Mulsanne

Make
Bentley
Segment
Sedan

The Goodwood Festival of Speed represents a chance for automakers to show off their most exclusive new products. It is also an opportunity for smaller marques to rub elbows with well-established luxury and exotic brands. In order to be noticed and remembered, companies have to bring something special. A small Indian company called Vazirani Automotive has just revealed a new supercar called the Shul, and this one really caught our attention.

The Shul (pronounced "Shool") is a new type of supercar, featuring a turbine-electric drivetrain that is designed to appeal to "purists and petrolheads". Turbine engines can notoriously run on any combustable liquid, but the Shul has been designed to run on ordinary gasoline. Four electric motors sit on each wheel to provide fully independent torque vectoring, each sending power through a single-ratio gearbox. Vazirani says the car will be light thanks to a carbon-fiber tub chassis, and small batteries that only weigh around 300 kg (661 pounds). The turbine power allows the batteries to be smaller and lighter.

The Shul is the work of Chunky Vazirani, who has worked for Jaguar-Land Rover and Rolls-Royce. Vazirani says "Our battery pack weighs only about 300 kg and it gives you the advantage of charging it on the go. The battery is right behind the passenger and it also takes some space through the central tunnel, so the car has an optimum weight distribution." Unlike some other small supercar makers, Vazirani hasn't quoted any performance figures, saying the company is "not interested in fighting for 0-62 mph times." Instead, the Shul will "focus on handling," which sounds like a winning formula to us.