From Mexico, Vuhl 05 promises track-day thrills

The Vuhl 05 set to debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 11.

Mexico is emerging as a big player in the automotive manufacturing industry. Ford, Mazda, Volkswagen, and Toyota are currently building vehicles there; they’ll be joined in the coming years by Honda and Nissan, as well asVolkswagen’s second Mexican plant, which will produce Audis. 

But despite the millions of cars being made in Mexico each year, there still aren’t many made by Mexican automakers. To this point, the limited-production Mastretta MXT sports car was all that was available, but soon there will be another Mexican performance machine with the debut of the Vuhl 05.

In the vein of track-day stars like the Ariel Atom and KTM’s X-Bow, the Vuhl 05 is an open two-seater born to carve up corners, made by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. The brainchild of brothers Guillermo and Iker Echeverria, whose father drove and built his own race cars for more than 30 years, the Vuhl 05 is the culmination of the brothers’ experience running their own design firm based out of both Mexico City and Detroit. 

The Vuhl 05 is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged Ford EcoBoost engine, generating an impressive 285 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. The 1,600-pound curb weight of the Vuhl 05 helps it achieve a power-to-weight ratio of 400 horsepower per ton.

Drivers in the Vuhl 05 will sit in carbon bucket seats and shift a six-speed manual transmission. The dashboard can record performance data, while a built-in HD camera records your best (or at least your most entertaining) laps for posterity. The open canopy and a plethora of splitters, diffusers and spoilers give the Vuhl 05 a look reminiscent of the KTM X-Bow. Would it be wrong to call it the “Mex-Bow,” just for giggles? Maybe a little, but the 3.7-second 0-60 mph time and 152-mph top speed mean that the Vuhl is no joke on the track, and the Echeverria brothers are hoping it makes a strong impression as it makes its debut at England’s Goodwood Festival of Speed beginning July 11.

Vuhl is taking orders now for consumers who want an 05 of their own, with deliveries scheduled to begin in early 2014. Initially the Vuhl 05 will be offered only in the United Kingdom and the United States, but the company hopes to expand deliveries into other European countries, the Middle East and China in the next few years. 

autos.msn.com