The new and small company VUHL Automotive presented their new car, the 05 during three events in the past months. The 05 is the creation of the Echeverría bothers Iker and Guillermo. During Salon Privé in London, we talked with Iker about the founding of the company, the 05 and the ambitions of the Mexican company which is competing with European sports cars.
You are from Mexico
Yes my brother and I are from Mexico, we are the owners of the company and we have a capitalist partner that came to the Project, Alberto Chappa and he is the third, and there are only the three of us in the company.
Why have you decided to bring and show the car here in the UK specifically?
We think the UK is the house of motorsport, all the best events are here in the UK, so we thought, we always want to be on the top, let’s go to the RAC event and have the best ambassador there is, Sir Stirling Moss. The strategy was to begin with a static presentation for the VIP’s and Media. Then we wanted a dynamic presentation and on to Goodwood, which is the best of that kind of event and again we wanted the best ambassador possible so we had Esteban Gutierrez covering the motorsport aspect. Then we wanted lifestyle and lifestyle media and this is why we’re here at Salon Privé.
How did you start the idea of Vuhl. What made you think let’s do this?
Well my father raced for 40 years. He raced in GT Series and Formula series so he was a big fanatic and he designed his own car, built the car, raced the car and he was the mechanic so he did everything! My brother and I were in the house and we saw how he built the car, how he raced it and how he won and that made us both think that it was possible! The thing is we said we don’t want to make a garage car, we want to make a business out of it. So we made a business strategy we’re in a business accelerator program and had like a 38 month road map and until we had it perfectly ready and had all the money inside, we had support from the Mexican government too, when we had everything ready we said let’s go and took us 38 months to get from scratch to Goodwood.
We wanted to have the best brands and partners in the project so we got in touch with Motormatic so they were in charge of the handling of the car and the fine tuning. We got Assiste a touring based company who work for Lamborghini and Audi and they were in charge of the design of the car so they were a big part of the build. Michelin was also a big part and the car is going to their test track in France toward the end of this year. So that’s the way we wanted the project to go, we’re not the best at everything so let’s get the help of the experts in all aspects.
When you made your ideas about the car, what characteristics did you want the car to feature? What did you focus on?
Well we wanted to compete in this sort of niche with the BAC MONO and KTM X-BOW and the Atom and we are good friends with Neil from BAC and he was aware of our project. We knew we weren’t going to be the quickest, the BAC is but it is a racecar and is fully set-up and compromised for lap-time. We wanted to have that experience for the weekend. For example we wanted to have a GoPro camera in the car which is built in, so you press the REC button and it records just like that, this is a feature we wanted to give to the customer and we wanted him to be in a car that is just a fast as a Porsche GT3 and weighs just 695 kilograms, much lighter than a X-Bow, it’s a very fun car to drive and that is what we wanted to give to the customer.
The fundamentals of a brand are very important, how can you describe the DNA of VUHL?
The name VUHL stands for Vehicles of Ultra Lightweight and High performance. It’s not an exact acronym but it represents the brand and the car, the next cars will also be very lightweight architectures. Maybe they won’t be race track cars but they will always be lightweight. The monocoque is aluminum bonded and weighs just 78 kilograms and is three times stiffer than an Lotus Elise and lighter too. The car drives very nicely and is very easy to drive, it has a lot of feedback, everyone can make a good lap, you don’t have to be super talented.
What makes the 05 different from the competition that you already mentioned?
Well I told you the experience is very important. We have a trunk so you can take enough with you for a weekend which you won’t get in an atom, X-Bow or Mono. The cabin is bigger inside than an Elise but smaller outside too. The all-round usability and experience of the car sets us apart. It was our vision to remove the compromises.
Which markets do you feel are the most important for the car 05 that will start to be delivered early 2014?
Well actually we planned to start in the UK, USA and Mexico, as they are the natural markets. Then Europe and Middle East and finally China and elsewhere. We are building 20 'Edition 1' cars, which is completely sold out in just two or three weeks. We already expected that and the cars will start being delivered in April next year.
You briefly mentioned the future of VUHL, any surprises to come next year?
Next year, you will see a limited edition and in the mid-term, say 4 years, we will produce another model, it won't be completely street or completely racing and we are actually starting to work on that car already. It's the normal evolution of the car, and from everything we have learnt we must continue forward and we want to be consolidated as a niche brand in the future.
So you mentioned niche, is that what you wish to stay as or do you want to grow into a mass producer?
We want to stay as a niche and produce special edition models producing 50-100 cars per year and we want to control all the detail and that’s exactly what we enjoy.
Light-weight chassis and a small yet powerful engine is this the new trend of the automotive world? Is this the future?
Well I think hybrids are really interesting, were seeing them in hypercars now, I think that is the best way, with KERs but not really fully electric, I don’t believe that is the way to go, I like the engine that Jaguar made in the CX-75 which produces 800 horsepower from a 1.6 liters engine, those kind of engines I think is the future, Hybrid or KERS. Also be prepared for a lighter and more powerful car!
Photography by Zaid Hamid Photography
