Venturi Automobiles

Venturi Automobiles
Private
Industry Automotive
Founded 1984
Founder Claude Poiraud
Gérard Godfroy
Headquarters Fontvieille, Monaco
Key people
 Gildo Pallanca Pastor, (CEO & Chairmen)
Owner Gildo Pallanca Pastor (100%)
Number of employees
 140 (2012 est.)[1][2][3]
Divisions Venturi North America
Subsidiaries Voxan (100%)
Website http://www.venturi.fr/

Venturi Automobiles is a French-founded Monegasque-based multinational automotive manufacturer that designs, manufactures, and sells luxury electric vehicles.

Founded in 1984 by engineers Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy as MVS (Manufacture de Voitures de Sport), the company's purpose was to compete in the "Grand Tourisme" market. This was only the most recent post-war attempt at building a sporty luxury car in France, following in the footsteps of Facel Vega, Monica, and Ligier.[4] As with its predecessors, Venturi was immediately faced with many challenges ranging from an unknown name to its under-capitalized and under-staffed state. Venturi did nonetheless manage to continue in production for nearly sixteen years, declaring bankruptcy in 2000. In 2001, Monegasque Gildo Pallanca Pastor purchased Venturi, and decided to focus on electric-powered engines. This change of direction led to the limited-production Fétish.

In December 2009, Venturi announced its acquisition of French motorcycle manufacturer Voxan. The acquisition would effectively allow Venturi to enter the motorcycle market. In August 2011, Venturi announced the creation of Venturi North America, based in Columbus, Ohio. Venturi North America was primarily created as a research and development center, and as such, maintains a close working relationship with the Center for Automotive Research.

History

Venturi 300 Atlantique

The first Venturi came out in 1984, created by Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy, two former engineers at Heuliez. The goal was to present the only "Grand Tourisme" French car capable of competing with the English Aston Martin, the Italian Ferrari, and the German Porsche. The first car shown had a Volkswagen Golf GTi engine and the name was originally spelled "Ventury", with a "y" at the end. In 1985, the car was shown with a 200 PS (147 kW) Peugeot 505 Turbo engine, but by the 1986 Paris Motor Show it had reached its definitive form with the PRV V6 engine. Production began in 1987, with five cars built in the first year with production increasing in the subsequent years. The headquarters of the company was located in Couëron, Pays de Loire, where almost 750 cars were produced in the forthcoming 20 years.

Venturi 260 LM

From 1987 to the mid-1990s, they built mid-engined coupés and roadsters with turbocharged PRV engines and Renault gearboxes. Engine power ranged from 160 to 260 PS (118 to 191 kW) for the then offered MVS Venturi Coupé and Transcup series.

Venturi was also briefly involved with the Larrousse Formula One team. The team's 1992 car, which bore the Venturi name, was designed and built by Venturi Larousse UK, a British company formerly known as Fomet 1, which had previously designed the 1991 Fondmetal Formula One cars.[5]

Venturi 400 GT rear view
Venturi 400 GT red

Venturi proved that its cars are best in the French market. The Venturi 400 GT remains one of the best performing French cars ever produced, and it is in fact the very first car in the world to have standard carbon brakes.[6] True to that claim, the Atlantique 400 GT with a 2,975 cc (3.0 L; 181.5 cu in) DOHC 4 valves per cylinder twin-turbo V6 engine rated at 300 kW (408 PS; 402 hp) @ 6000 rpm and 520 N⋅m (384 lb⋅ft) @ 4500 rpm of torque with a compression ratio of 7.3:1, [7] delivered excellent performance to put it on par with Ferraris of the early 90s. The 400 GT could hit 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds and 291 km/h (181 mph) top speed, while the Atlantique 300 Biturbo with a 310 PS (306 bhp; 228 kW) V6 did 4.7 seconds to 100 km/h (62 mph) and went all the way to 275 km/h (171 mph). [8]

Venturi Transcup 210

A limited-edition 400 GTR was built to satisfy the homologation requirements to compete 24 Hours of Le Mans. High-level competition has also brought fame to the brand. Stéphane Ratel, who would later found the FIA GT Championship, was at the origin of the Venturi Gentlemen Drivers Trophy, which gathered an impressive array of 75 drivers. Venturi has also won fame through its brilliant performances in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, particularly in 1993 with Christophe Dechavanne and Jacques Laffite on Venturi Jaccadi team, and in 1995 with Paul Belmondo racing on the 600 SLM.

However, it was in the BPR Global GT Series races that Venturi established its pedigree defeating Porsche and Ferrari on several occasions. In 1994 in Dijon-Prenois, with Ferté and Neugarten on the 600 LM Jaccadi, at the 1000 km of Paris with Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Claude Basso on the 600 LM, and finally at the 4 Hours Spa race, once again with Michel Ferté and Michel Neugarten.

Revival

Venturi Fétish at the 2006 Paris Motor Show

In 2001, the Monegasque millionaire Gildo Pallanca Pastor bought Venturi and decided to focus on electric-powered engines,[9] leading to the Fétish model. More recent models are the Eclectic, the world's first energy-autonomous vehicle, a low speed vehicle that has solar panels and a built-in wind charger and can be plugged in; and the Astrolab, the world's first solar-electric hybrid car. There have been approximately 60-65 orders for the Fétish, but only about 30 have been delivered as of 2011.

List of models

  • MVS Venturi (includes Coupé and Cabriolet versions)
1987-1990 – Coupé 160 automatic, Transcup, Transcup automatic (six built)
1987-1990 – Coupé 200, Transcup
1991 – Coupé 210, Transcup
1992 – Coupé 180, Transcup (export model, mainly for Italy)
1989-1996 – Coupé 260, Transcup (sold as the MVS 2.80 in 1989)
1991 – 260 Atlantique
1994-1996 – 260 LM
Trophy - 73 built for racing, ten later converted for street use by the factory[6]
Venturi Eclectic
  • 1994-1997 – 400 GT (15 built, 13 series 1 and two series 2)[6]
  • Venturi Atlantique (rework of the MVS Venturi)
1996-1998 – Atlantique 300
1999-2000 – Atlantique 300 Biturbo
1999 – Venturi 300 GTR

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year Chassis Engine(s) Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Points WCC
1992 LC92 Lamborghini 3512 3.5 V12 G RSA MEX BRA ESP SMR MON CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR JPN AUS 1 11th
France Bertrand Gachot Ret 11 Ret Ret Ret 6 DSQ Ret Ret 14 Ret 18 Ret Ret Ret Ret
Japan Ukyo Katayama 12 12 9 DNQ Ret DNPQ Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 17 9 Ret 11 Ret

References

  1. ↑ "French Electric Vehicle Maker Parks New Location Near CAR | COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING". Engineering.osu.edu. 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
  2. ↑ Venturi foresees its electric cars coming from Columbus in 2 years 14 January 2011, at bizjournals.com/Columbus accessed 7 March 2018
  3. ↑ monaco-based-electric-vehicle-manufacturer-establishes-engineering-headquarters-columbus at techcolumbus.org
  4. ↑ Decker, Jean-Paul (July 2014). "Requiem pour un nom" [Requiem for a name]. Rétroviseur (in French). Fontainebleu, France: Éditions LVA (302): 70. ISSN 0992-5007.
  5. ↑ Henry, Alan (1992). Autocourse: the World's Leading Grand Prix Annual 1992-93. Motorbooks Intl. p. 83. ISBN 0-905138-96-1.
  6. 1 2 3 Liszewski, Nicolas (2004-12-23). "Guide d'achat: Venturi 400-GT" [Buyers' Guide] (in French). l'Automobile Sportive. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  7. ↑ NIck D, ed. (December 20, 2015). "1995 Venturi 400GT". supercars.net. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Sébastien Dupuis (ed.). "VENTURI ATLANTIQUE-300 (1996 - 2000)". automobile-sportive.com (in French). Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  9. ↑ Electrifying ideas to give Monaco a new spark, at business.blogs.cnn.com Archived October 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. accessed 7 March 2018
  10. ↑ 1993 Venturi 600 LM at supercars.net, accessed 29 March 2018
  11. ↑ Abishek Dwaraknath, 4 July 2017 venture lm600 supercar lemans country at columnm.com, accessed 29 March 2018
  12. ↑ Photos of Venturi 600 SLM at racingsportscars.com, accessed 29 March 2018
  13. ↑ Mike Spinelli 15 March 2006 Venturi Heritage GT3 Car Completes Test Drive at jalopnik.com, accessed 29 March 2018
  14. ↑ "Paris Motor Show 2008". Venturi.fr. Archived from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  15. ↑ Wojdyla, Ben, (2008-10-03). Venturi Volage Concept Debuts At Paris Auto Show, Sets Standard For Electric Car Wackiness. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  16. ↑ Rubens, Craig (2008-10-08). "9 Sexiest Electric Cars from the Paris Auto Show". Earth2tech.com. Retrieved 2009-04-29.

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