An extremely rare car with an extremely awesome story! This is the This 1996 Spectre R42 (VIN no. 71015). This car is 1 of just 23 R42 examples believed to have built total. The R42 was later developed by British boutique automobile manufacturer Spectre Supersports Ltd, and was first designed by a man name Ray Christopher. Christopher was previously associated with British company GT Development. The name ‘R42’ derived from the designers first name ‘Ray’ or ‘R’ and ‘42’ indicating the 42 inch height of the original GT40. Christopher’s original intention with the R42 was to create an endurance racing car that was designed to be raced at Le Mans. This never came to fruition, however, a limited production run of homologated road cars were required to compete, so thus, a series of R42s were completed. The project kicked off in 1992, with the first ‘R42’ subsequently being shown at the 1993 London Motor Show. In 1995, an American company named Spectre Motors took over the R42 project. With former GT development sales agent Anders Hildebrand leading the project, the team quickly began to reorganize production of the R42. The R42 utilizes a full fiberglass body over a aluminium honeycomb monocoque with steel subframe and steel rollover bars. The first and possibly most important step was the launch of the ‘ALCO-Spectre racing programme’, again with the intentions of racing at Le Mans. However, with such little time to execute, the cars were all reportedly put together quickly and without attention to detail, for example, utilizing door handles from a Toyota MR2, and interior parts from the Ford Fiesta. A Le Mans variant of the R42, called the ‘R42 GTR’ was made and it was scheduled to race in Le Mans in 1997, but Spectre again ran out of funding, and it never raced. The R42 project left for good in 1998, but not before starring in a movie called “RPM” (1998).
How many made? 23
Engine: 4.6-litre Ford V8 engine (shared with the Mustang Cobra) generating 350 hp.
Debut: 1993 London Motor Show
Top Speed: 175mph (claimed)
0-60: 4.5 seconds
Photo credit: @classictorque, @dansleretroautomobile
Research: @rarecarsonly