Is The Wells Vertige The Supercar/Hypercar Antidote We Need?
Out with the multi-million dollar +1,000bhp aero-monsters and in with small, sensual on-the-limit sports cars!
If you’re anything like us, you’ll feel more connected (pun intended) to something analogue instead of something digital. A mechanical watch, to us and no doubt many of you, simply feels like it has character, a soul. By extension, the same can be said for cars, with EVs often referred to as dull kitchen appliances on wheels, and people loving the internal combustion engine because of the noise, vibrations and smell. But even in the realm of petrol-powered sports, super- and hypercars, things aren’t as analogue as they used to be! Hybrid technology, computer wizardry, AI-driven interfaces, all in the name of finding performance or simply one-upping “the other guys”. Sure, +1,000bhp sounds fun on paper, but how usable is it? How much of that can you actually enjoy on the road? And perhaps more importantly, how hard do you dare to push something that costs the equivalent of a couple of houses, or more? But rest assured, I might have found the antidote, and it goes by the name of Wells Vertige.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the gist of modern-day super- or hypercars. Just last week, when in Geneva for the Geneva Watch Days, Brice and I spotted a Koenigsegg Jesko Attack driving around and got all excited about it. But it’s maddening to me that it seems car manufacturers have forgotten how to build compact, fun and above all analogue performance cars that purely focus on driving pleasure that mere mortals can buy. Sure, there are cars like the VW Golf GTI and the Toyota Yaris GR keeping the spirit of a hot hatch alive, sort of. Yet most of these can hardly be called analogue, as they’re often filled to the brim with driver aids, digital screens and other wizardry to keep you safe. I genuinely wonder what happened to the industry (tightening regulation is the clear-cut answer, of course) and if we are doomed when it comes to analogue, pleasure-driven cars that don’t cost more than the average house. So allow me to present the Vertige, a small analogue sports car built in the UK that delivers plenty of oomph, without all the gizmos, and at a surprising price.
The Wells Motor Cars Company
The Wells Motor Cars company was originally founded by Robin Wells to answer his years-long search for a pure, lightweight, analogue sports car. Not finding what he wanted in anything available at the time, he took it upon himself to build one. Bold, surely, but Robin Wells wasn’t deterred by the challenge and started the company in 2014. Robin Hall, an automotive engineer previously working for Jaguar, joined him, and after extensive design, prototype and development stages, the Vertige was ready to be presented to the public by 2021. It answered the shared vision of both Robins to provide pure driving enjoyment with real-world practicality in a car that can be driven year-round.
The Vertige made its debut in a limited run of Founder’s Edition cars to people who expressed early interest, with all cars being pre-allocated. Then came a run of 25 Launch Edition cars, which all sold in about a year or so. With all cars being hand-built in the UK by a small team of specialists, it took until 2025 to deliver all cars sold. Late last year, Wells announced a limited run of Vertige R models, with more power, which also sold out quickly. Now though, Wells is on the brink of introducing the Series 2 Vertige, with an all-new engine with a base output of 225bhp. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but the plus side is that the Vertige doesn’t weigh a lot either! But I’m getting ahead of myself…
The Vertige Series 2
The Wells Vertige is simply put a small, British sports car with a curvaceous coupe-style exterior, but it’s actually a bit more than that. The whole process started with designing and shaping the body first, which results in a lovingly compact car. The most dramatic styling element is the two dihedral doors, in the same vein as the McLaren F1, but the rest is quite clean and pure.
Up front, there are no over-the-top winglets, canards, cuts or slashes and so on, but a simple air intake in the bumper, flanked by modern LED headlight units. Moving down the sides, the body swoops over the front wheels and transitions into the compact yet airy cabin, accessible through the McLaren-style doors. Just behind those, the bodywork kicks up to make way for an air intake for the engine, which itself is covered by a hand-formed lightweight polycarbonate canopy. Things are wrapped up neatly around the back, with a pair of round taillights, a small integrated lip spoiler to provide a touch of drama as well as downforce, and a pair of exhausts poking out from underneath.
Hiding away underneath that curvaceous exterior is a 2.5-litre four-cylinder Duratec engine by Ford with an all-aluminium construction. It features individual throttle bodies with polished trumpets, a bespoke ECU and a six-speed manual transmission. The output is 225 horsepower and 200Nm of torque, and I know that doesn’t sound earth-shattering, but it’s power you can use, and all of it for that matter. You see, the Vertige weighs only 850 kilos dry, so there’s not much to push along. The all-important stop-light sprint (zero to 100kph, to be exact) is done and dusted in 4.8 seconds, and the Vertige will keep going until it hits its 140mph top speed. Again, it’s not breaking any performance records, but that’s not the intention.
The whole principle is about making the car usable at any time, with the emphasis very much on its dynamics. The engine is mounted transversely in the rear, with the power sent to the rear wheels only. The central tub and front and rear subframes give it a very rigid frame, and everything attached to it has been designed and engineered to keep its kerb weight as low as possible. The suspension is set up to make the Vertige as agile and responsive as can be, with double wishbones all around and adjustable toe and camber settings.
The driving position is optimised to keep you fresh for hours when navigating traffic, or better yet, twisty B-roads. You get amenities such as Bluetooth connectivity with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless and USB charging, satellite navigation, air-conditioning and so on. Straddle down in the leather sports seats, and you can adjust them in multiple ways to find your perfect seating position. The visibility is excellent thanks to the curved windshield, and it’s even rather practical despite its compact size (the Vertige is just shy of 4 metres in length), as it has a full-size spare, twin fuel cells with 50 litres of capacity and a 200-litre boot behind the mid-mounted engine.
And perhaps best of all, the Wells Vertige starts at a base price of GBP 85,000 including VAT. Fiddling with the options list will bump that past six figures without too much trouble, though. And before you start murmuring that’s still a heck of a lot of money for most people: I am fully aware of that, and I cannot afford a car like this myself any time soon. But it offers perspective, a target that doesn’t seem too out of reach in one’s lifetime. Hyper-exclusive million-dollar-1000-horsepower-plus cars are reserved for the extremely happy few, despite the fact that there seems to be a growing number in recent years, of both cars and clients.
The downside is that alongside the insane prices, the current class of super- and hypercars have become too fast to be properly used in traffic. Within the blink of an eye, you are at two or three times the speed limit, let alone the speed of everyone around you. A quick scroll on YouTube or Instagram shows you just how quickly things can get out of hand due to that speed difference and a lack of skill in handling such a car. The hand-built Vertige, however, is aimed at accessible and pure driving pleasure at all speeds, and power you can use up to its limit, with a high dose of excitement in return without scaring the bejeezus out of you. And to me, that feels like a very welcome breath of fresh air!
For more information, please visit WellsMotorCars.com.
Editorial Note – The information used and images portrayed in this article are sourced from and used with the permission of the Wells Motor Cars company unless stated otherwise.