44 years ago, UK-based wheel vendor Wolfrace needed a way to advertise its new wheel model. The company decided to go overboard and build a whole 16-cylinder roadster called Sonic for that purpose. It is now up for grabs in an unfinished condition after a restoration attempt, expected to fetch between £80,000 and £120,000.
The tapered body design was penned by Nick Butler, a well-known car customizer of the 1980s. He created a chassis using components from multiple domestic market vehicles, including Jaguars. He then put not one, but two 3.5-liter Land Rover V8 engines into the engine bay. One drove the front wheels and the other one the rear end, each producing around 204 PS (201 hp / 150 kW).
The driver got a complicated-looking button panel for switching between the various drive modes, although only some buttons ended up actually necessary. Back in the eighties, the Wolfrace Sonic was street-legal in the UK. It then changed owners multiple times and ended up neglected for a few decades.
The current seller claims he took delivery of it to discover traces of rust and wear, as well as a non-functional drivetrain. He had allegedly spent over £100,000 restoring it, but couldn’t quite complete the job. It is now up for grabs in a condition that the restorer describes as “80% complete”, so some more work is due before the six-wheeled monster can ride again.
Check out the Historic Auctioneers website for details.
