CARS OF THE WORLD

Vanwall Vandervell S 2024.

German all-wheel drive hot hatch Vanwall Vandervell S: later and more powerful than expected.

Vanwall GmbH, headquartered in the Bavarian city of Gröding, was unable, as promised, to launch its first road model, the sports electric 5-door hatchback Vanwall Vandervell S, in the third quarter of this year.

Its market launch has been postponed to the first quarter of 2024, but there is good news: the hot hatch has become more powerful.

The Vanwall name is closely linked to the history of Formula One, having previously been borne by the racing team founded in 1951 by British industrialist and car enthusiast Guy Anthony Vandervell, better known as Tony Vandervell.

The peak of the team’s glory came in the 1958 season, when it won the constructors’ championship, but that was essentially the end of it, because one of the Vanwall drivers, Stuart Lewis-Evans, died during the last race of the season in Morocco.

This tragedy shocked Tony Vanderwell and he no longer wanted to deal with motorsports.

Last year, the rights to the Vanwall name were acquired by the German racing team ByKolles Racing, which is backed by Romulus Kolles and his son Colin Kolles.

ByKolles Racing specializes in endurance racing, last year the team was renamed Vanwall Racing Team, at the same time diversification projects were announced, one of them was the electric hot hatch Vanwall Vandervell S.

Vanwall GmbH, headed by Colin Kolles, was created to produce road cars; in January of this year, it published renderings of the Vanwall Vandervell S with a promise to begin production and deliveries in the third quarter.

The third quarter is over, no one has seen any live hot hatches, and this week the Bavarian company issued a press release, from which it follows that the project is alive and developing, but the car will have to wait until the first quarter of next year, at the same time clarified/improved some technical characteristics.

The base Vandervell S will cost from 128,000 euros excluding taxes and will have all-wheel drive, the power of its electric powertrain will be about 325 hp. (at the beginning of the year they promised 320 hp, the number of electric motors is still not specified), the battery capacity is 84 kWh.

The debut version of the First Edition will be offered in six colors (gray, white, red, black, green, blue), for reservation the company requires a deposit of 20,000 euros.

The top version of Vandervell S Plus will obviously be more expensive, but its price has not yet been announced; the power plant on the S Plus version will produce about 650 hp. (at the beginning of the year they promised 580 hp).

The Vandervell S Plus will have a fully carbon fiber body, thanks to which the curb weight will be less than 1.8 tons. Standard wheels are 21- or 22-inch. There are no interior images yet.

Vanwall intends to produce only 500 copies of the hot hatch, followed by other new products, including a road version of Le Mans’ own hypercar, the Vanwall Vandervell 1000 Hypercar.

The development of this car is in a hot phase; it has supposedly already successfully passed a series of tests on racetracks and public roads, but there are no technical details yet.