British sports car marque Trident is sending its Iceni sports car speeding to market, calling it the “fastest and most fuel efficient diesel sports car” available. The car uses a patented torque multiplication technology to combine 306 km/h worth of speed potential with up to 3 219 km of driving per tank of fuel.
Trident is a classic British sports car badge that dates back to the 1960s. Its current incarnation was established in 2005 by Phil Bevan and Daniel Monaghan, and it didn’t take too long before the Iceni started making appearances.
Trident popped up last week, seemingly out of the blue, announcing that the Iceni is now available for order. Not only that, but it’s added the Magna fastback and Venturer estate body styles to the original convertible, all of which share an identical base price and hardware.
Underneath its curvy, svelte body, the Iceni is powered by a hulking, mid-front 6.6-liter V8 turbo diesel that puts out 395 hp. More interesting is the whopping 700 lb-ft (949 Nm) of torque available with the help of Trident’s torque multiplication technology. Trident’s goal in building the Iceni was to use the torque multiplication technology to combine the sports car performance of a big, large-displacement engine with fuel economy more similar to a one-liter car. It tells us that the Iceni represents the first road-car use of the torque technology and that it can improve fuel efficiency by up to 50 %.
“It is widely believed that horsepower delivers power, speed and fuel efficiency, but it is in fact torque that matters,” Trident explains. “Trident has patented a unique way of utilising torque multiplication to improve performance and efficiency, which has been incorporated into all their sports cars.”
As estimated by Trident, the very same car can crank out speeds over 306 Km/h and travel up to 3 219 km without stopping for a fill-up, though likely not on the same trip. On its way to flirting with 320 km/h, it can hit 100km/h in 3.7 seconds. Drivers can fuel up with either mineral-based diesel or biodiesel.
Trident designed its own six-speed automatic transmission and differential for the Iceni. It planted the car on a special-grade stainless steel chassis, choosing the material for strength and torsional rigidity. Around the exterior and interior, you’ll find 39 bespoke components, including the wheels, seats, instruments and grilles.
The Iceni has a voluptuous design reminiscent of past British sports cars like the Jaguar E-Type – if you’re going to be derivative, you may as well derive from the best. The convertible version features a T-top-like design with independently controlled roof panels for driver and passenger. The lower body flows seamlessly from the hood, past the cabin and into the plump hindquarters. Side-mounted exhaust tips and a double-bubble roof provide some clear distinguishing points on the solid-roof Magna.
Based on the initial sketches, the extended cab of the Venturer estate looks even stranger than we would have expected. The juxtaposition of the sharply-angled rear windshield and extra-curvy lower body creates a rough profile. Perhaps they’ll clean that up before they start banging out the sheet metal.
All three Iceni models start at N$ 1.7 million and include ventilated disc brakes, Pro Flex fixed damper shocks with Eibach springs, air conditioning, heated leather seats, and a digital radio with Bluetooth as standard equipment. In addition to a Track Pack, buyers can opt for three other packages – a N$2 million Performance Pack with 430-bhp engine upgrade, and a pair of luxury packages. Trident has started production and says that it already has a waiting list for the limited number of models it plans to build.
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