Automotive Views

Happy New Year car people! I’d like to say a heartfelt “hello, great to see you” to my regular readers (just kidding, I don’t have any of those) and to everyone who just happens to stop by, welcome! Hopefully 13 will be a lucky number…

To start this brand new year, I’d like to talk about something near and dear to my heart: insane cars; and it really doesn’t get much more mental than this: the 1995 Mega Track. The Track is my kind of surprise, a genuine one that comes from absolutely nowhere! In almost 20 years since it was gloriously born into this world, nothing else can even remotely come close to it. Way to go French people! You’ve made us proud for a second time (you first brought happiness tears to our eyes way back when with the DS)! The thing that makes the Mega Track so freaking jaw dropping isn’t even the technical aspect as of it (which is by its own right, beyond astonishing), no. What really gets me about this car is its family tree. The Aixam Mega Group started making vehicles in 1983. Note that I don’t use the word “cars” because they can’t really be called that…the accepted technical name is “microcars”. These are ill proportioned, slow, loud, terrible little things that people can drive without needing a proper license. It was always one hell of a mystery to me why would anyone go for something like that. Here in Portugal if you buy a used Aixam you get something with between 12 and 20bhp (good Lord, the horror!) and it sets you back around $9.000! That’s nine thousand bucks for 12hp! A license in this country will cost about $650 which means that, hypothetically, starting with the same amount money you’d spend in one of those, you’d still have plenty of it left to get a relatively recent Mercedes or Audi, or BMW…I understand that the people who usually go for these are elderly folks who don’t want to go through the hassle of getting or renewing a license but still…

Well, back to the interesting stuff. In 1992 Aixam Mega started the program that lead up to the Track. It was one of those sudden, brilliant ideas that can only come after a wild night partying or from shear uncontrollable madness. I like to imagine the meeting to discuss this went something along these lines:

Idea man – “Guys! I’m tired of this microcar crap, let’s make something cool!”

Executive 1 – “Yes! Let’s make a supercar…with a V12…and 380…no wait! 400bhps!”

Executive 2 – “GASP – That will be amazing! And, and…Oh! Let’s make it an off roader with HUGE suspension so you can go power sliding with it in the desert dunes!”

(General cheering, whooing, and high fiving around the room)

Executive 3 – “And we’ll give it wings and it will fly above the atmosphere!!!

Idea man – “Dude that’s stupid. But the rest of the stuff is all good! Ok, anyone knows anything about supercar building…? Anyone at all…? Well screw it we’ll make it up as we go along.”

And so they did. A 6.0L Mercedes Benz V12 became the heart of the Track. The suspension was adjustable between 8 (standard ride height) and 13 inches! 13 inches in a supercar! A 4 wheel drive mid-engined supercar I might add…Thinking about this thing only makes the idea that it ever saw the light of day more amazing. A 2+2 V12 exotic that despite the 2 plus tons could get to 155 mph on the tarmac and still feel right at home tackling dirt, sand, gravel, mud and grass. Why didn’t this brilliant trend catch on? Why aren’t other companies making super off road cars? The world would be much more fun with them!

There are only 5 Mega Tracks in the world. Aixam Mega slapped a 2 (+) million Francs price tag on them back when they were being made in the mid 90’s so it’s not difficult to see why there are so few. But it doesn’t matter, if anything it makes this care an even rarer “diamond”, one that will always be in my dream car shortlist.

Used Images: http://yo.spc.free.fr/2011/Archives_2011_11_14.htm (slightly edited)

Consulted sources: http://jalopnik.com/386559/mega-track-our-kind-of-crossover

http://mindovermotor.com/2011/08/16/obscure-auto-mega-track/

http://www.supercars.net/cars/1186.html

http://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=80146

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