Caterham Designer’s V8 Sports Car Is What Everyone Wants and No One Can Afford

Anthony Jannarelly is the chief designer for Caterham, the celebrated British builder of lightweight sports cars. But he’s also been designing his own cars on his own time, called Art Machines. His latest concept is called the Ælla-60 and, aside from seemingly being named by Elon Musk, it’s supposed to evoke classic sports cars of the 1960s, both in terms of its looks and what lies beneath. And dang, it’s pretty.

Jannarelly is far from the first car designer to branch out with his own concept, but this one is noteworthy in part because looks so good. Like a snobby sommelier, I’m picking up notes of the iconic Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, the original Alpine A110, and even some modern Ford GT (sorry, Jannarelly—it ain’t all ’60s). Whatever the inspiration was, though, it worked, and the Ælla-60 is a stunner. I don’t love the swan doors, and I’ve always preferred traditional doors on anything other than a 300SL Gullwing, but that’s a nitpick if ever there was one.

The “Sessanta” (“60” in Italian), as it’s also known, is based on an existing mid-engine sports car chassis, though Jannarelly hasn’t said which one. All we know is that the chassis is from the ’90s and is aluminum. Honda NSX, maybe? “Our idea is simply to take an already homologated and proven base and turn it into the ultimate original supercar,” Jannarelly explained in a press release.

Under that pretty skin is a 3.6-liter naturally aspirated V8. Much like the chassis, the V8’s origin is unknown, but it supposedly makes 473 horsepower and is linked to an old-fashioned six-speed manual. Naturally, drive only goes to the rear wheels. A sub-500 hp figure might seem relatively low by modern standards, but then Jannarelly’s creation is very light, tipping the scales at 2,491 pounds. And that favorable power-to-weight ratio certainly bears out in the car’s claimed 0-62 mph time of 3.5 seconds.

The exquisite design continues inside the cabin. With its thin-spoke steering wheel, simple circular gauges, stopwatch-style readouts on the dash, and metallic toggle switches, the Ælla-60 definitely nails the ’60s vibe. And who doesn’t love an exposed gear linkage?

The Ælla-60 is still just a concept and Jannarelly only plans to make 65 cars, five of which will be Founders editions. While production is slated to begin in 2026, it can’t kick off until there’s a fifth Founders edition reservation. All five of those initial customers will get exclusive access to customization directly from Jannarelly and the team in exchange for their 865,000 euros, or about $901,544. For that sum, you’d damn well hope to be able to put in your two cents on how your car looks.

If production does get the green light, it’ll be handled by Podium Advanced Technologies of Aosta, Italy, who’s built cars like the Eccentrica Diablo and Porsche 928 Nardone, and also done work for Glickenhaus.

Will this thing ever see the light of day? The odds aren’t great, to be brutally honest. It’s impossibly expensive for a machine advertised for its simplicity, and so few of these upstart sports car builders ever manage to turn their visions into more than just pretty renderings. That’s not to say we wouldn’t love for it to be real; the world is better when cars like this are in it.

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