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Prodrive has publicly unveiled its P2 two-seater prototype at the Autosport International Show today in Birmingham. The P2, which has gone from concept to a fully-working prototype in just nine months, has been developed at Prodrive's Warwickshire HQ to demonstrate the company's capabilities.
Prodrive has developed Subaru's world rally championships cars, and run its rally team since 1990, but the P2 chassis was actually developed from that of Subaru's tiny R1 city car, and not from the Impreza Turbo's. The R1 chassis was completely reengineered, however, to accommodate the Impreza WRX STi's two-litre, flat-four engine (349bhp). This engine has been fitted with Prodrive's new anti-lag turbo technology, modified from that in the WRC car; this can keep the turbo on-boost at low engine speeds for immediate throttle response throughout the rev range.
The P2 also features Prodrive's active torque dynamics (ATD) system, which uses active centre and rear differentials to control the torque split between front and rear axles, and between the rear wheels. All this is packed into a Peter Stephens-designed two-seater bodyshell, with the whole car weighing just 1100kg despite having all the usual mod cons such as power steering, electric windows and audio system. With such a light weight, acceleration 0-60mph takes less than four seconds, and top speed is around 280kph.
Prodrive boss David Richards describes the P2 as "the perfect manifestation of what happens when our inspirational ideas combine with our innovative approach." The company says that: "While P2 is a fully working car, Prodrive itself currently has no plans to put it into volume production. However, should a vehicle manufacturer approach the company to do so, it is expected that it would have a retail price of approximately ?40,000." Should no-one come up with the cash or a suitable plan to turn this into a production car - Richards is too canny an operator to take the financial risk alone - we can expect, at the least, for the ATD and anti-turbo lag systems demonstrated in the P2 to be supplied to other manufacturers.