The Prodrive Hunter: A $1.65m rally car that’s designed for the roads, and costs $625 to fill with gas

Motorsport and advanced technology business Prodrive has presented the definitive version of the Hunter, a hypercar that has been developed from the BRX competition car, in which rally champion Sebastien Loeb competed at two editions of the Dakar Rally, for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.

It’s an all-terrain vehicle, but with a difference, counting on a 600bhp Ford 3.5 V6 twin turbo engine that does 0 to 60mph in less than four seconds and has a top speed of 185mph.

The Hunter is a road car, and its engineers have adapted its suspension and transmission for a more versatile use than the desert tracks of a rally, but without sacrificing its potential and its ability to drive on the most inhospitable terrain.

According to David Richards, the Prodrive chairman, in comments published on the company’s website: “There are numerous hypercars on the market, however they all need good roads or even race tracks to show their performance. We identified that in certain parts of the world, particularly the Middle East, there are vast expanses still to be explored that go way beyond the access provided by asphalt roads. Therefore why not create a vehicle that gives the opportunity to explore these regions with performance way beyond that offered by any off-road vehicle before.”

A 127-gallon gas tank

It’s a declaration of intent on the part of the Prodrive boss about their objectives with the Hunter and its potential buyers. To make the Hunter even more attractive for these clients, the bodywork has been styled by the famous designer Ian Callum, who has combined elegance with the aggression and aerodynamics of the competition car.

Under its spectacular bodywork, the Hunter is hiding another of its excesses: a huge 127-gallon gas tank that would cost around $625 to fill, given the current cost of premium gasoline, which is what its V6 engine requires.

But that’s an expense that wouldn’t concern any future buyers of the Hunter, given what they would have to pay to purchase the car in the first place: $1.65 million plus taxes.

The first prototype of this extraordinary 4x4 is already being tested in the Middle East with the aim of finding buyers. The first orders from an initial series of just 25 models are due to be delivered before the end of the year.