Bespoke new Bertone Runabout sports car shares more than a little Lotus Exige DNA
Though there’s plenty familiar with Lotus’s departed sports car, no Exiges had to die for the Runabout to live
Bertone has revealed a strange retro sports car called the Runabout. Inspired by the 1969 concept of the same name, this esoteric creation isn’t just a flight of fancy. It’s a real car, destined for limited production, built on the bones of a very real sports car we’re all more than familiar with.
There are telltale signs of the Runabout’s Lotus Exige DNA. Look at the windscreen and those wingmirrors and note that it uses a 3.5-litre supercharged V6 mounted in the middle, with a manual gearbox and to a lightweight chassis utilising aluminium extrusions: it couldn’t be anything else than Lotus’s slender, dearly departed sports car that hides beneath that expensive, distinctive new bodywork.
Or not… Interestingly, while Bertone doesn’t namecheck Lotus, it does specify that each Runabout example will use a ‘newly acquired, unused chassis, re-engineered for the project and assigned to the Runabout’. Each car also gets its own VIN, rather than a Lotus VIN, confirming that while there’s Hethel DNA, existing Exiges didn’t have to die for the Runabout to live.
Design details and interior
The design and colourway are distinctive indeed. It has more than a bit of that late-60s, early-70s wedge about it. Just look at those front arches, sitting well proud in terms of height, from the rest of the nose – there’s more than a hint of Stratos here and that’s no bad thing. And yes, those are pop-up lights.
The forged aluminium wheels (wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tyres, with a broad 295-section at the rear) are a callback to the concept. So is the truncated coda tronca tail end with its integrated exhausts and rectangular apertures.
What’s not very 1970s is the fact that this new look is largely constituted of carbonfibre and has been shaped with aerodynamics firmly in mind. At the front, an S-duct - again, broadly where such ventilation is found on an Exige, to channel air through the nose of the car and its cooling apparatus. The Runabout gets double-wishbone suspension, adjustable anti-roll bars and three-way adjustable dampers.
From what we can see of the interior, it shares little to nothing with the Exige – hopefully least of all the smell of glue. That’s a good thing given these will not be cheap objects. There’s lots of plush leather, machined aluminium and bespoke controls, from the steering wheel to the shifter, to the climate controls. Bertone wanted the cabin to feel like ‘a single carved basin’ and a ‘sculpted object’. In spite of the digital tachometer, Bertone also insists the Runabout ‘restores clarity and focus in a world crowded with screens’.
Engine and performance
The engine isn’t pure Exige, either. It’s sourced directly from Toyota and produces 475bhp and 361lb ft, besting even the 430bhp Final Edition Exige by some 45bhp. It does so thanks to a bespoke carbonfibre airbox designed to reduce the turbulence of the airflow as it’s sucked into the Eaton TVS supercharger. Meanwhile, on the other side of the cylinder head, stainless steel exhaust manifolds are also optimised for flow while the high-flow catalyst and Y pipe reduce back pressure. And obviously, it’s there to give the Runabout some singing V6 musicality. Performance is expected to be strong, the Runabout good for 0-62mph in 4.1sec.
The Bertone Runabout will only number just 25 examples once the run is complete, with no two the same. Apart from the myriad customisation choices on what Bertone calls a ‘curated configuration journey’, buyers can choose between having a targa top and having their Runabout as a totally open-roofed, cut-screened barchetta, that recalls even more faithfully the original concept.
It’s a compelling thing, the Bertone Runabout. Certainly a departure from the homogeneity of the dealer-available supercar and sports car market and indeed, from what the exploding restomod market has to offer. It’s not the first Lotus-based coach-built special from recent times, though. Hopefully Bertone has more luck bringing it to fruition than Radford did with the Lotus Evora-based 62-2.
Bertone has been refreshingly open about pricing, with the Runabout starting from £338,000 before local duties and taxes. No Runabout will actually be delivered at this price, though, given such cars are a blank canvas for extensive, expensive customisation.
