We have to hand it to Ferris, or Fardis, or Fardees (we’ve seen all three names used) Rezvani, an Iranian-born businessman, who first came to our attention with the Bulleta after Lotus USA’s spokesman called it “vaporware” in an email he sent to us sparking a heated debate on our site. With his new toy, the Ariel Atom-based Beast that currently exists only on digital renders, received heaps of internet coverage.
The car not only made it to well-known car websites like Autoblog.com, which wrote, “This all sounds very, very promising. While it might look like we’re setting up for one, there’s no “but” here. The Beast seems reasonably priced, starting at $119,000 for the Beast 300 and $139,000 for the Beast 500″, but also on mainstream portals like Fox News that was ecstatic about the USA’s “new sports car”.
That’s a pretty impressive feat for a freshly launched company without a history.
Inexplicably, none of those reports ever mentioned a word about the Bulleta that we’ve yet to see despite all the promises – if that’s not a “but”, we don’t know what is… How can you not say something about it when the same person who was behind digitally re-bodied Lotus Evora is now venturing into another similar project? If anything else, this should raise some flags and questions, right?
At least that’s what we think so we contacted Rezvani Motors and its press representative Jeff Ryan, who told us, “You’ve been our toughest critic so far! But no worries, I’ll do my best in answering any questions you might have.” One thing we will say is that, Ryan responded faster than most PRs working in the industry, so that’s a thumbs up. Here’s the Q&A:
Carscoops: Who will build the Beast and where will it be made location-wise?
Jeff Ryan / Rezvani Motors: Our partners at N2A Motors will be building the Beast at their Santa Ana, Ca., facility. They have a great facility, and we’re allowing customers, investors, and media to take a tour if they so choose.
Carscoops: Is there a real life prototype of the Beast? If not, when will we actually see it? Are orders currently being accepted and how long will it take you to deliver a completed car?
Jeff Ryan / Rezvani Motors: Right now there is not a running, driving prototype. We’re securing some final investments, and putting our resources towards tooling and production methods (molds, materials, etc.) rather than a one-off show/press car. Right now we have two verbal orders (we’re finalizing the paperwork this week), and the car will be available to those customers within the next 6-8 months.
Carscoops: What warranty do you offer for the Beast? Is it street legal in all states in the USA?
Jeff Ryan / Rezvani Motors: Right now we’re offering a 1-year unlimited mile warranty, and it is legal under the SB-100 classification across the U.S. (same classification as the Ariel Atom)
Carscoops: On your official page at http://www.radautomotive.com/concept-cars-composites there are photos from a facility with machinery. Were these shot at your shop and if so, where are your manufacturing facilities located?
Jeff Ryan / Rezvani Motors: These photos were shot at N2A Motors, our partner facility in Santa Ana.
Carscoops: On the same site here, http://www.radautomotive.com/fardees-rezvani-consulting/, you mention that “RAD Automotive is comprised of a team of global experts”, could you please provide a list with their names, positions and expertise?
Jeff Ryan / Rezvani Motors: RAD Automotive Designs is Mr. Rezvani’s own design firm. I’d have to reach out to him for that information, but all of our partners for Rezvani Motors (a separate entity from RAD) are available on the website and in our press release.
Carscoops: What are the latest developments on the Lotus-based Bulleta, is it available? Have you received any orders and have you delivered any cars? Is there a real-life prototype of the Bulleta that we can see?
Jeff Ryan / Rezvani Motors: As for Bulleta, I don’t work on that front so I can’t speak for all the details.
As you can see, some questions were answered adequately while others were not, including the one about Rezvani Automotive Designs (RAD) and it’s “team of experts”.
But we left the best piece for last. One of our questions was about where were the pictures on RAD’s site showing a facility, machines and carbon fiber parts shot. The answer was N2A Motors shop. So, we sent an email to N2A Motors as well to make sure:
Carscoops: We learned that you’re cooperating with Rezvani Motors to build a new car named the Beast. On Rezvani’s website at (http://www.radautomotive.com/concept-cars-composites), there are images from a facility with machinery – were these shot at your plant and if so, where is the shop located?
N2A Motors sales manager Craig Thompson replied:
“We are affiliated with Rezvani Motors, we are their build partner. We will build their vehicles, make their carbon fiber bodies, assemble the vehicle, paint, pretty much everything. Our facilities are located in Orange County California and we are a Coachbuilder/custom car fabricator. I have attached a brochure of what we currently have in production. If you would like I can send you a presentation depicting some of our accomplished automotive projects in the past 10 years.”
Evidently, N2A Motors avoided answering the question. The research we conducted showed that all four photos, which RAD’s website says “are owned by RAD and protected by copyright” have been featured on different sites over the years, none of which appear to be affiliated with N2A Motors or Rezvani.
Picture no1 with the carbon fiber machine was also found on a 2011 posting on Czech company Brebeckc Composite.
Picture No2 showing the carbon fiber fender can be seen on various sites selling JDM parts like Jshmotors.
Picture No3 with the white prototype was traced to a 2009 posting from Lightning Hybrids
Picture No4 with the CNC machine seems to be a stock image shared on numerous sites such as Rapitypes.
It could be something, it could be nothing, but it deserves an answer, don’t you think?
As for the Beast itself, Samir Sadikhov’s design is a lovely piece of digital work and one we would want to see created, but Rezvani Motors needs to understand that it is no Ferrari and that it has to show an actual car, be that in prototype or in final production form, for anyone to take the company remotely seriously. Otherwise, the Beast is no different than the various digital renders we show from time to time here on Carscoops.
By John Halas
PHOTO GALLERY
