The Spectre R42 Was a Brilliant Flash in the Pan

In the history of long-forgotten automotive projects that never quite got off the ground, there are plenty that simply didn’t deserve to succeed, either because they were badly engineered, poorly made, optimistically priced, or some combination of them all. But none of these things applied to the Spectre R42, because it was well engineered, fabulous to drive, and sensibly priced, even though it was up against some very stiff competition.

The Spectre R42 project started in 1991, as the brainchild of Ray Christopher. He was the owner of GT Developments (GTD), which built exacting replicas of the Ford GT40. By 1991, he had sold more than 300 GT40s, and he fancied making his own GT40 successor for the ’90s. The formula would be very similar: a mid-mounted Ford V-8 sitting ahead of a transaxle gearbox, with lightweight rakish bodywork thanks to the liberal use of folded aluminum and honeycomb composite.

Called the R42 after its creator (Ray) and the fact that it sat 42 inches tall, a pre-production prototype was unveiled at the London Motor Show in October 1993. But the car was launched straight into a global recession, and GT Developments had overstretched itself; within a year the company had gone bust. 

All was not lost, though, because in March 1995, American company Spectre Motors Inc. purchased GT Developments. Headed by former Scandinavian GTD dealer Anders Hildebrand and his father, within four months Spectre had put the R42 into production in GTD’s Dorset factory in southwest England, while also setting up dealerships in England, Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden. He even managed to tempt Steve Saleen into building the R42 in the U.S., though things never got that far. 

What’s remarkable is that while GTD’s bodyshell was carried over, in those few months Spectre revamped the interior and overhauled an array of details, such as switching the Ford Orion rear lights for Acura Legend items. The quality of the bodywork was also vastly improved. The original plan had been to use aluminum or carbon fiber for the outer panels, but fiberglass was used instead, in a bid to speed up production times and cut costs. The monocoque was a Group C–style composite affair, while the brakes were developed by AP Racing for maximum stopping power. Naturally, there was double-wishbone suspension at each corner.

Although the R42’s exterior design was a bit on the generic side, with some awkward shut lines here and there, it was quite slippery with a drag coefficient of 0.28. The whole of the back end tipped rearward to reveal a 4.6-liter Ford-sourced quad-cam V-8 that drove the back wheels (shod in 335/35 ZR17 tires) via a five-speed transaxle built by Getrag. Capable of generating 350 hp along with 335 lb-ft of torque, the V-8 could push the 3400-pound R42 all the way to a claimed 175 mph, having dispatched the 0–60mph sprint in just four seconds along the way. 

What let down most low-volume cars of this era was an interior design and quality that would shame a kit car, but not here. Sure, there were maybe a few too many parts obviously sourced from a contemporary Ford Fiesta, but there were plenty of premium materials as well, such as Wilton carpet, leather, and Alcantara.

The U.K.’s Autocar magazine drove a pre-production prototype in summer 1995 and came away very impressed, but it wasn’t until spring 1997 that extended media drives took place. By then, the R42 had been more fully developed, and when journalist Brett Fraser drove a Spectre for Performance Car in 1997, he brimmed over with enthusiasm. “That moment of truth has arrived for the R42, at the hungry mouth of a vicious set of kinks, glowing golden as the sun reflects off a light coating of water. Perfect. Testing. Frightening. After all, anyone can claim to have made a supercar, but not everyone will have done it properly. Which is this to be? A deep breath, a firm grip of the steering wheel. A hefty kick to the ribs of a snarly V-8 and we’re off to find out the hard way. 

“The speedo’s saying 70 mph but my brain’s saying ‘not yet’, so a dab of the brakes and into the fray at 60 mph. Flick right, left, right, left, gentle right and accelerate hard. Doddle. Neither the Spectre or my confidence were fazed by that run. Go again, this time in at 70 mph. No problem. Nor at 75. Or 80. At 85 it’s my nerve which is becoming the limiting factor, because the Spectre keeps on howling through the corners as if it were a giant Scalextric car. It barely rolls, neither understeers nor oversteers, utterly composed. Unlike the driver. My reflexes can’t keep pace with the car, which is always a good time to stop pushing one’s luck. The Spectre deserves its supercar tag, no doubt about it.” 

The car’s most famous (infamous?) exposure came in the straight-to-video David Arquette heist flick RPM, and it features prominently throughout as a car worth stealing. Whether the movie is worth watching is another matter.

Sadly, all of the media coverage was never going to make much difference. As is so often the way with these low-profile projects that are hugely talented, the R42 never really stood a chance, because production costs were too high thanks to a lack of economies of scale. It took 2000 hours to build each R42, guaranteeing that money was lost on each one. When it was launched in 1995, the R42 carried a £69,950 ($110,000) list price, which made it $35K more than a Lotus Esprit V8, while even an Acura NSX and Porsche 911 Carrera RS cost less. By 1997, the price had risen to £75K ($125,000), and an Aston Martin DB7 was only 10% more. You had to really want something different to buy a Spectre, in other words.

And of course, there weren’t nearly enough people who really wanted an R42. But despite this, during 1997 Spectre built a couple of prototypes for a car that was easier to assemble than the R42, and to a higher standard, which could also command a higher asking price. The R45 made its debut at the 1997 London Motor Show, and we were promised that at the same event a year later there would be a production model. But that didn’t happen, because Spectre went belly up in the meantime, after just 23 R42s had been produced.