South Africa Has Built a Boutique Supercar That Looks Like a Le Mans Prototype Racer

9 years, 11 months ago - 14 December 2014, Carbuzz

We're guessing that they'd invite that comparison. The car you're looking at was built by a company called Barnard, out of South Africa, which has actually been around for 12 years.

And although a huge percentage of the shed-built supercars that we see here turn out to be vaporware, that in no way seems to be the case here. The car is called the BTR700 and it is powered by a GM-sourced 7.0-liter V8 with twin turbos. In base trim this produces 700 horsepower.

The engine can be spec'd up though, and there are options for 1,100 horsepower and even 2,000 hp; although this changes the name to either BTR1100 or BTR2000. As you've no doubt noticed, the car looks like an LMP car, and even if it isn't vaporware, one has to wonder a bit about how street legal it will be. We don't have an answer for that, and neither do we have a price, but what we do have is doubts that it will make it to the US, at least not for a while. NHTSA crash test regulations being what they are, cars like these generally don't make it over, at least not until they've been in production for quite a while.