MAGNUM CARS MK5



When niche sportscar builders enter the fray with bespoke toys for the nouveau riche, suspicions are bound to raise eyebrows among us. After all, $ 139,000 isn't a small chunk of change for a car without a roof, powered by what's essentially a 1340 cc Suzuki Hayabusa four-banger. That's especially true when the company building it has never manufactured a street legal car.

Magnum Cars isn't just a one-hit wonder dreamt up by some well-moneyed playboy with a capital-losing business venture. The relatively unknown company, based in Montreal, Quebec, has been manufacturing Formula cars since 1968.


Magnum's first racer - the Mk1 - competed in Formula Vee. And it was fast. Really fast. The MkII, built for Formula Ford competition, captured the attention of many competitors, even soon-to-be Formula 1 legend Gilles Villeneuve. He admired it so much, Villeneuve commissioned MkIII be built for him in 1973 for the same series.


The MK5 aims to package the soul and excitement of Magnum's previous racing cars in a street-legal track day toy for a fraction of the cost of a full-on Formula season. Bruno St-Jacques, who has an extensive history in racing (Formula Ford, Daytona Prototypes, and Minardi's Formula 3000 junior team), is intimately familiar with being in an open-wheel cockpit. He believes the MK5 provides "a unique experience, tailored to deliver excitement with a 11,000 rpm redline."


Shod in carbon-fiber panels and with enough cargo capacity to carry "two helmets and a briefcase," it's easy to see Magnum means business. For the above-mentioned US$139,000, Magnum will build you a 210 hp version of the MK5. Or, for extra spice on your poutine, Magnum will punch up output to 250 hp at the customer's request using its own secret recipe. That extra horsepower won't come with exorbitant Ferrari or Porsche style pricing either, expecting to command a premium less than US$10,000 over the base MK5.


In an ever-growing field of street-legal track day specials, Magnum is a small fish in an even smaller performance-powered pond. St-Jacques knows this and took special attention with the car's ease of use, making it effortless to drive fast, while also designing a shape "people will admire for hours," he said.


But, that six-figure price tag makes the MK5 a much more expensive proposition than many of its competitors. The Ariel Atom, which is decidedly more hardcore than the MK5, costs a paltry US$56,480 without options and boasts a similar output of 230 hp from a 2.4L K-series Honda engine. Even a Caterham 7 Superlight R400, sporting 210 hp and the iconic Lotus Seven silhouette, will set you back just a little over US$55,000. Expect to put the 2.0L Duratec engine and six-speed transmission in yourself though, as Caterhams aren't available as turn-key purchases.

Source : roadandtrack