LA MOTOR SHOW: Aria FXE hypercar

One of the most visually arresting cars shown at this year’s Los Angeles motor show is also one of the most potent.

It’s called the Aria FXE, and if creators get their way, it'll put America firmly on the hypercar map by besting some of the most iconic hypercars of this era from McLaren and Ferrari.

"We love all those supercars: Ferraris, McLarens, Porsches, Koenigseggs and Paganis. They just don’t come from here. There should be one," said Clive Hawkins, Aria president and CEO.

Hawkins has big plans for the million-dollar FXE – and soon. He told motoring.com.au he wants to deliver the American-built hypercar by the end of 2019.

"We know they're big competitors, this is David and Goliath, so we're building a car that won't just compete, it will beat them," said Hawkins, who heads up the small engineering firm of around 100 employees.

Generating a claimed 857kW (1150hp) and 1784Nm (1316ft/lb) of torque, the Aria FXE is capable of accelerating from 0-100km/h in just 2.8secs.

Top speed is 338km/h or 210mph.

The rear axle is driven by a 6.2-litre supercharged V8 similar to the Chevy Corvette, while the Aria FXE's front axle gets a "twin-motor hybrid front axle", according to Hawkins. It runs a 10kWh Lithium-ion battery pack.

There's a good chance you've never heard of Californian engineering firm Aria Group, but you probably would have seen its handy work. It builds concept cars and performs engineering work for mainstream car makers.

"We've worked with other manufacturers before," explained Hawkins. "We help all the manufacturers build cars. Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, you name it we've worked with them. This is the first time we've kind of done our own thing."

The mid-engined hypercar's chassis and body panels are made from carbon fibre and the car is expected to tip the scales at around between 1600 and 1750kg. It will be offered in left- and right-hand drive configurations, says Hawkins.

Aria has spent most of 2017 working on the aerodynamics of the FXE in the wind tunnel. Active aerodynamics, spoilers and vents and lips that activate when certain speeds are met, for example, are not on the FXE menu.

"No active aero," states the Aria boss. "Reason being? This car is for people. I spend a lot of my time driving cars as well as designing and building cars. Cars with active aero are quite hard to drive. This car is consistent."

It's a striking car to behold, with hints of Lamborghini from some angles and Corvette from others, but the design is not quite complete.

"The rear wing is fake, there's a lot to do to get the aero balance right in a car like this. We're still working on the wing. We've got some tricky things we're trying to do with the rear wing, but the rest of the car is pretty much where it's going to be.

"We're going to put the aero balance to make it extremely high performance for normal humans to drive. It's not a race car. We could make it quicker, twitchier but we're not going to do that."

There will also be a 'regular' Aria FE model, which will lose the electric gubbins and will shove 550kW (740hp) to the rear axle.

Aria will not build more than 400 vehicles, a mix of both FXE and FE, with the former tipped to exceed $1 million.

"These cars will be built to order. Every single part will be worked with the customer to give them what they want," said Hawkins.

He wouldn’t be drawn on specific pricing but stated that it would similar in price and performance to some of the world's most extreme hypercars: "Well, if you look at the performance and the pack we want to run with, LaFerrari, McLaren P1, Pagani, Koenigsegg, Porsche 918, we will be comparative in pricing with those guys on the FXE model. The FE model won't be as much.

"We'll be driving mules in 2018, delivering cars at the end of 2019 at the earliest. The engineering excellence we need to achieve to compete with the best of the best or beat the best – which is my goal – takes time. We're not unrealistic, it'll take time."

Hawkins is keen to try a radical new approach to the development and construction phases too.

"Unlike the rest of the car industry, everybody does everything behind the scenes, and then they say 'look what we've got', we're going to do the exact opposite. We're inviting customers, enthusiasts, and the media to be involved with this experience of what it takes to build a supercar, all the way through.

"We're a small company, we're enthusiasts too, and enthusiasts want to know what it takes to do this, they want to see the bumps and bruises."

But it won't be easy. Hawkins concedes his company is small by comparison to his rivals and says the show car is designed to fast-track the capital required for such an ambitious project.

"We're a tiny company, we don’t have VW or FIAT in our back pocket. We're excited about getting customers and potentially investors involved."

The difference between Aria and other start up low-volume car makers whose vehicles regularly disappear into the automotive ether is that this company already has runs on the board with 22 years of experience building cars.

Then again, one million dollars is a lot of money…