Bolwell Nagari Rides Again

Almost 40 years after the first Bolwell Nagari sports car stopped Australians in their tracks in 1969, a brand new Bolwell Nagari is set to do it all over again when it breaks cover at the 2008 Melbourne International Motor Show.

The original Nagari -- aboriginal for 'flowing' -- was driven by the Bolwell brothers' fascination with race car engineering. It reflected current Lotus practice at the time with a centre backbone chassis and fibreglass body.

A locally-supplied Ford 302/4.9-litre V8 and manual transmission gave the Nagari more brutal performance than similar sports cars with their small four cylinder engines.

Although it could be purchased as a kit, the Nagari was Bolwell's first fully built-up model.

Today's Nagari is an ultra-modern design that owes nothing to the original except it is also based on the latest race car principles and construction methods.

Reflecting Bolwell's global composite engineering and manufacturing capabilities, the new Nagari will have an all-up weight of just 850kg, thanks to a carbon fibre main tub that weighs just 40kg. It is a mid-engined design powered by a 250kW supercharged 3.5-litre Toyota V6 similar to the TRD Aurion.

With a projected 0-100km/h time of four seconds, it promises supercar performance.

Attention to detail will be typical of Bolwell. All subframes and suspension links are aircraft grade chrome moly tube with ceramic coating.

One of the key design criteria is that it must provide adequate room for two large Aussies. Initially available as a closed coupe only, the new Nagari has been benchmarked against the Porsche Boxster S which it will match in price.

Following the original Nagari, Bolwell became a hugely successful enterprise specialising in manufacturing industrial parts from fibreglass and composites. During this period, the company built a limited edition mid-engined Bolwell Ikara sports car powered by VW Golf mechanicals to highlight its growing expertise in this area.

According to those involved with the latest Nagari project, the motivation behind the Nagari's return is to provide a showcase for Bolwell's increasingly sophisticated capabilities.