Prodrive Reveals Their All-Terrain Supercar

The Prodrive Hunter manages to combine the looks of the early Nissan Juke prototype and a 1970s classic beach buggy into a more extreme profile. While such looks might not appeal to everyone, the fact that this offroad supercar will be built in the UK and comes with 600bhp is sure to pique interest.

The Hunter is essentially Prodrive’s road-going version of the BRX Hunter, the company’s desert racer designed to withstand the challenging terrains offered up in the world’s toughest race, the Dakar Rally. While the BRX is clearly not suited as an everyday road going vehicle, even taming that beast somewhat still leaves us with an all-round impressive supercar. In fact, ‘taming’ really isn’t the right word to use; the Prodrive Hunter is able to offer up even more power as it doesn’t have to comply with Dakar class regulations.

To be specific, Prodrive describe the Hunter as a 4-wheel drive all-terrain adventure vehicle that’s related to the Bahrain Xtreme, which was driven by Sabastien Loeb who has the impressive record of being a 9-times World Champion. The Hunter features a 50% increase I power over that vehicle, all thanks to the V6 3.5-litre engine housed in the Hunter. Prodrive describes the difference between the Hunter and the Xtreme as refinement; the Hunter isn’t built for quite such extreme wanderings and is therefore built to be more refined – or maybe that could read as more comfortable – in everyday use.

The Dakar racer and the Prodrive Hunter still share the same engine, suspension and drivetrain – but gear shifting in the Hunter is smoothed out via a 6-speed paddle shift replacing the manual sequential gear box, and the twin turbo V6 engine has been retuned and refined giving that 600bhp and 700Nm of torque in an overall smoother package. As for the suspension, well it’s built purely for off-roading with double wishbone suspension offering 400mm of travel plus adjustable dampers all sitting on a rigid space frame chassis.

The Hunter has been designed to minimise the vehicle’s overall weight and to spread the weight evenly. The body is made entirely from a lightweight carbon composite material which incorporates a proportion of recycled materials courtesy of Prodrive Composites which helps keep the vehicle’s overall weight down.

Prodrive has estimated that the Hunter could potentially offer up a 0-62mph of less than 4 seconds with a top speed of around 186mph – even more impressive when you consider that the Prodrive Hunter rides on enormous 35-inch bespoke offroad rubber on forged aluminium 8.5J x 172 wheels.

Prodrive Chairman, David Richards, has said that the Hunter development vehicles is currently doing a tour of the Middle East, where potential customers are being given the opportunity to drive the vehicle to confirm personal specs in time for delivery later in 2022. The good news is that the Prodrive Hunter will be produced in Banbury in the UK. The bad news is that only 25 Hunters will be built, and the cost will start at an eye-watering £1.25 million.

Images: prodrive.com