What do Bugatti, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Citroën have in common? The answer is that they all manufacture super-fast supercars for the super-rich. No surprise with the first five names but, sacre bleu ? Citroën? It's true: the wild looking machine you see here is going into production next year. A 300kph supercar costing ?1.4 million (Dh7.35m) from the company that gave the world the 2CV.
But if the idea of the Citroën GT shocks, the reality - when first you see one on the road - stops you dead. True, it has a recognisable Citroën face, but otherwise it could have been designed to fulfil a schoolboy's sci-fi fantasy. Funny that. For while this car is as real as cars get - I know, I've had a go in it - the project started life in the virtual world of the PlayStation racing game, Gran Turismo. Citroën people are quick to point out that it's more than that, the car having been designed from the start to deliver in the real world as well as on the small screen. This fully working GT concept car debuted at the Paris motor show last year and Citroën has now revealed it will produce six more GTs at cost price, with the first cars being delivered next year.
So who'd buy a Citroën rather than a Bugatti or a Ferrari? Citroën's Patrick Arnaud, the man in charge of all Citroën concept cars, says the GT will sell to serious collectors who are turned on by the way the GT looks and by the car's exclusivity. In this context, the low-rent Citroën badge is immaterial, believes Patrick. "If you love this car - and people do - it is not a problem to say it is a Citroën. If someone wants this car, they want it. Citroën stands for creative technology and we do things differently and in our way. That's why we can do a very green, low-cost car one moment and then do this supercar. I think only Citroën can do that."
He may be right, since it's thought that buyers in Europe, Japan and China have already signed up for the GT. One of earliest tyre-kickers was in fact from the UAE. Patrick says: "Someone in Dubai wanted to buy the GT last year before we had even announced we were making it." The Gran Turismo GT boasts a potent hydrogen fuel cell - fine for the virtual world but far from realistic in 2009. So this car reverts to a very ungreen petrol-powered, 500hp V8 from a Ford Mustang. Future owners may get a V10 instead, but what is guaranteed is that power will be around 600hp.
Despite that, the 300kph GT won't be the fastest car in the world, but, as Arnaud says, it is more like a piece of art you can drive; a sculpture on four wheels. Moreover, the production cars will boast a fair amount of creature comforts along with what is already a surprisingly spacious and comfortable cabin. A fantasy too far borne of delusions of grandeur a la francais? Oui. But given the car looks the way it does - and in all probability Citroën has its six buyers already lined up - why on earth wouldn't you make it?
