Venturi 400 Trophy (1993)

Venturi was established in Monaco in 1984 by two French ex Heuliez employees, Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy – With the goal to compete in the upper echelons of racing and road grand touring cars, to rival the Italian Ferrari, the German Porsche, British Aston Martin. Releasing highly forward-thinking concept cars in the mid 1980’s, ‘Ventury’ – as they were formally branded, became MVS Venturi and would go on to release the ‘GT’ – the road-going, PRV V6 powered, mid-engined coupe.

Enjoying relative success with albeit small production numbers; by the early 1990’s the company had its eye firmly on racing, aiming for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and acquiring the Larousse-Lamborghini Formula One Team. However, little success can be discussed from the single year that Venturi Campaigned the LC92 – Scoring a single point and both cars failing to finish on eight occasions.

Stéphane Ratel, who would go on to create the FIA GT Championship, first started the Venturi Gentleman Driver’s Trophy in 1992; a turn-key, one-make championship for the bespoke-built 400 Trophy that spanned 4 years. 72 examples would be completed, weighing in at 1,200 kg with a carbon composite body and powered by a 407 hp twin-turbo V6.

Succeeding the Trophy, the 400 GT was developed as the new GT-class challenger continuing to utilise the boosted twin turbocharged V6. Dialling up the boost, the 3-litre Venturi would accelerate in gear harder than a 5-litre Ferrari.

The Venturi 400 GT can certainly be considered a success, featuring on grids around the world between the 1994 and 1997 season. Notable performances from Venturi’s international racing campaign include fielding 7 cars into the 1993 Le Mans 24hr and winning several BPR International endurances races, beating 3.8 RSRs in the process.

The brand would go on to develop a high output development model – The 600 LM - to try and compete with the now ferocious GT1 specials hailing from Germany and Japan.

In the year 2000, the brand was purchased by the Monegasque businessman Gildo Pallanmca Pastor,and would go on to develop high efficiency electric research prototypes – pioneering electric vehicles and setting world records for expedition distances and motorcycle top speeds.