Exclusive: 200mph Ginetta supercar revealed

Tomlinson cheerfully admits his supercar project is completely new territory for the company he bought 13 years ago as something of a sports car underachiever (after failing to buy TVR) and has built up into a race-minded technology powerhouse. An engineer by training, and one who designs and develops his own car, Tomlinson has already driven the new supercar in anger at Blyton Park, a test and sprint track he owns nearby, and will start on the fine tuning as soon as he gets back from Geneva.

“Why have we done it? Because we can, I guess,” Tomlinson explains when I ask the most obvious question. “We’ve made decent progress on other fronts. We’re racing Toyota in LMP1, we built the first LMP3 car with blessing of the Le Mans organisers, our GT4 car is very successful globally and we’ve been running the world’s most successful junior racing series for many years. We have all the design and technical capability a project like this needs, we’re a proud British operation, and we need to show it off.”

Despite the secrecy, Tomlinson discreetly contacted the circle of enthusiasts he knows, and came up with a handful of orders from serial Ferrari-Lambo-McLaren buyers who know a good driver’s car when they see one. This has since expanded to 14 as word has discreetly spread – not bad going for a project aimed at producing 20 cars in its first production year (2020) and which aims to preserve exclusivity with an annual output of just 30 to 50 cars thereafter. Tomlinson is much encouraged by the early reaction: “Our job is to make a driver’s car so desirable that an owner with six great machines in the garage will walk past the other five to get into ours.”

The new supercar is bigger than any previous Ginetta road car, a shade longer than the latest Porsche GT3 at 4640mm, about 100mm wider and nearly 200mm longer in the wheelbase. Though officially described as front mid-engined, the car is closer than most rear mid-engined rivals to having its engine in the true centre of the car (the tiny V8 is so far back that its drive pulleys sit directly beneath the windscreen wipers) and the 49% front, 51% rear weight distribution proves the fact.

This layout leaves sufficient space to house a carbonfibre front structure that both provides FIA GT3 levels of crash protection and light but rigid mounting for the double-wishbone front suspension, whose coil-over units are anchored in the centre of the car and connected by pushrods. A similar system is used at the rear (pushrod-operated double wishbones mounted on a carbonfibre subframe) but there’s also space for a remarkably large boot, well able to house two sets of golf clubs. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres are substantial without being outrageous: 275/35ZR19s in front and 305/30ZR20s behind, and all running on own-design centre-lock Ginetta alloys. Brakes are Alcon carbon discs.

Tomlinson won Le Mans in a front mid-engined Panoz (and now owns the winning car) but demurs at suggestions that sentiment might have played a part in the layout of his new supercar. It’s just the right way of doing things, he insists. Having the engine so far back allows an optimised aero package. It also allows the front wishbones to be long, unimpeded by an engine, which in turn helps keep the tyres flat on the road as the ride height changes when aero loads build at speed.

For a road car the new Ginetta promises a phenomenal aerodynamic performance. The company has already spent many hours in the Williams wind tunnel developing aerodynamics whose efficiency is clearly all-important in styling that bristles with planes and ducts and aerofoils, plus a high rear deck dominated by a huge wing (with the same aerofoil shape as the Ginetta LMP1 car) and an underbody diffuser that would do justice to many an pure racer. A pair of businesslike slash-cut exhausts prevent pipework interrupting underbody airflow.

Same goes for the downforce, which amounts to an extraordinary 376kg at 100mph, well ahead of cars in the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 bracket, and within 5% of Ginetta’s own current LMP3 car.

Tomlinson is anxious that none of this talk of lightness and extreme aero should obscure the fact that this is very much a practical road car. The “sensible” doors are sized for easy ingress/egress, and he’s passionate about their panel-fit. The boot can wallow 675 litres of luggage, all sight lines are designed for easy visibility in traffic and the car will come with niceties such as automatic headlights, a reversing camera, an electronic parking brake, parking sensors, sat-nav, ABS and traction control, climate control, heated screens and full connectivity. Doorhandles and inside switchgear will be milled from billet aluminium. Ginetta’s comprehensive warranty means the company will take charge of the cars for their first two years “virtually anywhere in the world”.

Owners will be able to configure their cars in almost any colour and trim combo, and every owner will get a race-style car fitting: the seats are moulded into the tub for lightness, so the steering column and pedal box move to suit individual drivers, with seat shapes alterable by inserts or bespoke padding. Tomlinson wants Ginetta ownership to be a highly personal experience, and believes the numbers of cars made will be important for its exclusivity. He’s serious about knowing owners as individuals.

Production will begin late this year, and first deliveries are scheduled for January 2020. Anyone joining Tomlinson’s supercar club now won’t get a car until well into next year, but the group will always be exclusive. For a company that currently makes around 300 cars a year, mostly racers, 50 a year is plenty. “We’re not mass producers,” he says, “and we want this car to be a very good investment.”