Classic pearls of the future - Artega GT
11/27/2015
A new sports car called the Artega GT was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2007. Hernik Fisker had delivered an elegant coupé design and drawn a powerful car with compact dimensions (4.01 x 1.88 x 1.18 m).
For the technology, the Artega developers drew on Volkswagen's parts warehouse and used the V6 3.6-liter engine with 300 hp, which was also used in the Passat R36. The direct-shift gearbox (dual-clutch gearbox) was also adopted from the VW.
Under the plastic skin, an aluminum spaceframe chassis weighing less than 100 kg provided stability. The sports car weighed less than 1.3 tons and consumed an average of 9.6 liters according to the Euro4 standard. However, the driving performance of 4.8 seconds for the sprint to 100 km/h and a top speed of 270 km/h were more impressive than the consumption figures.
In 2009, Artega offered the coupé for Euro 79,950. For this price, you got a well-equipped car that could be made significantly more expensive with all kinds of accessories. Larger wheels, for example, cost 3090 euros, complete leather seats 1868 euros, LED daytime running lights 313 euros and there were also all kinds of electronic add-ons.
The small car manufacturer, which moved into a completely new production facility in 2008, ran into financial difficulties early on. Shares were sold to Mexico and the company had to file for insolvency in 2012. From 2009 to 2012, a total of 153 vehicles were produced, hardly any of which looked like the others. Then it was over for the time being.
At the IAA 2015, however, two new Artega models from a successor company were presented to the public: the Artega Scalo, in principle a purely electric Artega whose development had already begun years ago, and the Artega Karo fun car, a quad with electric drive.
However, the Artega GT will no longer multiply, the number of units is very manageable and visually the small sports coupé certainly deserves a place in classic car heaven. It remains to be seen how easy it will be to maintain and replenish parts, but at the moment at least the Paragon company is taking care of that.
More classic pearls can be found in the corresponding topic channel.
