The Venturi Atlantique was a

mid-engined In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

-bodied French

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

produced by

Venturi Automobiles Venturi is a Monaco-based automotive manufacturer. Founded in 1984 by French engineers Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy as ''MVS (Manufacture de Voitures de Sport)'', the company's purpose was to compete in the " Grand Tourisme" market. This w ...

from 1991 to 2000.

Atlantique 260

The original 260 was a revised version of the Venturi APC 260, carrying over the 2.8-litre turbocharged

V6 engine A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabr ...

with , but with a reduced weight of . It was good for a top speed of and accelerated from 0- in 5.2 seconds.

Atlantique 300

Scotsman The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded ...

Hubert O'Neill purchased Venturi in 1994 and conceived of the Venturi 400GT as well as a revised Atlantique. After a rushed design time of six months, the new Atlantique 300 was unveiled at the

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...

. Its 3.0

V6 PRV engine The V6 PRV engine is an automobile petrol V6 engine that was developed jointly by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo Cars – and sold from 1974 to 1998. It was gradually replaced after 1994 by another joint PSA-Renault design, known as the ''ES'' engi ...

was lifted from other Peugeot/Citroën models and was good for in naturally aspirated form or with a turbocharger which was essentially the same engine as used in the Alpine A610. Venturi again went into receivership in 1996, and was bought by Thai firm Nakarin Benz, under whom the company focused its concentration upon road cars.

Atlantique 300 Biturbo

The

Twin-turbo Twin-turbo (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...

version of the Atlantique 300 was released in 1998 and used the later L7X V6, a Renault variant of the V6 ESL engine which brought the power up to at 6,200 rpm and of torque at 3,800 rpm, with a top speed of and a 0- time of 4.7 seconds, this addition made the Atlantique a serious performance competitor to the Lotus Esprit V8. 13 examples were built in 1999-2000; this model was the last Venturi to be considered French, before the firm became based in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Venturi 300 GTR

In 1999, 2 cars were built exclusively for track racing. They were designated Venturi 300 GTR.

Reception and fate

Sales of the Atlantique were extremely poor; total Venturi sales over its lifespan amounted to fewer than 700, despite praise from contemporary critics and from ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

''. In a 1992 episode,

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...

noted that the two most exciting sports cars of the time were the Alpine A610 and the Venturi Atlantique, and that the Atlantique was "''like having your own personal jet fighter'' ..''I love it to death''." In comparing the biturbo Atlantique and the

Lotus Esprit The Lotus Esprit is a British sports car that was built by Lotus Cars at their Hethel factory in England between 1976 and 2004. It was among the first of designer Giorgetto Giugiaro's polygonal "folded paper" designs. Background In 1970 Tony ...

, Performance Car noted that the Atlantique was " ..''a more relaxing car to drive, its tidier dimensions make it easier to place, it rides more smoothly, generates far less road noise, and has a much slicker gearchange. It's better built too.''" Venturi again faced bankruptcy in 2000, and the Atlantique went out of production. Although current owner Gildo Pallanca Pastor, a Monegasque millionaire, has resumed production of Venturi cars, he has shifted the emphasis to electric sports cars such as the Venturi Fétish, retiring the Atlantique badge. Company production will be even more limited at 10 units per year.

References

{{Reflist
Venturi Atlantique 300History of the Venturi enterprise
Sports cars Venturi vehicles Cars introduced in 1991 Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles