california racer
The California-based Aria Group has not in the past been known as a carmaker, but their design and engineering pedigree is impressive. They’ve worked across a range of industries with well-established entities — Honda, Tesla, Ford, and Northrop Grumman, for instance.
On the back of this portfolio, the Aria FXE, which stands to be the group’s first production car, is something to be excited about. It is a 2-door mid-engine ultra-high performance coupe, of course, with an aggressively aerodynamic all-carbon-fibre chassis of monocoque design. In true 21st-century fashion, it has a hybrid powertrain that mates a 6.2-litre supercharged V8 engine with an electric motor. This puts it in the company of other modern supercars such as the Ferrari LaFerrari or the McLaren P1, and so do the numbers: the FXE can put out a stratospheric 1150bhp, and it can hit a top speed of 220mph (354km/h) with a 0-60mph time of 3.1 seconds.
The price has not yet been revealed, but if other exclusive, boutique supercars are anything to go by, well north of US$1 million would be unsurprising. It is set to be released in 2019.
