Les Halles, Paris - Putting a high-output motorcycle engine into a lightweight sports-car is nothing new (Morgan has been doing it since 1910) but there has never been one quite like this.
Volkswagen's XL Sport, seen in public for the first time at this week's Paris Motor Show shown, is a lightweight sports car developed from the super-efficient XL1 eco-car, but with the 1199cc L-twin engine from the new Ducati Superleggera superbike, the most powerful street-legal twin currently available.
The Ducati 1199 Superquadro L-twin has a radically oversquare 112 x 60.8mm bore and stroke, and tough, lightweight titanium con rods that enable it to rev to 11 000rpm, kicking out 147kW and 134Nm, while Ducati's iconic desmodromic valve system with positive closing prevents valve bounce.
But, of course, no car transmission this side of Formula One can deal with 11 000rpm, so the XL Sport has a special intermediate gearbox, with a reduction of 1.86:1, and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission driving the rear wheels.
With 147kW pushing only 890kg, the XL Sport gets from 0-100 in 5.7 seconds and has a projected top speed of 270km/h, thanks to a drag coefficient of 0.258 - quite an achievement given the non-negotiable prerequisites of wide tyres, optimal downforce and lots of cooling airflow through the engine compartment.
PURE RACE-TRACK ENGINEERING
Special air curtains direct the air into specific channels and lift-reducing air ducts in the bonnet, and over an extendible rear spoiler (powered by the same unit as in the Lamborghini Aventador) and out via wheel-arch ventilation and a louvre in the rear hatch that opens and closes automatically as required to conduct excess engine heat away.
The steel space frame chassis carries double-wishbone front suspension with its dampers connected below in a pull-rod layout and a double wishbone rear setup with top-mounted push-rod dampers - pure race-track engineering.
High-speed 205/40 front and 265/35 rear tyres are wrapped around 18" forged magnesium rims, for a total weight saving of 23.9kg over conventional aluminium rims, while braking is by carbon ceramic discs.
The carbon-fibre body - 4291mm long, 1847mm wide and only 1152mm high on a 2424mm wheelbase - has wing doors hinged low on the A-pillar and just above the windscreen in the roof frame, so they open upwards and forwards for easy access. The door windows are polycarbonate, the windshield a special type of thin glass.
The XL Sport has a special digital instrument cluster with an individual lap time and oil pressure display, and steering wheel with red contrast stitching and aluminium shift paddles, as well as red seat belts. Anodised aluminium trim outlines the air vents, the climate control fascia and the DSG shift gate.