TUNNING

Peregryn GT-S and GT-R

A new name is coming to the American supercar scene, one that doesn't hide its big ambitions. Peregryn Automotive has taken over the rights, design and tooling for the British Ultima models and is moving their production to the US. The Ultima brand is being discontinued, but the cars will live on as the Peregryn GT-S and GT-R.

The GT-S will be a slightly tamer road version, while the GT-R will be the top of the range with the greatest emphasis on track driving and should offer performance comparable to the brutal Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

The Peregryn GT-R follows a rather old-fashioned but very efficient formula. The engine is located behind the passenger compartment, the car is extremely light, there is no more electronics than necessary, and instead of a complicated hybrid system or exotic engine, it uses familiar American V8 engines from GM's LS and LT families.

Ultima has long been tied to the kit-car world, where the buyer often had a huge hand in getting the thing road-ready. Peregryn wants to make that process much simpler, even if the cars themselves remain anything but ordinary. Pricing is estimated to begin around $195,000, which puts these in Corvette ZR1 territory. The Chevy will be the safer choice on many levels.

It has a dealer network, a warranty, and a development budget that could probably fund Peregryn for several years. On top of that, the base GT-S won’t come close to keeping up with the ZR-1 while costing nearly the same. But the Peregryn GT-R offers something the Corvette cannot… a low-volume, Le Mans-looking V8 missile that weighs about as much as a diabetic Miata. Production is set to ramp up in March 2027, with the first deliveries expected in April or May.

The target power is around 700 hp. That's much less than the more than 1079 hp that the Corvette ZR1 has, but Peregryn is counting on a completely different power-to-weight ratio. The GT-R should weigh only about 950 kilograms without fluids, which is incredibly light for a car of this performance.

The manufacturer therefore announces an acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour, or 96 km/h, in just 2.2 seconds. If this figure is confirmed in the production car, the GT-R will be among the fastest road cars in the world when accelerating from a standstill.

Unlike modern supercars that use lightning-fast dual-clutch automatic transmissions, Peregryn plans a sequential gearbox. The emphasis is not only on the best possible numbers but also on the most direct driving experience. The GT-R is conceived as a raw, loud and very analog car, much closer to a racing car with license plates than a luxury supercar.

All this will not be cheap. The starting price of the GT-R should be around $195,000 (around €169,000), and the first deliveries to customers are planned for 2027. For that amount, buyers won't get the prestige of a Ferrari or Lamborghini, but they will get something much rarer, a brutal driver's car weighing less than a ton, with a V8 engine of around 700 hp right behind it and performance that could unpleasantly surprise many supercars.

by Autonews