What do you do if you are a huge multi-national company that specialises in composite materials and you want to impress your contemporaries at a trade expo that you have organised? You commission Gordon Murray Designs to build an electric roadster that utilises as many of your products as possible obviously.

On the 14 September at the Toray Advanced Materials Exhibition the covers were lifted on the fruits of that commission, the oddly named Teewave AR1. Designed to showcase the latest Toray carbon fibre component system, which has a process time of less than ten minutes, the Teewave AR1 is built around a 43kg carbon fibre monocoque that Toray says could be used to underpin bodystyles other than the two-seat Teewave.

The turnaround time for the build, from initial concept discussions to running vehicle, took nine months with Toray providing materials and carbon fibre forming expertise while everything else, including the car's appearance, interior design and electric powertrain was completed in-house at Gordon Murray Design.

The 850kg roadster is powered by the 16kWh lithium-ion battery from the Mitsubishi i-MiEV so peak output is 63bhp and 133lb.ft of torque. While all that torque is available from standstill the Teewave AR1 still takes a laborious 11.4 seconds to reach 60mph and has to top speed of 91mph. So not lightning quick then, but as Frank Coppuck, engineering director of the AR1 said "We could squeeze a lot more out of the engine". With some mutterings from Toray about the AR1 possibly going into production by 2015 here's hoping it does.

Paul Healy - 27 Sep 2011