One Man’s Dream

If you’re a fully certified “Car Person”, you’ll probably, at one stage or another, have sat and endlessly doodled ideas for your own supercar. Probably while you were supposed to be learning GCSE history.

There’s a true Car Person we at TC Towers know well, called Henrik, who has gone several steps further. Whilst he’s a private person (hence you won’t have seen this car before), he’s very kindly allowed us to tell you a small part of his story. A very cool part, in which he actually designs and creates the car of his dreams. No mere doodles here, then.

‘The Invictus GT’ was in the making for close to ten years. Safe to say it’s not been rushed, or driven by any arbitrary completion date: it’s been driven purely by Henrik’s desire to create something not just unique, but truly special. I’d say he’s done a fantastic job: just look at it!

The goal: perfection. To design and build the perfect car; one which combines stunning period aesthetics with modern roadholding and manners.

Henrik had a clear vision. He wanted the shape of the car to echo the golden age of sports cars, the chassis to provide nimble handling, and the whole package to be light and fast. Therefore it was important to select the right donor car. A modern one, to benefit from the decades of ever-advancing ride and handling expertise. A fast one, to make the car exciting. A small one, to keep the final dimensions closer to cars from ’60s and ’70s than cars today.

One chassis very much suggested itself from the off…can you guess which one before reading ahead?

Henrik’s design team suggested that the Lotus Exige S2 would be the perfect solution, given its superb handling, top power-to-weight ratio, and overall diminutive stature. It was a clear winner given the brief.

So Henrik sat down with his close friend and car designer, Iker Lopez Totorika, and together they penned a design that they felt combined some of the best automotive designs cues of classic eras.

Once complete, Iker was then able to translate that design blueprint into a three-dimensional computer model, and size the body so that it would fit perfectly on top of the Lotus chassis.

The team then worked with a London based company (FBFX) to create a 1:1 model in foam and then handed it over to Andrew Windsor, of Windsor Coachworks, to bring the body to life.

The team at Windsor Coachworks worked over 12,500 hours on the Invictus GT. They had to refine the surfaces, fabricate the moulds, produce the fibreglass panels, and complete all the intricate and painstaking work to make everything fit together beautifully. No “kit car aesthetic” here.

The car retains all the Exige S engine and running gear, albeit with a repositioned intercooler and redesigned exhaust system. This ensures the lightweight and balanced nature of the Exige shines through – at 240bhp/tonne.

We think Henrik and the team have created something beautiful, something soulful. Personally, as an Elise owner, I’d give up bodily organs to have a car that combines these looks with that chassis.

However it’s more than that for Henrik: it’s the fulfilment of a boyhood dream. He can, now and forever, say: ‘that’s my car’. And mean it, in every sense of the word.

So to all the school children out there, we say: keep doodling. Keep dreaming. And call us when you’ve made your dream real!