Mumbai-based car company Vazirani Automotive has showcased the Shul hypercar – for the first time in India - at its studio in the city, a little over two months after the Shul made its debut at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Billed as the first Indian hypercar, the Shul uses a micro-turbine range extender paired with a lightweight battery pack, which charges the individual motors powering each of the four wheels. Speaking to Autocar India, chief designer Chunky Vazirani said, “The idea was to create something that has uses a unique powertrain and a unique design to go with that powertrain.” Vazirani also added that the Shul was designed under the guidance of the man behind the Gran Turismo video game, Kazunori Yamauchi, and to that effect, features a Gran Turismo logo just above the high-mounted, centre-exit exhaust. It is also supposed to be featured in the game, though how it will be incorporated into the series is unclear at this time.
The futuristic-looking Shul has an eye-catching but smooth, flowing design with plenty of air ducts designed to generate adequate downforce to keep the 1,000+hp hypercar planted at high speeds. There’s a massive radiator that runs across the center of the car. The front bumper features a large intake that feeds air to the batteries - located along the central tunnel and behind the passenger cell - and also creates a lot of downforce at the front. In fact, there’s also an air duct under the headlights to cool the brakes.
The rear features an integrated spoiler and a double diffuser which, in Vazirani’s words, “has been inspired by an F1 car”. Interestingly, the corners at the back have been chopped off to stop the air from spooling around the car. There are also two fins at the back, which, apart from channelling the air, also work as mounting points for the spoiler. It even has cameras instead of wing mirrors, a feature already available on the Audi e-tron electric SUV.
Employing a micro-turbine also means using smaller (and thus lighter) batteries, which normally account for a big chunk of the weight in electric cars. “A turbine range-extender allows us to work with a smaller battery pack (which weighs around 300kg) and provide aural drama to spice up the whole experience,” Vazirani said.
Just how quick will it be? Vazirani tells us the company is targeting a 0-100kph time of under 2.5 seconds. The company is also aiming for the Shul to have a pure electric range of 150-200km.
Moreover, modularity will be a key aspect of the Shul hypercar, and Vazirani plans to offer multiple battery options and motor configurations in the future.
Set to go into production in 2021, the Shul won’t be the only car to be developed by Vazirani Automotive. The company has planned multiple cars, but the first ones, to begin with, will be based on the Shul.
Also see:
In profile: Chunky Vazirani, the man behind the Shul
Vazirani Automotive Shul hypercar image gallery