There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big things, with wanting to reach for the stars. Science says that there’s no harm in the occasional spot of daydreaming either. So why not indulge in a hypercar fantasy with your daily cup of joe?
Regardless of your personal taste in transportation, you must have noticed the abundance of concepts online. Some are worthy of attention because they propose unique directions in design in their respective fields, while others are simply cool to imagine in a “what if?” scenario. Others just occupy space and help us pass the time.
Then, there’s the category of concepts that aims to be the real deal, a small but firm step toward mass production. It’s what supposedly happened with Nikola’s Badger or what we’ve seen in the ridiculous Arcanum hypercar from Alieno. Here’s another entry on that list because it’s always nice to daydream, as the headline above says.
Photo: Arrera Automobili
And ditch common sense for a change.
Late last year, an Albanian startup named Arrera Automobili came out, seemingly out of nowhere, with a bunch of renderings for its first supercar, the Illyrian Pure Sport. With it, they announced a very admirable goal: to deliver the first Albanian supercar in the world, of course. Arrera Automobili, a name only a handful are familiar with, has now ditched that mission in favor of a more challenging one: to deliver the first Albanian hypercar in the world. Because of course, why start small when you could go all out?
For the past several days, Arrera has been teasing the unveiling of this hypercar, called DS+. With the big virtual presentation, someone from the company also spoke to Motor1 to claim that they were “confident” that the DS+ will break the record for the world’s fastest production car. SSC Tuatara, put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Photo: Arrera Automobili
The brains behind Arrera Automobili is automotive designer Qendrim Thaqi. He was born in Albania but now lives in Germany, and he attained a certain level of fame back in 2017, when his take on the successor of the Porsche 918 Spider, a concept called Porsche 9RE, went viral. He was relatively active on Behance until a while ago when he seems to have taken his design efforts into a different direction.
That direction would be the unveiling of the Arrera supercar, the Illyrian Pure Sport. Powered by a 6.2-liter twin-turbocharged LT2 V8 developing 840 hp and mated to an eight-speed Tremec dual-clutch automatic transmission, it would boast a top speed of 375 kph (233 mph). Hitting 100 kph (62 mph) from a standstill would take just 2.7 seconds.
For whatever reason, Arrera has decided to pause the Illyrian project and go forward with a new, even bolder one: a hypercar. Dubbed SD+, it boasts a drivetrain by Wolfgang Kizler that will make it the fastest production car in the world. A 7.0-liter V8 with a 1,800-hp output and 1,106 pound-feet (1,500 Nm) of torque on normal fuel would take the 2,712-pound (1,230-kg) machine straight into the record books, Arrera says.
Photo: Arrera Automobili
The all-carbon body bears direct influences from Formula One, and everything on it is meant to improve aerodynamics. As for the name, Arrera explains on Instagram that “S mean: Skenderbeg which was Warrior and Hero which made Albania Indipendent. D mean: 500 of Roman number [sic].” The “+” is for its purported ability of delivering over 500 kph (311 mph).
And here’s one more, final extraordinary claim: the SD+ will show face, in metal form, as early as next year. If that turns out to be the case, it will be the most impressive accomplishment for a company that seems to exist on Instagram only, which doesn’t even have a working website, and whose CEO has only given a couple of interviews to small local media outlets.
We’ve reached out to Arrera Automobili for more details on this Albanian hypercar and will update the story if we hear back from them. Until then, check out the renderings in the gallery above.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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