Turkey Goes Into Etox With Zafer I Sports Car

YouTube is not the traditional place to unveil a new car, but that's exactly where to look to find out about the new Etox Zafer I, a sports car from Turkey. This handsome two-seater is the work of a young auto designer, Ercan Malkoc, and it's the first sports car out of Turkey since the 1960s.

Fan videos on YouTube show off the Nissan 350Z-inspired looks of the Etox Zafer I prototype.

The 165.3-inch long, 78.7-inch wide, 51.2-inch tall two-seater looks lean and compact but breaks no new ground in styling. The prototype has a 125-horsepower 1.5-liter Renault diesel engine. Not surprisingly, Malkoc intends to trade this for a more powerful 3.0-liter diesel. A flagship model with a 272-hp V6 gasoline engine is also planned. The car would retail for the equivalent of about $80,000, but production is not set to start until 2010. Malkoc envisions a production run of 500 units.

Full information — albeit in Turkish — is available at the Etox Zafer Web site, including a video on ABS testing.