This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2008) |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Automotive |
Founded | 2 December 1994 |
Defunct | 2010 |
Fate | Bankruptcy [1] |
Headquarters | Banbury, Oxfordshire, England |
Key people | Geoff Finlay ceo |
Products | Automobiles |
Owner | Klaas Zwart |
Website | ascari.net |
Ascari Cars Ltd. was a British automobile manufacturer based in Banbury, England, and founded by Klaas Zwart. [2] Zwart was the former chairman and majority owner of oil and gas company Petroline, which designed and manufactured its own downhole technology. Petroline was purchased by Weatherford in 1999. [3]
The company was named after Alberto Ascari (1918–1955), the first double winner of the World Championship of Drivers. [4]
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Ascari's official site was also shut down and has not been updated since 2009.
Ascari Cars was established in Dorset in 1994. Its first limited-edition car, the Ascari Ecosse, was launched in 1998.
In 2000 Ascari Cars built a new facility in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Ascari Car's second car, the Ascari KZ1, was developed at Banbury, which also housed Team Ascari's racing assets. The premises are now occupied by Haas F1 Team. [5]
Due to declining sales of the Ascari KZ1 and the high cost of production Ascari suffered heavy financial losses; the company filed for bankruptcy in 2010. [6]
Year | Model | Details |
---|---|---|
1995 | Ascari FGT | Initial concept car created for racing |
1998 | Ascari Ecosse | Production version of the FGT |
2003 | Ascari KZ1 | Production version of A410 Race car |
2005 | Ascari KZ1-R | Road-going version of the KZ1-R GT3 race car |
2006 | Ascari A10 | Upgraded version of the KZ1 |
Year | Model | Details |
---|---|---|
1995 | Ascari FGT | Racing version of the FGT concept, run in the British GT Championship |
2000 | Ascari A410 | Le Mans Prototype |
2002 | Ascari KZR-1 | Upgraded version of the A410 |
2005 | Ascari KZ1-R GT3 | Racing version of the KZ1, running in the FIA GT3 class |
Groupe Renault is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans and in the past, has manufactured trucks, tractors, tanks, buses/coaches, aircraft and aircraft engines, and autorail vehicles.
Scuderia Ferrari S.p.A. is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in reference to their logo. It is the oldest surviving and most successful Formula One team, having competed in every world championship since 1950.
Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census.
The automotive industry in the United Kingdom is now best known for premium and sports car marques including Aston Martin, Bentley, Caterham Cars, Daimler, Jaguar, Lagonda, Land Rover, Lister Cars, Lotus, MG, McLaren, Mini, MOKE, Morgan, Rolls-Royce and TVR. Volume car manufacturers with a major presence in the UK include Nissan, Toyota, BMW, and Vauxhall Motors. Commercial vehicle manufacturers active in the UK include Alexander Dennis, Dennis Eagle, IBC Vehicles, Leyland Trucks, TEVVA and London Electric Vehicle Company.
Saab Automobile AB was a car manufacturer that was founded in Sweden in 1945 when its parent company, Saab AB, began a project to design a small automobile. The first production model, the Saab 92, was launched in 1949. In 1968 the parent company merged with Scania-Vabis, and ten years later the Saab 900 was launched, in time becoming Saab's best-selling model. In the mid-1980s the new Saab 9000 model also appeared.
Antonio Ascari was an Italian Grand Prix motor racing champion. He won four Grands Prix before his premature death at the 1925 French Grand Prix. He was the father of two-time World Champion Alberto Ascari.
Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advanced technology division applies this motorsport engineering approach to deliver engineering solutions into automotive OEMs, aerospace, defence, marine and other sectors, which now represents more than half its turnover. Prodrive also has a specialist composite division based in Milton Keynes where it manufactures lightweight carbon composite CFRP and visual carbon components for many supercars and increasingly for the luxury automotive, aerospace and marine sectors.
Spyker Cars is a Dutch sports car marque held by the holding company Spyker N.V.. The modern Spyker Cars held the legal rights to the brand name. The company's motto is "Nulla tenaci invia est via", Latin for "For the tenacious, no road is impassable". The marque's logo displays an aircraft propeller superimposed over a spoked wheel, a reference to the historic Spyker company that manufactured automobiles and aircraft. In 2010, the company acquired Swedish car manufacturer Saab Automobile from General Motors.
The Ascari KZ1 is a sports car made by Ascari Cars. The car is named from the initials of Ascari's owner Klaas Zwart, a wealthy Dutch businessman.
The Ascari Ecosse is a mid-engined sports car produced by Ascari Cars from 1998 to 1999. It was the first production car released by the company and is essentially the production version of the Ascari FGT concept race car.
The British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England holds the world's largest collection of historic British cars, with over 300 cars on display from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Heritage Trust.
In the United States automotive industry, the term Big Three is used for the country's three largest motor vehicle manufacturers, especially indicating companies that sell under multiple brand names.
The Ascari A10 is a prototype automobile produced by the British company Ascari Cars that was conceived by Dutch millionaire Klaas Zwart. It is a road-going evolution of the KZ1-R GT race car that participated in the Spanish GT Championship, with both cars penned by Paul Brown, former designer for the Zakspeed F1 team. It was intended to be the third road car produced by the company, after the Ecosse and the KZ1, with the name A10 intended to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the company, but it did not reach production despite a planned fifty cars.
Weatherford International plc, an American–Irish public limited company, together with its subsidiaries, is a multinational oilfield service company and one of the largest companies in the world in oil services. Weatherford is a company providing equipment and services used in the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells. Many of the company's businesses, including those of predecessor companies, have been operating for more than 50 years.
Myers EV, is a small automobile company operating in Tallmadge, Ohio. Their original vehicle, the Myers Motors NmG was a single-passenger, three-wheeled, battery electric vehicle designed specifically for commuting and city driving. It was initially produced by Corbin Motors as the Sparrow. It is a Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV).
The 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis formed part of the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the resulting Great Recession. The crisis affected European and Asian automobile manufacturers, but it was primarily felt in the American automobile manufacturing industry. The downturn also affected Canada by virtue of the Automotive Products Trade Agreement.
Lee Antony Noble is a British entrepreneur, car designer and engineer. He is the founder of the sports car companies Noble Automotive Ltd in 1999 and Fenix Automotive in 2009. He is also the designer of some low-volume sports cars, including the Ultima Mk1, Ultima Mk2, Ultima Mk3, Midtec Spyder and Ascari FGT.
The Ascari A410 was a Le Mans Prototype built by Ascari Cars in 2000. The car, which was based on the Lola T92/10 Group C racing car, featured a 4-litre Judd GV4 V10 engine, and was used in European and international sports car racing events. In 2002, it was renamed as the Ascari KZR-1.
Borgward Group AG was a Chinese-German automobile brand established in 2010 with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The company carried the name and logo of the former German brand Borgward. Design and engineering was located in Germany, but the cars were produced in China by Foton Motor.
The Circuito Ascari resort is a private motorsports club for automotive enthusiasts and manufacturers with a 5.425 km (3.371 mi) long motor racing circuit near Ronda, a city in the Spanish Province of Málaga. It was founded, designed, and built by Klaas Zwart, a racing enthusiast and owner of Ascari Cars; the track was completed in 2003. In 2022, Zwart sold the facility to two companies in Switzerland and Argentina.