Veritas RS III in Germany

Veritas race cars go back a long way, to 1947 when owner/driver Karl Kling used a Veritas tuned BMW to win at Hockenheim. In doing so, he also took out the 1947 German 2-litre Championship.

After disappearing for over 50-years, a small, but highly skilled German manufacturer, Vermot AG based in Gelsdorf, Germany decided to put some serious muscle into resurrecting all but forgotten once German car builder.

CarAdvice was one of only two automotive media groups to be given a drive of the one-off prototype in 2009, and today in Germany, we got up close to the latest edition of the RS III, moments before it was driven to the Nurburgring for some more high speed testing.

Standing just 970 millimetres tall, this is a very serious looking machine. Under the bonnet is a V10 powerplant sourced from BMW’s Autobahn chaser, the M5, which develops a stomping 373 kilowatts and a neat 520 Newton-metres. Ordinarily, that’s a serious bit of thunder to shove under any bonnet.

But up front in the new Veritas, it gives a whole new meaning to the word extreme. That’s because this car doesn’t weight a whole lot. Try 1080 kilograms and you’ll be pretty much spot on. It also means that acceleration from 0-100km/h is over in less than 3.2 seconds. Top speed on a derestricted section of Autobahn is 347km/h.

Power to the rear wheels is via a six-speed manual, or the more popular seven-speed sequential box.

The suspension utilises KW Automotive shock absorbers with a push rod set up, and double triangular control arm with stabiliser.

Grip levels are said to be extremely high with massive Dunlop 325/25 on the equally large 22-inch full-drop centre rims, and 255/30’s up front. That’s a mighty large footprint on the tarmac.

Stopping power won’t be an issue either, with perforated ceramic disks with six-piston calipers to make proper sure of the job.

As exhaust pipes go, there are none more brutal than these massive stainless steel units that look more like missile launches than exhaust tips .

The doors (if you can call them that) scissor up, but you still need to do the ‘up and over’ race car entry manoeuvre to get into the driver’s seat. It’s certainly not a car for a lady in a skirt.

The cockpit is a very cosy place to be and the windscreen wouldn’t stand 20 centimetres at its highest point.

There is truly nothing to compare this car to in the world today and CarAdvice has been offered a test drive later this year.

The base price of the Veritas RS III is around 340,000 Euro, but specific performance options alone, could take it well north of that sum.