2000 Venturi Atlantique 300 from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Daily driver sportscar - an alternative to 911 and NSX
Faults:
Nothing has gone wrong with the car so far.
I've had it 6 months.
General Comments:
A fantastic looking car, which gets a lot of attention from people wondering what it is.
The automatic gearbox feels badly out of place - it works well enough, but this is a true sportscar with not a lot of refinement, not a long distance cruiser. I would really advise you to go for the manual version and enjoy the car for what it was designed for.
Another disadvantage of the auto is that it comes with the normally-aspirated, rather than twin-turbo version. This makes the engine less noisy, and therefore more refined, but it extends the 0-60 time by 2.5 seconds, and drops the max speed by 25 mph.
You can easily drive this car every day, but bear in mind:
A) Very little ground clearance for any speed ramps on your way to work.
B) Fibreglass body means that side winds can be VERY scary - so not a good long distance car.
The engine is the same V6 fitted to Renaults, Peugeots amd Volvos, and the switchgear I think is Citroen. Anyway, I've had no problem getting people to service it.
In summary:
Pretty, Fast, Reliable, High Insurance, but pretty good fuel consumption.
Get the manual rather than the auto.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 15th November, 2002
30th Aug 2004, 11:49
The Venturi 300 atlantique was one of the greatest cars I've ever driven. Very sensitive steering and street contact together with outstanding performance for an only 3 litre car.
I drove the car for more than 20 000 kms without major problems, although you need to care about this car so you can solve the minor technical problems typical on low production cars with racing origin.
The interior is finished with beautiful seats and thick leather upholstery inside the complete cabin (also dash, console and doors) is much more expensive finished than Porsche, Ferrari, Bmw, Mercedes, etc.
The finest thing : it's beautiful and very rare!