The Retro-Styled Jannarelly Design-1 Is Yours For £86,000

Dubai’s known for its fast cars, but we’re not talking about gold chrome/ sparkly Lamborghinis or the country’s slightly ridiculous police car line-up here. You wouldn’t immediately think of sports car production in Dubai, but the Jannarelly Design-1 might be the car to change that.

The styling is suitably eye-catching, but not in the way you might have expected. With its curvy bodywork, chopped roof and wide rear track, it’s like a hot rod version of a classic Le Mans racer. There are huge gaping vents in the bonnet and a chin spoiler pokes out from under the front bumper, while you could easily mistake the rear end for a classic Ferrari.

You can choose for that svelte bodywork to be produced entirely in carbon fibre which, combined with the tubular space-frame chassis, means the car can weigh just 850kg.

With such a light kerbweight, it doesn’t need a huge engine. Under the swooping bonnet you’ll find a 3.7-litre nat-asp V6 borrowed from the Nissan 370Z, producing 321bhp and 274lb ft of torque. The power is shuffled through a six-speed manual gearbox (a manual!) to the rear wheels and, despite no all-wheel-drive or fancy auto ‘box, it can still hit 60mph in under four seconds.

Helping its cause is a limited-slip differential, Pirelli P Zero tyres, lightweight alloy wheels and large vented disc brakes.

You don’t have to have a coupe, as Roadster and Aero body styles are also available. The customisation doesn’t stop there, either; there is a huge amount of personalisation on offer such as carbon-fibre or leather bucket seats, and a range of paint finishes. You can also choose Momo or Nardi steering wheels, plus whether the interior is trimmed in wood, leather or Alcantara.

The Dubai start-up was formed in 2016 by Frederic Juillot (a racing boat builder) and Anthony Jannarelly, who created the design of the multi-million pound Lykan HyperSport. The styling of the Jannarelly Design-1 is said to be a “retro-futuristic tribute” to classic sports cars.

It’s on sale in the UK now, with prices starting from £86,000 - although you can probably push the price up by choosing the carbon-fibre bodywork and other options. It’s best to think of it as a weekend toy, like the Morgan Plus Six or KTM X-Bow.

What do you think of it? Tell us in the comments.