This is the 1997 Spectre R45, one of just two examples built for the entire world, the only one painted yellow and the only one on the road today. The R45 was developed by British boutique automobile manufacturer Spectre Supersports Ltd which was founded by Ray Christopher in the 1990s. Christopher, who was previously associated with British company GT Development had always dreamed of creating his very own supercar. In late 1992, Christopher began development work of his own car called the R42. The first ‘R42’ was officially 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. 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 car shown here, known as the R45 was set to be the successor model to the R42, and was developed alongside its predecessor. The R45 features a body made entirely of carbon fiber, a 4.6-litre Ford V8 engine and many other improvements that ultimately made the R45 lighter, more aerodynamic, and sleeker than the R42 model. The R45 made it’s official debut during the 1997 London Motor Show where it was shown by actor Desmond Llewellyn, however, just one year later, both the R42 and R45 projects left for good in 1998 due to insufficient funding.
How many made? 2
Engine: 4.6L Ford V8 engine
Debut: 1997 London Motor Show
Top Speed: n/a
0-60mph: n/a
Photo credit: @carmandan66
Research: @rarecarsonly