For those who are big fans of Top Gear should need no worry about encountering Ascari but for some who didn't what's Ascari, it's a small independent car company run by a Dutch businessman, Klass Zwart. It was named in honor of Alberto Ascari, an Italian racer who ruled Formula One in the 1950's. It can be interpreted as Anglo Scottish Car Industry, which turns out to be...BRITISH! Their first attempt was the FGT, which was designed by Lee Noble, who founded NOBLE AUTOMOTIVE. It was used by the man behind Ascari for the British GT Champion ship.
Later on 1996, an updated version was called the Ecosse, which became their first road-legal car which uses BMW engines tuned by Hartge that churns out 400HP and it's limited to 17 units.
In the new millennium, Ascari revealed their KZ1 sports car and it went on sale in 2003. It uses a tuned version of the V8 engine found on the old BMW M5, which churns out 500HP of power and promises to reach the supercar Holy Grail of 200mph. Surely, Richard Hammond reviewed this on Top Gear and when handed to The Stig, it set a lap time of 1:20.7. Believe it or not, this car costs 235,000 GBP.
In 2006, in celebration of the company's 10th year, they've created a powerful version of the KZ1 which is the Ascari A10. Like the KZ1, the Ascari A10 comes with a 5.0-litre BMW V8, but 625BHP via a six-speed sequential manual gearbox, and with a top speed of 220mph.
In Top Gear Series 10, Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the A10 and calls it “a staggering car … like a Koenigsegg but a million times more manageable”. When handed to The Stig, it set a lap time of 1:17.3. That car was featured on Clarkson's DVD titled Supercar Showdown and on that scene, why did the company founder is driving the Ascari A10 round the Ascari Race Resort instead of Jeremy?
Simple, Jeremy Clarkson is too sensible to review cars from small independent companies. Surely the founder behind this company will have to put his life savings into it and if that doesn't work, he'll lose his business, he'll lose his house, get drunk, become violent, his kids may take up rugby sniffing, shoplifting to fum the habit, get caught by the cops, and then locked up to jail. It will all be Clarkson's fault.
When Clarkson's inside the A10, he's really appreciated to the A10's performance. There's one simple fact that for every Ascari you've bought, you have an optional feature that grants you membership to the Ascari Race Resort. Yep, we learned that on his DVD but sadly, here on Forza 4, we don't get the Ascari Resort but we do get this car...
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| KZ1R turned the Silverstone track into a warzone! |
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| Modern Swiss warfare made simple |
This looks like the KZ1 or the A10 but this is the KZ1R. Revealed at the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the KZ1R is the improved version of the Ascari KZ1 and it's a softened road-legal version of the KZ1-R GT3 race car. It comes with the improved version of the V8 engine derived from the old BMW E39 M5, which produces 520BHP of power and it can go 0-60 in under three seconds. It is capable of reaching the supercar Holy Grail of 200mph and it is mated with a 6MT.
What I like about that noise of the Ascari's BMW-derived V8 engine is simple. Wanna know what it feels like when you're driving the KZ1R? For further inspiration, get an XBOX 360 version of Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker HD Edition and go to the boss part where you'll face against either an armored vehicle, a tank, or an attack chopper.
Listening to the sound of the Ascari's V8 engine feels like you're in Peace Walker game, co-op with your pals, readying your big guns, and spend several hours putting bullet holes on the armored vehicles, tanks, choppers, even heavily armed men. That's right. This noise is ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!! Who needs to listen every IDOLM@STER songs when you love to listen to the sound of the Ascari's BMW-derived V8 engine that sounds like there was machine guns firing, tanks blowing, missiles blowing, and the battlefield rages on. This is battlefield inside the Ascari V8 engine! Ha ha ha! Yeah! That's right! Come on! Put a bullet on the bad boy's face! Ha ha!
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| There's no stopping this Banbury-made exotic! |
Of heavy arms, handling is superb. No matter how many times you'll mess up, the Ascari KZ1R keeps on gripping and gripping and gripping. It feels like the Lotus Elise in some other ways but trust me on this. This car is sharper as the normal KZ1 but not as aggressive as the A10. It doesn't have traction control or any driving aids so there's nothing to hold you back while thrashing around various race tracks with this car. Demonstrated by Britain's premier supermarket ribbon cutter, the KZ1R is going to be like a hack-slash game in terms of handling.
People who don't know about Ascari were the ones who never watched Top Gear but for people who loved Top Gear really have knowledge about Ascari. Even though it was run by a Dutchman and it was named after the legendary Formula One driver, Alberto Ascari, this car was engineered in Banbury, England.
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| Top Gear approves the Ascari |
The Ascari KZ1R is new to the Forza franchise and its yours via the July Car Pack, available now.
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