Jannarelly Design-1

Lightweight, mid-engined, road-biased sports car from Dubai arrives in the UK

- Antony Ingram

THE SMALL-VOLUME, HIGH-performance sportscar battlefield is divided along two fronts in 2020. On the one side you have the track specials such as the Radical Rapture and Revolution A-One. Awesomely capable on track, obsessively engineered, and occasionally offered with just enough on-road ability for a weekend drive, provided you don’t mind wearing an ARAI everywhere you go.

On the other front is the burgeoning market for ultra-exclusive hypercars. Exotic carbon fibre bodywork, possibly electric power, most likely a four-figure output. They’re hyper-rare, hyper-expensive, and you’re hyper unlikely to see one being driven on the roads they’re purportedly designed for.

In the middle of all this you’ll find the Jannarelly Design-1. Lightweight, compact and driver-focused, it shares plenty with those track-day specials, but it’s also resolutely road-biased, capable of dealing with potholes and rainstorms. Jannarelly also offers a tailored ordering process and the kind of close relationship between factory and client that you’d expect of the exotic supercar market, despite the Design-1 being priced at a level that prioritises enjoyment rather than investment.

On paper it also has the kind of specification you might put together if asked to create the perfect sports car. A kerb weight under a tonne, a mid-mounted engine of more than four cylinders, a manual gearbox, a limited-slip differential, and steering unsullied by power assistance.