cheap new cars and new cars: Ascari cars

Ascari Cars Ltd. was a British automobile manufacturer based in Banbury, United Kingdom founded by Dutch millionaire Klaas Zwart. The company was named after Alberto Ascari (1918�1955) who was the first double world Formula One champion. Its first limited-edition car, the Ascari Ecosse, was launched in 1998. After the release of the Ecosse, Dutch businessman Klaas Zwart purchased the company.

In 2000 Ascari built a new facility in Banbury in northern Oxfordshire, England. Ascari's second car, the Ascari KZ1, was developed at Banbury, which also housed Team Ascari's racing assets.

Ascari began developing a racetrack near Ronda, in southern Spain. The track includes recreations of famous corners from other tracks around the world, and may be set up as one long track, three separate short tracks, or some combination in between.

The full track is approximately 5.5km in length. By 2002 the three part track was finished and accompanied by a high-end resort, with several road and racing cars available to members to test, including former Formula One machinery. The resort operates a membership based system. Members are able to make use of pits and storage garages for their cars at the resort. The resort does also operate a few weekend open days to the public, including visits of the facilities and track experience days in Lotus Elises, BMW 325i and Radicals. the same time as the launch of the car, Klaas Zwart of the Netherlands chose to enter the FGT in racing, running a Ford V8 engine and entering into the British GT Championship. With the one concept car meeting the homologation requirements, Zwart managed to win an event at Silverstone Circuit in the car's debut season of 1995. The car would also attempt to qualify for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but would not be fast enough to pass prequalifying.