Wells Vertige

[Rich B]

Tbh, if you want an Elise/Exige type car and have £50k, then you might as well just go and get an Elise or Exige.

[Holley]

Heard Matt Pryor and Steve Cropley talk about it in there podcast (very much two old blokes talking in a pub, but I quite like that).

Apparently only intend to sell 50 before moving on and Autocar seem to rate it.

Personally I would rather have a GR86 at £20k less, but can see why someone might want something more unique and British.

I like the Autocar week in motoring podcast, plus they've had May and Harris as guests so it's not always just Prior and Cropley. Not listened to all of them yet though.

As for the Vertige, selling 50 seems a very pragmatic aim. That's £50k times 50, so £2.5m total revenue. Deduct the VAT and it' a bit over £2m. How much are the material/parts costs for a car; maybe 25% though I think that's optimistic, but still: let's be generous and say £10k per unit. How on earth is there any money in the coffers to develop and build the thing? Even with Mr Wells buying his premises - so they'll have a value later down the line - the costs of building them and complying with legislation can't make it viable.

Good luck to him; it's been a long time since we've had a plucky British maker start-up. But I hope he's already financially secure because this is a vanity project at best.

I think it's an entry in to something bigger down the line. I believe I read somewhere (or heard) that they see themselves as a mini-McLaren.

Interesting way starting with a £50k car rather than a £1m+ car that so many start-ups seem to do. Clever? We'll see I guess.

Enjoyed both the Harris and May guests. Was quite amusing just how many times May as been fired from previous jobs!

[Jobbo]

When I first saw the Vertige I wondered if Chris Greville-Smith was involved; Bishops Itchington isn't far from where he designed and built the Phantom Vortex (latterly Vortex GTR) and since he owned my old house in Kenilworth before me, he actually built it in what became my car magazine storage area

https://www.vortex-auto.com/vortex--our-history.html

Can't see any link, though Chris has done a fair bit of chassis consultancy for others over the years, so possibly behind the scenes.

[Rich B]

Bishops Itchington

Surely this isn't real!??

[Jobbo]

Bishops Itchington

Surely this isn't real!??

Yes it is - near Leamington Spa

I now drive past Bell End on my way to the new office

[nuttinnew]

When I first saw the Vertige I wondered if Chris Greville-Smith was involved; Bishops Itchington isn't far from where he designed and built the Phantom Vortex (latterly Vortex GTR) and since he owned my old house in Kenilworth before me, he actually built it in what became my car magazine storage area

https://www.vortex-auto.com/vortex--our-history.html

Can't see any link, though Chris has done a fair bit of chassis consultancy for others over the years, so possibly behind the scenes.

Istr that as a kit using Rover 800 parts Not unpleasant.

Rural place names ftw

[mik]

I like the Autocar week in motoring podcast, plus they've had May and Harris as guests so it's not always just Prior and Cropley. Not listened to all of them yet though.

As for the Vertige, selling 50 seems a very pragmatic aim. That's £50k times 50, so £2.5m total revenue. Deduct the VAT and it' a bit over £2m. How much are the material/parts costs for a car; maybe 25% though I think that's optimistic, but still: let's be generous and say £10k per unit. How on earth is there any money in the coffers to develop and build the thing? Even with Mr Wells buying his premises - so they'll have a value later down the line - the costs of building them and complying with legislation can't make it viable.

Good luck to him; it's been a long time since we've had a plucky British maker start-up. But I hope he's already financially secure because this is a vanity project at best.

I can’t figure this out either - in my experience, tooling costs for pretty much anything are significant - amortising that cost over only 50 vehicles just can’t work with that asking price Shirley?

[RobYob]

I don't imagine it's quite so black & white. Just because you don't want to do something, doesn't mean you're happy for someone else to do it.

I recon this is closer to the mark, can you imagine the constant background hum of "We're so glad SOMEONE is still making the Lotus lightweight small platform even when Hethel gave up on it" in future publicity of a Lotus product?

Practically keeping production of that tub up may not be straightforward even if Lotus were willing to sell the tooling (assuming it isn't knackered) those extruding machines can't be cheap and I imagine are now flat out making Emira bits. So there's a large capital investment to go with your niche vehicle...