The new Bolwell Nagari has really kicked up a storm amongst local sports car fans, despite a projected price of close to $200,000.
Completed just in time for this week's Melbourne International Motor Show, the Nagari was originally intended as a one-off showcase for Bolwell capabilities.
However, most of the tooling already exists to place the new Nagari in production at an annual rate of 25 under Australia's low volume crash testing exemptions.
Campbell Bolwell, the creator of the new model, admits he has been surprised at the reaction. Existing Bolwell owners were notified of the new model and invited to a special preview just prior to its Motor Show reveal.
Although the company was not expecting more than 70 to attend, over 200 Bolwell fans turned up, with many flying in from Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. The enthusiasm has been more than superficial, with many expressing a desire to own one.
Bolwell acknowledges that the main appeal is that each car can be built to reflect individual buyer requirements, something not normally available, even at $200,000. It is this aspect that makes it particularly attractive for UK exports, where low volume crash test exemptions allow greater numbers than in Australia.
One of the options open to Bolwell is to establish a low volume assembly operation in the UK. After building-in a UK buyer's special paint or trim requirements in Australia, the components could be sent to UK for final assembly, something that the owner could then monitor.
"This would also go some way to minimising the impact of the high Aussie dollar," said Campbell Bolwell.
The Nagari's transverse Toyota V6 drivetrain, including transmission, is one of the world's few powertrains that is truly universal in terms of parts and servicing, while providing a choice of manual or automatic transmissions.
Although the show car is powered by a special supercharged version of this engine developed by Bolwell, it would make more sense for Bolwell to draw on the local TRD development for the supercharged Aurion application.
However, one of the difficulties in sourcing this powertrain is that it's not available as a fully-assembled powertrain in a crate. The TRD componentry is added after the complete drivetrain is installed in the local Aurion sedan.
Sources close to Bolwell and Toyota confirmed that talks with Toyota would happen very quickly if the Nagari were to go into production.
This week's Motor Show preview in Melbourne could provide the critical mass necessary to take the new Nagari from concept to production reality.
Campbell Bolwell confirmed that the Nagari would only require several months of fine suspension tuning before it is ready to go into limited production.
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