Wanna Race?



Poland's luxury spots car

See that slick looking black car with the scissor doors? I bet most of you think it’s a Lamborghini because it kinda resembles the $380,000 Italian car.

Actually, it’s an exotic supercar made in Poland by a Polish company and it’s debuting this summer.

During the communist era cheap junky cars were the most you could expect to see on the impoverished looking highways throughout Poland.

Designed by committee under the socialist economy to keep prices low for the workers who barely made enough money to keep the family fed and clothed, tiny low powered vehicles were more common than not. Using cheap steel and parts turned them into rust buckets a short time after leaving the showroom floor. Wait a minute; most dealerships in socialist Poland didn’t actually have showrooms. The cars must have started rusting right there on government owned new car sales lots.

But, hey after Solidarity’s victory over tyranny and the introduction of free markets and capitalism things have been changing and the standard of living certainly has taken off. GDP per capital is up by 300% since free elections in 1989.

First of all, the world-class sports car built by Arrinera won’t have to worry about rust. Body panels are made of space age materials consisting of carbon fiber and Kevlar.

The tough lightweight skin in combination with a high tech tubular frame makes for spectacular performance. Powered by a Corvette supercharged LS9 6.2-liter V8, its 650 horsepower engine can reach 60mph in 3 seconds, which is about the time it takes to pronounce a multi syllable Polish last name.

Performance aside there are a whole lot more goodies available on the Arrinera.

It has a thermal-imaging camera to scan the road several hundred feet ahead so that if anything hotter than the environment (i.e. human, animal or exhaust of another vehicle) is ahead the driver is immediately alerted, even in dense fog.

Other equipment includes ceramic brakes, light alloy wheels, roll bar, four-point seat harness, navigation system, xenon and LED lighting, and a leather, aluminum and carbon fiber interior. They will outfit the interior with the same leather Maybach (the most expensive production car in the world) uses.

It is not surprising Poland has entered the luxury car market. In earlier columns I covered the economic progress Poland has made over the last two decades. Besides being the only EU country not to have a down year during the economic crisis, in the past five years alone the luxury goods market has more than doubled in sales with high-end shops like Armani, Louis Vuitton and Oleg Casini springing up in major cities.

Now that Poland is the yacht construction capital of Europe and has super highways branching out across the country, why not build extravagant cars that can top 211 mph at a cost of less than half that of a Lamborghini?

While this stealth looking sports car with the angular lines and eye catching doors will be for sale in America, Asia, and the rest of Europe, you better get your order in early.


There’ll be more than a few millionaires in Poland willing to show national pride, trade in their Ferraris and put their names on the waiting list for this sleek roadster with a leather wrapped dashboard and a body that will never rust.

I think James Bond just fell in love again. This time with the Polish beauty, Arrinera.