakov, Marussia Motors founder.

TOP FIVE RUSSIAN MILESTONES:

1 Russian F1 Team launched, 2010

2 Vitaly Petrov, F1 driver, places third, 2011

3 The Russian F1 Grand Prix, scheduled for 2014

4 Winter Olympics 2014

5 Fifa World Cup 2018