The Ares S1 Is The Lovechild Of A 918 Spyder And The Batmobile

You might remember Ares for its Lamborghini Huracan-based, De Tomaso Pantera-imitating Panther, or perhaps the Ferrari 412-echoing ‘Project Pony’, which is a GTC4Lusso underneath. The latest creation to emerge from the Modena-based company, however, isn’t based on anything, nor is its styling referencing an existing vehicle - the ‘S1’ is billed as Ares’ “first-ever wholly-designed supercar”.

It certainly looks attention-grabbing, with shades of the Porsche 918 Spyder and the Bugatti Chiron at the rear, a heavily sloping rear that accentuates the huge rear haunches, and giant rear wheels. Overall, there’s quite a Batmobile vibe to the thing.

Under that ultra-low bodywork (made from carbon fibre, of course) you’ll find double wishbones front and rear, adaptive dampers and a lot of forged aluminium. Mounted in the middle is a naturally-aspirated V8 of unknown displacement and origin, although Ares has said that it develops 705bhp and will rev to 8800rpm.

The S1 has a bespoke exhaust system, said to produce “a deeply satisfying sonorous roar”. With an eight-speed swiftly swapping cogs, it’s able to crack 62mph in just 2.7 seconds.

Inside, the drive and passenger sit in clearly defined wraparound ‘pods’, with a slanted centre console separating the two sides of the cockpit. Carbon fibre, Napa leather and Alcantara feature in abundance, and the driver gets what looks to be a retrimmed steering wheel from the C8 Chevrolet Corvette.

As far as pricing goes, there are no specific figures yet, but Ares does say something about “hypercar design, supercar performance and a sportscar price tag,” in the press release. Given the stuff that’ll go into making it, we can only assume it’s a particularly pricey ‘sportscar’ they’re using as a comparison point.

The company - founded by former Lotus boss Dany Bahar - will only be building 24, with production starting January next year.