2011 Perana Sports Car Z-One

South Africa is quickly becoming a hotbed for sports car development, with two new performance machines being announced in the country in just as many weeks. Built through collaboration between Zagato, the Milanese coachbuilders, and Perana Performance Group, the Z-One features a tubular and box section chassis with room for two passengers. Tucked among the exotica at Concorso Italiano  was the new Zagato-styled, Hi-Tech-built and Superfomance-sold, Perana Z-One sports/GT.

2011 Perana Sports Car Z-One

The Perana sports car Z-One is designed in Italy, powered by American muscle and manufactured in South Africa. The "Z" stands for Zagato, Chief Designer Norihiko Harada using the Italian design house's DNA to form a dynamic supercar.

The sports car Perana Z-One will go on sale in the U.S. through Superformance after its Concorso Italiano debut in August. American buyers will get an allocation of just 99 units, so you probably won’t be seeing one parked outside of your local trattoria any time soon.

2011 Perana Sports Car Z-One is beautiful. And the build quality is exquisite. The panel gaps put all the high-priced Italian vehicles surrounding it to shame. The styling is definitely that of a European GT.

2011 Perana Sports Car Z-One 

The 6.2L V8 engine generates 440hp (328kW) and 430lb-ft of torque (583Nm) of torque, and redlines at 6,600rpm. That's enough to scoot the 2,630lb (1,195kg) car to 62mph (100km/h) in an estimated sub-4 second time. Big brakes - 325mm up front, 305mm in the rear - slow things down again, while unequal length A-arms, Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs at all four corners handle the curves.

The drivetrain comes from Chevy, the Corvette's 6.2-liter V-8 delivering 440 bhp to the rear wheels. The Z-One also uses the Vette's 6-speed manual gearbox, but the tubular space frame has been engineered in South Africa. Perana claims 0–60 mph in just 4 seconds.

2011 Perana Sports Car Z-One is the limited production, because the gorgeous body of each Perana Z-One will be handbuilt in Italy by coachbuilder Zagato and then shipped in pieces to South Africa where there are attached to the vehicle’s chassis. The Z-One's chassis has been completely conceived and designed by Perana engineers in South Africa, despite the engine sourced from General Motors.

2010 Noble Supercar M600 The British Sports Cars

Here is a new supercar, aimed at the top of the market sector with sensational performance. And it comes from a company with an established record for fast fine-handling cars. That sums up the Noble M600. Noble has released the first images and details of its latest supercar, new M600 supercar. The M600 - built as a purist's car - features very little in the way of Ferrari-like computer control, with the main driver-assist system being a switchable traction control, deactivated via missile-launch-like switch labeled simply 'TC'. There is no ESP, and no anti-lock brakes.

Boasting generic supercar styling, the M600 is powered by a twin-turbo 4.4-liter Volvo V8. While it's odd hearing "Volvo" and "supercar" in the same sentence, the M600 is anything but Volvo-like. Packing 650 bhp, the car accelerates from 0-62 mph in 3.0 seconds, 0-100 mph in around 6.5 seconds, and tops out at 225 mph.

To keep things under control, the driver has a choice of three power levels. At the twist of a dial, outputs of 335kW, 410kW and 485kW are available. At the highest power setting, the M600 develops 820Nm of torque. A six-speed Graziano manual transmission is responsible for delivering power from the twin-turbocharged V8 to the rear wheels.

The M600 designer would like to defy these features of a modern car by turning off computer-assisted controls and the like. The design of M600 is focused on the more “analogue” quality of design that uses the principle of pure engineering integrity from building the chassis up to every tiny detail a car must have. A person who is driving this car definitely deserves to be called a driver in the real sense.

Featuring fixed-rate dampers and steering, along with Alcon brakes - with iron discs and limited servo assistance for increased feedback and ease of modulation - the M600 has been developed with an almost archaic sensibility.

It was established in 1999 by Lee Noble in Barwell, Leicestershire, for producing high-speed sports cars with a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. Lee Noble was the chief designer and owner of Noble. He sold the company in August 2006. He resigned from the company in February 2008 and announced his new venture, Fenix Automotive in 2009.

Deliveries to customers are expected mid 2010. With a retail price of GBP200,000 the cost is as mind blowing as its 225 mph top speed.