Javan R1 takes aim at Elise

Move over Lotus... there's another British sports car in sight that hopes to knock the Elise into touch

Auto Express Car Reviews

Lightweight R1 is powered by 2.0-litre Honda engine, and is designed to challenge rivals such as the Lotus Elise

By Chris Thorp

18th August 2006

This is the R1, a hand-built roadster made by Javan Sports Cars, a specialist firm based in Cornwall. With sharp lines, a high-revving Honda powerplant and a competitive price, it promises to be a real thriller.

As with the Yamaha motorbike with which the Javan shares its name, the R1 offers stunning performance. Weighing only 670kg, the two-door has a power to weight ratio of 328bhp per tonne, and can sprint from 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds. The quarter-mile dash is claimed to take only 12.2 seconds.

This performance comes courtesy of a mid-mounted 2.0-litre i-VTEC engine feeding power to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. Developing 220bhp and revving to 8,600rpm, the Honda unit is also used in one of the car's key rivals - the Ariel Atom.

The R1 has aluminium panels and features a honeycomb monocoque construction, which helps to keep weight down without compromising stiffness.

A price tag of £30,139 is competitive with low-volume sports car rivals. That makes the R1 £1,144 more expensive than the Lotus Elise R, but £861 cheaper than Caterham's CSR 200.

A working prototype is already on the road, and the new model is destined for production, with left and right-hand-drive versions planned.