Supercars used to be savage, one-dimensional beasts that tore up the tarmac like a nuclear-powered drill. They were uncomfortable, hot and sometimes dangerous, but they were fast and that was all that mattered. Not anymore - now even the warp-speed hypercars are iron fists wrapped in the softest velvet gloves. The Ascari KZ1 is a prime case in point.
It was never intended to be a pared down racer, despite its final kerb weight of 2,810lb. This is a luxury GT with comfy, Connolly leather seats, a fully decked out interior and a set-up geared as much for comfort through town as a committed assault on the apex.
You can stick the tail out if you want, using the pure excess of power to provide the adrenaline higher up the rev range, but you really have to ask for it.
Considering the 5-litre, BMW E39 M5 engine, tuned in-house at Banbury and clearly visible, Ferrari-style, through the rear window, delivers 500bhp through the rear wheels, that's no mean feat.
The engine is a pussycat beneath 4,000rpm, after that all hell breaks loose right up until the 8,500rpm redline.
This car races to 100km/h (60mph) in 3.8 seconds, and to 160km/h (100mph) in 8.3 seconds. It will stop pretty much as fast, too, thanks to AP Racing six-pot callipers on the front and four-pots on the rear clamping on to drilled and ventilated discs.
But far more important is the relatively civilised manner in which it gets there. Soft suspension helps transmit the power to the road, as well as stopping the car spinning violently on every bend, and despite a lack of electronic traction taming measured the KZ1 rarely lights up those 19" rear wheels without serious provocation.
Major ruts in the tarmac thump through the whole carbon-fibre monocoque, which tends to mark out a first class supercar these days. But the KZ1 can still soak up most of Britain's disastrous roads and there's no sting in the tail. The rear end didn't threaten to overtake the front at any point.
This is not a car that intends to put the fear of God into its owner, it's there to catch you when, in an old-school F40 or even Porsche 911, you would fall.
The steering feels alive from the moment you turn the key and the car jinks in response to the slightest movement at speed. It's not nervous, thanks to the natural tendency to push wide at the first sign of trouble, but it's still go-kart instant without ever biting back.
Incidentally, the first sign of trouble was so far beyond the remit of a normal road car that, had the local constabulary witnessed the test, I would now be on a "career break".
It will mooch through town, as happy as your average saloon and reversing and tight manoeuvres, traumatic experiences in almost every other hypercar of this ilk, become second nature in no time.
It's only 20cm shorter and narrower than the Lamborghini Murcielago, but it's like a rapier next to a broadsword at parking speeds and those lithe dimensions make the world of difference when facing oncoming traffic.
Bar a serious blind spot when the car lies at 45 degrees to the junction, necessitating neck craning or mirror adjustment to avoid pulling out in front of trucks, it's near perfect. It's a genuine go anywhere supercar, which had no trouble with kerbs, humps, ditches or countryside park roads.
The manufacturers have woken up to the fact that most people who have the £235,000 (€338,000) it takes to buy this machine don't necessarily have the ability or inclination to ride the ragged edge. For them its ability to cruise past nightclubs is just as important as its talents at 320km/h (200mph) in off-camber bends.
Niche marques have taken on the fast and brutal role for far less money; the hypercar world is heading in a different direction. And Ascari seems made for them. When Klaas Zwart took the reigns of the company it was a traditional English supercar manufacturers, knocking out road rockets from what looked like an old greenhouse.
Now Klaas has a glass-fronted workshop in Banbury, within spitting distance of BAR's headquarters, and a unique race resort near Marbella where members can pay €150,000 a year to use the circuit on set days of the year.
His clientele explains creature comforts like air-con, sound insulation, suspension that doesn't break the driver's newly purchased teeth on a speed bump and a car that is safe to drive. It's a much harder task, but Ascari has created a near masterpiece without going to ridiculous extremes like fitting an auto or nasty "F1-style" 'box. Yes Aston Martin, Ferrari and especially Mercedes, we're looking at you.
The KZ1 a hellishly beautiful machine and every organic panel flows towards that rear end in a display of cohesive design missing from the Ferrari Enzo and Lamborghini Murcielago. Everything is carbon-fibre, from the monocoque that one man can lift, to the swooping panels that are manufactured in sufficiently low numbers not to worry about simplification.
There are mass production components, including Peugeot headlights and a Vauxhall VX220 starter button and those wing mirrors look as if they came off something far cheaper and nastier.
But the money saved there has gone into race-bred suspension, brakes, a beast of an engine and more than three years of development.
There will never be lots of these cars around, this is no common or garden Ferrari, and that alone will be worth the price of admission to this exclusive club for some. Only 50 will ever be made, so get on the phone right now if you're one of the elite few that could even contemplate an impulse buy of this magnitude.
If you're rich, probably famous, love looking tough, driving fast and yet have a cache of skin creams in your closet, rejoice for your supercar has arrived.
ASCARI KZ1 Specification:
Price: £235,000 (€338,000) in Britain
Engine: 4,941cc, V8 32-valve
Power: 500bhp@7,000rpm
Max Torque: 368lb ft@4500rpm
Body: Carbonfibre monocoque
Suspension: front - unequal wishbones, anti-roll bar, coil over dampers; rear - double unequal wishbones, coil over dampers
Performance: 0-100km/h (60mph) 3.8s,
Top speed 320km/h (200mph) est.
Weight 2,810lb