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Showing posts from August, 2025

The Torque Talk Episode 10 (Venturi 400 GT)

Venturi 400 GT: The forgotten French thoroughbred Image: Top Gear Origination. Born out of Venturi’s single-make racing program, the 400 GT is the road-going offshoot of the Venturi 400 Trophy—a fearsome early-’90s racer created for the Gentlemen Drivers Trophy series. Unveiled for the road in 1994 at Venturi’s Couëron base, the 400 GT retained much of the Trophy’s hardware but was trimmed and homologated for public roads. Production was tiny: fewer than 100 in total, with roughly 15 street cars and the rest competition variants, making any 400 GT sighting rare even in supercar circles.  Powertrain & performance. At its core is the famous PRV 3.0-liter V6—twin-turbocharged, intercooled, and mid-mounted—rated at about 408 PS (402 bhp) and ~520–530 Nm . A 5-speed manual sends power to the rear wheels. Contemporary figures have the 400 GT at 0–100 km/h in ~4.7 s with a top speed near 290 km/h (180 mph) —squarely supercar numbers for the era.  Braking firsts & chas...