The Egoista EM 01 ST Is A £6500 180mph Crowd-Funded Open Wheel Race Car For The Road

We’ve become a bit bored of supercar start ups. Gone are the days when a bloke called Dave could knock together a world beater in his shed by chucking a big engine under some poorly-welded metal, attaching four wheels and slapping a price tag on it. These days there are so many safety regulations and emissions tests and countless other hoops to jump through, so Dave slings a cheap and easy LS motor under the awkwardly assembled bodywork before disappearing when the true scale of creating a modern supercar becomes apparent.

That’s where Egoista comes in. The manufacturer, backed by Fisker Automotive co-founder Gianfranco Pizzuto, has created an IndieGoGo crowdfunding page to make its environmentally friendly road car that looks like a Formula 1 car a reality.

That’s admittedly no mean feat, especially considering the team need to raise a minimum of $100,000 to enter the next stage of production, but by pitching the car as an affordable big boy’s toy rather than a supercar (complete with exorbitant price tag), its goal seems actually achievable.

But here’s the real kicker: the price of the final product. The finished car will start from just $9999 (£6400); that gets you all the kit to build the electric car in your garage, while $15,000 (£9500) gets you the hybrid car kit, which packs a motorcycle engine for extra oomph and aural pleasure. You can also stump up a little more moolah for a fully assembled car.

Simply put, for the price of a second hand hatchback you could have a road-legal single-seater with a top speed in excess of 180mph and a 0-62mph sprint time of just three seconds.

If you support the project with your hard-earned cash, the rewards range from posters to parties, and even a pair of socks. Want to buy one? $850 pre-orders an unassembled kit, while $1500 puts your name down for a fully built vehicle. Two people already have. If you’re feeling really flash, $10,000 gets you an EM 01 ST racing simulator; you’ll be sent the full car, sans engine, with three television screens and a gaming wheel attached to the car.

If everything goes to plan, deliveries will be made in June next year. Here’s hoping it lives up to its potential, because the final product looks like hilarious fun.