Author: Richard Dredge
Images: Spectre Motors
Some of the long-forgotten projects that we cover in this column didn’t really deserve to succeed, because they were badly engineered, poorly made and often very optimistically priced. But these things didn’t apply to the Spectre R42, because it was well engineered and fabulous to drive, and it was sensibly priced too, even though it was up against some very stiff competition.
The Spectre R42 project started in 1991, as the brainchild of Ray Chrisopher. He was the owner of GT Developments (GTD), which built exacting replicas of the Ford GT40. By 1991 he had sold more than 300 GT40s, and he fancied making his own GT40 successor for the nineties. The formula would be very similar: a mid-mounted Ford V8 would sit ahead of a transaxle gearbox, while the rakish bodywork would be light thanks to the liberal use of folded aluminium and honeycomb composite.
Called the R42 after its creator (Ray) and the fact that it sat 42 inches tall, a pre-production prototype was unveiled at the London Motor Show in October 1993. But the car was launched straight into a global recession and GT Developments had overstretched itself; within a year the company had gone bust.
All was not lost though, because in March 1995 GT Developments was bought by American company Spectre Motors Inc, led by former Scandinavian GTD dealer Anders Hildebrand and his father. Within four months he had put the R42 into production in GTD’s factory in Dorset, while also setting up dealerships in England, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden. He even managed to interest Steve Saleen in building the R42 in the US, not that this happened.
What’s remarkable is that while GTD’s bodyshell was carried over, in those few months Spectre revamped the interior and overhauled an array of details such as switching the Ford Orion rear lights for Honda Legend items. The quality of the bodywork was also vastly improved. The original plan had been to use aluminium or carbonfibre for the outer panels, but glassfibre was used instead, in a bid to speed up production times and cut costs. The monocoque was a Group C-style composite affair, while the brakes were developed by AP Racing for maximum stopping power. Naturally there was double-wishbone suspension at each corner.
While the R42’s exterior design was a bit on the generic side, with some awkward shut lines here and there, it was aerodynamic with a drag co-efficient of 0.28. The whole of the back end tipped back to reveal a 4.6-litre Ford-sourced quad-cam V8 which drove the back wheels (shod in 335/35 ZR17 tyres) via a five-speed transaxle built by Getrag. Capable of generating 350bhp along with 335lb ft of torque, the V8 could push the 1550kg R42 all the way to a claimed 175mph, having despatched the 0-60mph sprint in just four seconds along the way.
What let down most low-volume cars of this era was an interior design and quality that would shame a kit car, but not here. Sure there were maybe a few too many parts obviously sourced from a contemporary Ford Fiesta, but there were plenty of premium materials such as Wilton carpet, leather and Alcantara.
Autocar drove a pre-production prototype in summer 1995 and came away very impressed, but it wasn’t until spring 1997 that extended media drives took place. By then the R42 had been more fully developed, and when Brett Fraser drove a Spectre for Performance Car in 1997, he brimmed over with enthusiasm. He wrote: “That moment of truth has arrived for the R42, at the hungry mouth of a vicious set of kinks, glowing golden as the sun reflects off a light coating of water. Perfect. Testing. Frightening. After all, anyone can claim to have made a supercar, but not everyone will have done it properly. Which is this to be? A deep breath, a firm grip of the steering wheel. A hefty kick to the ribs of a snarly V8 and we’re off to find out the hard way.
“The speedo’s saying 70mph but my brain’s saying ‘not yet’, so a dab of the brakes and into the fray at 60mph. Flick right, left, right, left, gentle right and accelerate hard. Doddle. Neither the Spectre or my confidence were fazed by that run. Go again, this time in at 70mph. No problem. Nor at 75. Or 80. At 85 it’s my nerve which is becoming the limiting factor because the Spectre keeps on howling through the corners as if it were a giant Scalextric car. It barely rolls, neither understeers nor oversteers, utterly composed. Unlike the driver. My reflexes can’t keep pace with the car, which is always a good time to stop pushing one’s luck. The Spectre deserves its supercar tag, no doubt about it.”
But all of the positive media coverage was never going to make much difference, because as is so often the way with these low-profile projects that are hugely talented, the R42 never really stood a chance, because production costs were too high thanks to a lack of economies of scale. It took 2000 hours to build each R42, guaranteeing that money was lost on each one. When it was launched in 1995, the R42 carried a £69,950 list price which made it 15 grand more than a Lotus Esprit V8, while even a Honda NSX and Porsche 911 Carrera RS cost less. By 1997 the price had risen to £75k; an Aston Martin DB7 was only 10% more at £82,500, while a Porsche 911 Turbo was listed at £98k (the Carrera was £61,250). You had to really want something different to buy a Spectre…
Of course there weren’t nearly enough people prepared to sign up for an R42, but despite this, during 1997 Spectre built a couple of prototypes for a car that was easier to assemble than the R42, and to a higher standard, which could also command a higher asking price. The R45 made its debut at the 1997 London Motor Show and we were promised that at the same event a year later there would be a production model. But that didn’t happen because Spectre went belly up in the meantime, with just 23 R42s made.
What are your thoughts on the Spectre R42? Let us know in the comments below.
