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The Wolfrace Sonic Six wheeled supercar. The Sonic was the brainchild of
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The Wolfrace Sonic Six wheeled supercar. The Sonic was the brainchild of
The Wolfrace Sonic Six wheeled supercar.
The Sonic was the brainchild of the alloy wheel manufacturer, Wolfrace. The company boss, Barry Tracey, wanted to create an eye-catching concept car to showcase its new range of Sonic alloy wheels.
Wolfrace approached Nick Butler Auto Imagination to come up with the car. Butler background was in engineering, having trained at Hawker Siddeley at Dunsfold and Kingston. He d worked on The Harrier Jump Jets and Hawk aeroplanes, working on stress analysis and flight testing. In 1976, he left to follow his passion for special cars, setting up Auto Imagination.
The Wolfrace Sonic was an amazing car. Powered by a pair of Rover V8s, controlled by a clever drive-by-wire system, the two seater was certainly blessed with plenty of potential performance. Underneath the Batmobile-style looks, there was a spaceframe chassis, with rear-wheel drive through a Jaguar rear axle and differential. But for most people, the main talking point was the six-wheel configuration similar to the 1977 Panther 6.
Autocar magazine featured the car in 1981, and it made regular appearances on the motor show circuit for a couple of years before disappearing out of view.
It was seen again in 2010, when the original car (two were eventually built) went up for sale for a 1 million pound.
In March 2015, Sonic was sold on eBay for a rather less astonishing 18, 100 pound. According to Wolfrace, the car was a no-holds-barred big budget project made for around 100, 000. It was sold to a private collector by Wolfrace in the 1990s and went on to feature in the opening of the British Grand Prix. It was even sprayed red for a feature in Playboy magazine.
When it was sold in 2015, it was because the then-owner could not keep up with the inevitable maintenance of such a complex vehicle. Sadly, the car had been in storage since around 2005, and had declined into a state of disrepair, needing a full restoration to get it back to its former glory.
It is not clear where this picture was exactly taken.
Picture taken 23rd July 1981
Daily Mirror
Mirrorpix
England
81-4195- 3
Media ID 21817013
© Mirrorpix
Automobile Design Invention Motoring
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