The Zagato's designed Perana Z-One super sports car

Unique ONES Maybe some of you have just heard the name of Perana (Perana Performance Group), it is a South African automotive company based in Pretoria. As quoted from Road and Track, the South African company has been known as the Ford tuner workshop since the 1960s and in the 2000s tried to expand its business into an automotive manufacturer.

Perana Z-One was born from a collaboration between renowned Milanese coachbuilders Zagato and Perana Performance Group, a South African vehicle manufacturer. (Picture from: MotorAuthority)

Unmitigated, the South African company's efforts to build a good sports car that immediately gained public attention was by collaborating with Zagato, a well-known Milan-based automotive design house which was previously widely known for its collaboration with several world-renowned premium car brands such as Aston. Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and more.

Perana Z-One is a unique two-seater sports car featured with an extraordinarily long nose, aggressive wide stance and massive rear  (Picture from: MotorAuthority)

And it is known that the collaboration resulted car, later known as the Perana Z-One is debuted as the concept car at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. The unique-shaped car is built on the Corvette C6's chassis, designed by Zagato in Italy, with performance developments of the builder Superformance (formerly Hi-Tech Automotive) in South Africa.

The Perana Z-One's interior isn't nearly as extraordinary as its exterior, and its configuration seems frankly dated compared to the fresh ergonomics in today's latest supercars. (Picture from: Autoblog)

So it's no surprise that the car might look like a Corvette C6 massively redesigned. Due to the high production costs of the Perana Z-One, which was later rebadged as the AC 378 GT Zagato and entered the production line as a product of AC Cars at the end of 2012.

Most of the Perana Z-One is powered by the Chevy small-block LS3 aluminum V-8, which is capable of spewing the power of 430 hp to the rear wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission. (Picture from: CorvetteForum)

However the car production process is still faltered, by the original planned of 999 units to be built and selling for around $100,000, but fewer than a dozen (some said only 10 units) have made it out of Hi-Tech Automotive's production facility near Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Perana Z-One is a hand-crafted tube-frame sports car with composite body panels fitted with a very powerful Chevrolet's drivetrain. (Picture from: NetCarShow)

And it is suspected that only seven of these were ever shipped to the United States not as finished cars but as painted and trimmed bodies over a steel tube-frame chassis, without an engine. Thus were standard car regulations sidestepped, and the engine option was up to the buyer, and most of The Perana Z-One buyers were chose the Chevy small-block LS3 aluminum V-8 engine, which is capable of spewing the power of 430 horsepower to the rear wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission.

In the past, the Perana Z-One might be overlooked a little, but now its destiny has turned into a rare sports car that will probably have a price tags more than $150,000 because in addition to its small population and of course as one of the Zagato designed cars also has been played a role to its exorbitant price tags. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ROADANDTRACK | HAGERTY | MOTORAUTHORITY | WIKIPEDIA ]

Note: This blog can be accessed via your smart phone.

Kindly Bookmark and Share it: