At $14,000, This Javan R1 Roadster is Britain’s Best Kept Secret

BOLD RIDE

Copyright © 2015 Bold Ride LLC.

 

Posted by Zach Doell

 

 

When a brand slips into the clutches of bankruptcy, it might not be gone forever. That’s especially apparent in the automotive industry. This stunning piece of design is small scale proof. 

 

It’s called the Javan R1 and it arose from the ashes of the shuttered Strathcarron Sports Cars company, which closed its doors in 2001.

It boasts a 2.0-liter engine, 220 horsepower, and can vault from zero to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. While the limited production sportster originally called Great Britain home, this one is up for sale in Ohio. It certainly isn’t something you see every day.

Strathcarron Sports Cars made a big splash with their lightweight SC5-A road car in the late ‘90s. However the young company couldn’t dodge a change to Britain’s roadworthiness regulations, which sidelined the firm for good. Luckily the SC5-A would ride again thanks to Javan Smith, a 1:8 scale race car modeler, who purchased the rights to the car’s molds and aluminum monocoque design.

 

Smith’s resultant Javan R1 would prove to be quite the successor too, opting for a the Honda Civic Type-R’s four-cylinder instead of the Strathcarron’s smaller motorcycle engine. That 220 horsepower punch came funneled through a six-speed manual gearbox, and gave the super-light (1,477 pounds) R1 some serious ‘go’ to complement its eye-catching looks. Zero to 100 mph took 9.8 seconds, and the quarter mile disappeared in 12.2 ticks of the watch.

Options included launch control and a supercharger, which would have tacked on a few bills to the car’s price tag of £30,140 circa 2006 ($45,830 at today’s rates). From the photos, this Javan R1 would appear to be a fine example, though it is worth noting that a few of the shots also appear on the Javan Sportscars website.

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