We’ll admit the first reason the Kepler caught our attention wasn’t because of its sculpted supercar silhouette or extremely fast hybrid drivetrain, but more because of its name that honours ex-Proteas cricket captain, Kepler Wessels. Let’s hope the car has a faster runs-per-over rate than our ex-skipper did. In all seriousness though, a company called Kepler Motors announced a hybrid supercar concept car at the Dubai International Motor Show way back in 2009.
They called it the ‘Motion’ and they said it would produce 800 horsepower (595 kW) and would sprint from 0 – 100 km/h in less than 2.5 seconds before hitting a 320 km/h top speed. Kepler said only fifty Motion supercars would ever be built, with deliveries beginning in 2012. Yes, yes, they may have said all the right things back then for a boutique supercar maker, but it’s all meaningless until you see the Motion, er, in motion.
Now footage has come to light of the Kepler Motion driving around the roads of southern California to the whine of twin electric motors over the sound of turbocharged spools and waste gates. Powering the hybrid supercar is a tuned, twin-turbo, Ford EcoBoost 3.5-litre V6 (originally from the Ford Taurus), which is said to produce 410 kW. This combines with a pair of electric motors to produce another 186 kW and provide the Motion with all-wheel drive when they’re in operation.
We doubt the small-run Kepler Motion will see production by the end of the year as originally planned, but seeing a test mule knocking about is always a good sign and we think a project backed by the World Record Speed holder in Indy Car, power boats and hydro-planes, Russ Wicks, sounds like it has lots of potential. The car looks great too.
