The Russian Volga V12 Coupé

One of the only thing that caught the world by surprise was a V12 coupé version of the venerable Volga saloon.

Reminiscent of a Jaguar or Cobra of the 1960s, the car's classical lines fit in nicely  almost anywhere .... anytime.

The Volga V12 Coupé is powered by a 5.6 Litre BMW V12 engine  from their 850 CSi no less - it leaves nothing lacking in performance. That is not saying that it is traded in for detail like safety - with a hardened, radically lowered suspension by DSC, ABS and a whole host of other modifications to the original design - this has brought renewed confidence to the Russian car industry - even if the original does cost not much less than $400,000 per example.

Reaching 62mph (100kph) in 6.5 seconds isn't terribly exciting in current motorsport standards ...... BUT ..... when you compare it against the standard road car's acceleration as being over 35 seconds, grinding through all its three gear ratios .... it really is an advance over its ancestor - especially having a six-speed gear box.

Sitting on 245/50 ZR17 tyres, combined with a stiffened suspension REALLY does make the difference when cornering. A particularly difficult question for automobile designers is that once you have reached optimum performance in terms of speed in a car, how can you keep it going along the straight and narrow?

This car's designers have done extensive aerodynamic testing. The old Volga GAZ-21P had most of the car's weight on the front wheels - whilst this did immense favours in flattening down drifts of snow in the streets of Moscow - it wasn't really much help in improving roadholding - the design team have shifted 60% of this car's weight to the rear axle by means of aerodynamically remodelling the exterior of the car.

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