Ares Design creates carbon‑fibre Chevy Corvette

The Corvette C8 is the basis of the latest creation from Ares Design, the company set up in Modena by former Lotus chief Danny Bahar. The Ares S1 Project had its world debut as a full-size model at Salon Privé.

With its jet fighter style canopy sitting atop a lean, heavily sculpted form over huge wheels, the S1 boasts a character all its own. Ares bills it as the first car wholly designed by them, with all the body and part of the frame newly fashioned in carbon-fibre. No plastic body here! You still get the Chevy V8 though.

“It’s a completely new design and our vision of an Ares hypercar,” the firm’s Riccardo Pozzato tells GRR. The plan is to make 24 of them from January 2021.

Danny Bahar is famous for grand supercar plans – his five-model blitz when at Lotus is the stuff of automotive legend – and the S1 Project is more evidence of Ares moving past coachbuilding and into bespoke manufacturing.

That is already under way with the Legends Reborn series, homages to past supercar greats that marry classic looks with modern platforms and drivetrains. The first of those, officially ProgettoUno but unofficially the Ares Pantera, was also on show at Salon Prive, impressing for its strong flavour of the now near-iconic de Tomaso Pantera from the 1970s.

It was first shown last year and this is the seventh of 21 that Ares plans to make. Underneath the all-carbon body is a Lamborghini Huracan Performante whose V10 performance the Ares Pantera emulates, with 0-62mph in 3.1 seconds and a 200mph top speed.

“The Lamborghini is bigger than the Pantera but the proportions are very similar, which is why we chose it and why it works so well,” says Riccardo Pozzato. You certainly couldn’t mistake the source of its inspiration for anything else. Cost of a car just like it is €515,000 which includes the donor Lambo.

What other legends does Ares plan to bring back? Two are in the pipeline, one from the 1950s and one from the 1960s. Apart from the ‘50s car having an interior inspired by luxury glassware company Lalique, there’s no clue yet to what the cars will be homages to.

Together with bespoke coachbuilding projects like a Bentley Mulsanne coupe and a pair of customised BMW motorcycles also on show at Salon Privé, it seems that there’s no shortage of projects getting the full Ares treatment in Modena. But then, Danny Behar never was short of ideas…