ONE MAN'S SPORTS CAR DREAM

Robin Wells fancied a new sports car so decided to build his own. The result is the Wells Vertige, and now you can have one too

- by JOHN BARKER

THERE'S A WRY PHRASE FROM THE entertainment industry that goes 'It's only taken ten years to become an overnight success'. What you see here is perhaps the closest thing you'll find in the automotive industry. It's called the Wells Vertige and it's a sub-1000kg, mid-engined British sports car that's been flying under the radar for the last decade. The prototype was shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2021 and driven by a rival car magazine soon after, and a number of 'first generation' cars have already been delivered, but only now has the Vertige reached a level of completeness where its creator, Robin Wells, is happy(-ish) to lay down tools, push the button on full production and, in a few months' time, let us drive the finished car.

I can't wait. It's an appealingly small, low, pretty, two-seater sports car, a little bigger than an Elise, a little smaller than an Evora. I see hints of D-type in the nose, Dino too, and Stratos in the tail with its circular lights and small ducktail, but with its dihedral doors and glass fastback the Vertige is very much its own thing, a car designed to compete with Lotus and Alfa's 4C, and which has reached completion just as both manufacturers abandon this particular market niche.

Beneath the Kevlar-reinforced glassfibre body is a very stiff, folded-steel chassis with tubular subframes at either end, double wishbones and disc brakes all round, and modestly shod 17-inch alloy wheels. The definitive engine will be a naturally aspirated, 2.5-litre Duratec four making 225bhp, the gearbox a six-speed manual, and there's no power steering, no brake servo and no anti-lock. Dry weight is just 867kg, kerb around 950kg.