Venturi or Automobiles Venturi achieved iconic status as a prime manufacturer of sports cars. At the height of its involvement in car racing, it competed toe to toe with Italy’s Ferrari, the French Bugatti and the German Porsche. These industry giants dominated the racing circuit in Europe. In fact, countless times have the Venturi shown superiority against its acknowledged rivals. But in 2001, Monegasque millionaire Gildo Pallanca Pastor bought the rights to the French Automobile Company and soon enough diverted focus to the production of eco-friendly, green cars.

Under new management, Venturi produced the world’s first ever two-seater electric sports car and aptly named it the Venturi Fetish, produced from its Monaco facility. It could have made a big splash over green car advocates but production has been limited to only 25 vehicles. Thus, worldwide only a select few can test the viability of the Venturi Fetish as a sports car, the rest will simply think of it as a concept car.

The Fetish has been designed to perform comparably with sports cars. Equipped with petrol-powered engines, its batteries can produce 250 horsepower (180kW) with acceleration gauged at 0-100kph (0-60mph) for just less than 5 seconds, according to a 2007 press review. Achieving a top speed of 160 kph (100mph) however falls way below its gas-powered counterparts. Nevertheless, this is already considered respectable since the Fetish runs on only on a single gear and is devoid of a need for a sophisticated transmission system. The torque runs constant at 200 Nm and translates this into a ratio of 9.58: 1. Read the rest of this entry »