Comments on: Mexican-built Mastretta MXT global debut

By: bernardo suarez

bernardo suarez — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:54:22 +0000

For the first built mexican car, its incredible.

And yes mastretta sounds very italian but its because they are of italian decent duh! :p

its actually a very now mexican name since the designers mother is a famous writer. Soo in the end they did not rip of the Maserati name, its just one of lifes coincidences.

By: Ivan

Ivan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:30:22 +0000

You gotta love those mexicans.

First car they ever fully design and built is a supercar. (I consider a Lotus Exige as a supercar =)

By: No Name

No Name — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:03:14 +0000

The VX 220 was really a comfortable Elise. Carpets Radio n all that. Still loved it at the time over the Elise

By: steve

steve — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:54:29 +0000

if that hits Australian shores for $60k i’d be first inline!!

By: SuperCujo

SuperCujo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:02:21 +0000

Hey Car-enthusiast, the VX220 wasn’t really competition for the Elise. That is because it was built on a modified Elise Elise. Modified to for the GM 4 cylinder instead of the Rover K-series. It was even built in the same factory.

But even then GM stuffed it up slightly:
“The VX220 was originally designed by Lotus to have 16″ front wheels and 17″ rear wheels. Vauxhall decided to fit 17″ wheels front and rear for aesthetic reasons. In turn this reduced the handling performance of the car.”

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:54:35 +0000

I must be weird – I think it looks horn! Though yes, it sounds slightly dodgy… but the engine is alright…

By: Crouchy

Crouchy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:56:59 +0000

I was reading that article thinking is was a maserati….

Just going “oh god, that cant be a maserati!!!!!”

Thankfully it isnt but it does seem like tasty value.. if you were living in the uk you surely couldnt look past the atom could u ????

By: Car-enthusiast

Car-enthusiast — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:55:16 +0000

It sorta looks like some one got the front lights of a Cadillac CTS-V and put it on the body of a Audi R8 & raised the roofline a bit.

and currently the only car to take on a lotus is a Vauxhall vx220, which has a pretty similar body to the lotus and looks much nicer cause it was built when GM owne lotus, but well the vx220 can only take on the Lotus elise, nice to see some more competition in the market.

By: Fenno

Fenno — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:25:44 +0000

Suprised its not built on an old beetle floorplan.
Thought the Mexicans would have had plenty of those lying around.

By: Golfschwein

Golfschwein — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:52:12 +0000

Dig the metal-topped interior door finish. Just like Mum’s and Dad’s HK Belmont (wherever you are).

By: Reckless1

Reckless1 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:37:20 +0000

Are they planning on selling the business to TATA.

Otherwise why build RHD cars – they are in the middle of a massive LHD market.

Pity they had to knock off Maserati’s name. Perhaps the bloke building them changed his name to Mastretti to avoid such accusations?

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:21:21 +0000

Well personally Id prefer a Lotus but good fro them