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Turn 10 Car of the Week: Delfino Feroce

By L. Shepard

You’ve probably never heard of the small, short lived British sports car company called Delfino and for good reason: their lone attempt to break into the sports car market consisting of a front engine, all-wheel-drive roadster with huge fog lights and no roof. Not exactly the recipe for building a successful model line. Were they unaware that it occasionally rains in the UK?

Named the Feroce, the car that Delfino built was, depending on the donor car, based on the chassis and drivetrain from either a GC Subaru WRX or a WRX STi. To most people it would seem just another one-off car resulting from a rich man’s pipe dream for production car glory, and frankly this conclusion is hard to refute: only one road-worthy test car was ever produced by the company. Undeniably rough around the edges, the shape of the Feroce was surely meant to appear aggressive. The front end was styled somewhere between a Cobra Mustang and an S14 Silvia; deep scoops angled out of the front fenders; doors opened only halfway up the side of the car leaving huge kick panels to traverse over when entering/exiting; did I mention it has no roof? As in no roof, ever?  Not even a removable hardtop.

So why would we grace such a car on the pages of the Turn 10 Car of the Week? Truth be told, the Feroce has had a huge impact on my love for cars, both personally and professionally. Those of you who have heard of the Feroce most likely remember it from Project Gotham Racing (also featured in PGR2), where it was the fastest all-wheel drive car available, and that performance rings true in real life. The car itself is capable of 0-60 sprints in less than 4 seconds, owing largely to its minimalist curb weight of 2100 lbs, which also helps keep it planted on the skid pad to an estimated .97 g.

As a stock driving proposition (or at least as close to ‘stock’ as you could call it) the Feroce would undoubtedly excite but what really interests me is the potential as a tuning platform. Unburdened by creature comforts such as sound deadening or rear seats, the hugely upgradable Subaru underpinnings would kill most supercars once it's been fed the proper aftermarket goodies. Ah yes, I can picture it now… 500 hp, AWD, as close as you could get to a one ton curb weight and -- to top it all off -- that lovely Boxer sound.

Sadly the Delfino Feroce will never see production, but the story of this Franken-car doesn’t end there. In 2005 the Delfino rights were bought by Adrenaline Motorsport, an upstart UK manufacturer where the Feroce would be heavily redesigned and renamed the Murtaya (pictured above). Available with virtually any permutation of the venerable Subaru EJ-Series flat four imaginable, sleek two-seater styling and a curb weight so low it borders on anorexic, there is no doubt that the Murtaya follows through on the aggressive performance intentions of the Feroce. Adrenaline Motorsport and Delfino aren’t alone either; other groups have thrown their hats in the AWD rally-coupe ring: Prodrive (pictured below) with their P2 concept, and the X-Works X1 Concept. In those cases, both cars drove, handled, included roofs and all that, but sadly like the Feroce, neither of these are available for purchase either.

Maybe it’s the lingering impression the Feroce left on me before I knew the inherent flaws of the type of car built in a shed, but I just find the Murtaya and its siblings hugely compelling; compelling in the way that’s nearly impossible to justify to anyone else. Like the need to wash my car in the rain or pop every single bubble on a piece of bubble wrap.  Four-door rally rockets are cool in their own way, and the utility is undeniable, but stopping to admire my cars’ ability to hold four freeloading passengers is not high on my ‘do want’ checklist of dream car features. 

At the end of the day, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to rationalize ownership of such a car, even if only in my head. Where the thought process inevitably leads me is to the infuriating reminder that, no matter how much I want one, cars like this simply aren’t available at your local dealership.  They’re too raw and too dangerous for mainstream manufacture -- a fact, which, I’m sure for many, only adds to their appeal.

L. Shepard tells himself that someday he will build his own car from the ground up. Were this to actually happen, the resulting machine would most likely be held together with Bondo and duct tape.