Production of Mexican sports car Mastretta MXT halted

In a statement released earlier this week the company's founders, Daniel and Carlos Mastretta, confirmed the cessation of work on the MXT and apologised to the company's 45 employees, as well as its customers, suppliers and distributors.

The Mastretta brothers blamed the demise on the "goofy, irresponsible and negligent" management team that was installed back in 2013 when the brothers accepted funding from three outside investors. The injection of capital from two Mexican government corporations and venture capital firm Latin Idea Ventures reduced the brothers to a minority shareholding.

During an interview with El Financiero Carlos Mastretta said that only half of the US$5.5 million investment was used before Latin Idea Ventures pulled the pin.

Debuting back in 2010, the Mastretta MXT was a two-seat coupe powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged Ford Duratec engine. The engine is mounted transversely behind the driver and passenger, and generates 184kW of power and 348Nm of torque. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual transmission.

With its bonded aluminium chassis, carbon fibre floor and composite body, the MXT tipped the scales at just 1050kg. Thanks to its light weight the coupe is able to complete the 0-100km/h dash in 4.9 seconds and hit a top speed of 260km/h.

A revised version of the MXT featuring less weight, as well as the 2.0-litre EcoBoost engine from the Ford Focus ST, was slated for 2015, but now seems unlikely to see the light of day.