Concepts and prototypes : Wolfrace Sonic
December 31, 2012
· 
Keith Adams · 
10 Comments
Keith Adams
The Sonic was the brainchild of the alloy wheel manufacturer, Wolfrace. The company wanted to create an eye-catching concept car to showcase its new range of Sonic alloys – you might recognise the ‘pepper pot’ style, which was used in the Ford Fiesta XR2, Capri 2.8 Injection, and MG Metro 1300. It approached famed hot-rodder Nick Butler‘s Auto Imagination to come up with the car – and boy, did he create something rather special.
Butler’s background was in engineering, having trained at Hawker Siddeley at Kingston and Dunsfold. He cut his teeth on the incredible Harrier Jump Jets and Hawk aeroplanes, working on stress analysis and flight testing. In 1976 he left to follow his passion for special cars, setting up Auto Imagination. His closest brush with series production was with the 1980s Gold Cirrus – a sort of latter-day Rover V8 powered AC 3000ME. But with decent handling.
The Wolfrace Sonic was an amazing car. Powered by a pair of Rover V8s, controlled by a clever drive-by-wire system, the two seater was certainly blessed with plenty of potential performance. Underneath the Batmobile-style looks, there was a spaceframe chassis, with rear wheel drive through a Jaguar rear axle and differential. But for most people, the main talking point was the six-wheel configuration similar to the 1977 Panther 6. Autocar magazine featured the car in 1981, and it made regular appearances on the motor show circuit for a couple of years before disappearing out of view.
The last time it was seen was in 2010, when the original car (two were eventually built) went up for sale for a cool million quid…
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10 Responses
6 wheels seemed to be a 70s experimental thing, such as the 76-77 Tyrell.
Even the Bedford VAL bus (as seen in the Italian Job) had such a setup.
What was the advantage? Increased surface area for steering and braking?
Why did the fad die out? Purely aestethics?
No, one word.. cost
I absolutely adore the Sonic, Nick’s website is a rather interesting read too, lose a few hours in the one day…
FWIW, the Tyrrell had six wheels as an attempt to improve the front aerodynamics.
Didn’t they do a cheesy song about this too?
Wonderful concept- however, might be a little tricky pulling out of junctions without the assistance of a third party, as you’d need a longer neck than a giraffe’s otherwise…
Could conceivably be more viable these days with the advent of small reliable video cameras.
at 1
the 6 wheels 2 on the front are better to improve the handling beacouse the section of 4 maybee smaller wheels like the tyrell ones are much bigger than the section of 2 “normal” wheels of other cars…but tont forget that there is a wiliams F1 project with 6 wheels but this time with 4 wheels on the back
As far as I remember the Tyrell was an aerodynamic thing, but the Bedford VAL could have been an axle loading thing. The smaller wheels used could have made loading easier, but could compromise the legal weight limit on a single steer axle. So they fitted two.
The VAL used much smaller than normal rims, 16 inch, when coaches and buses were using 22.5 inch rims, so no doubt axle loading was the key
The Tyrell P34 racing car meets one of the aircraft this gentleman designed in the past? Did anyone ever try the six-wheel concept on a regular sedan or hatchback in an attempt to showcase the practicality of layout?
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