PRODRIVE LAUNCHES

THE WORLD’S FIRST ALL-TERRAIN HYPERCAR

Banbury-based motorsport company Prodrive has unveiled a 600 bhp, fourwheel-drive all-terrain adventure vehicle nicknamed “the Ferrari of the desert”.

Called The Hunter, it is based on the Bahrain Raid Xtreme competition car driven by nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb to compete in the world’s toughest motorsport race – the Dakar.

The Hunter is the product of more than 40 years of successful off-road competition at Prodrive.

Prodrive Chairman, David Richards, said: “There are numerous hypercars on the market; however, they all need good roads or even race tracks to show their performance. We identified that in certain parts of the world, particularly the Middle East, there are vast expanses still to be explored that go way beyond the access provided by asphalt roads. Therefore why not create a vehicle that gives the opportunity to explore these regions with performance way beyond that offered by any off-road vehicle before?”

The Hunter retains the Dakar competition car’s engine, drivetrain and suspension, but to improve driveability, the manual sequential gearbox has been replaced by a six-speed paddle-shift, giving a smooth gear change in just milliseconds.

As the hypercar does not have to comply with strict competition regulations, power has been increased by more than 50 per cent. The 3.5 litre twin turbo V6 has been refined and retuned on Prodrive’s advanced transient dyno in Banbury to produce greater break horse power and torque while making its power delivery smoother and easier to drive.

Prodrive expects to sell around 20 Hunters at £1.5 million each.

Twin Town Challenge hits £1m for charity

Oxfordshire’s Twin Town Challenge charity car rally has reached £1 million fundraising for Charlbury-based charity SpecialEffect, even before the 2020+2 event took place.

The event saw 120 cars costing less than £500 travel to Witney’s twin town of Le Touquet for a weekend of fun challenges. The fourth and final COVID-delayed Twin Town Challenge 2020+2 left Blenheim Palace on Friday April 29.

The Twin Town Challenge is organised by Brendon Cross, MD of Witney-based STL Communications and Hexagon Business Centres and a SpecialEffect Vice President.

Brendon said: “To be announce before the final Twin Town Challenge that we have raised £1 million for SpecialEffect is truly amazing. The generosity of our sponsors and the participants over the four events is humbling.

An international competition launched to design the masterplan for a £1 billion, 190-hectare mixeduse Innovation District at Begbroke Science Park, has been won by architectural practice Hawkins Brown.

Oxford University Development (OUD) launched the competition last November.

The 190-hectare mixed-use Innovation District is located just to the north of Oxford. The project is intended to provide an exemplary new setting for the university’s worldleading science and innovation but will also create a community of up to 2,000 quality homes, with new schools, a public park and a nature reserve.

Darryl Chen, urban design lead at Hawkins Brown, said: “This is one of those rare opportunities to set an agenda for a type of place that doesn’t quite yet exist.”

OUD and the university aspire to create a scheme that achieves a step-change in sustainable design, delivery and operation.

The new district has the lofty ambitions of aiming to drive economic growth, improve transport connections, deliver local community benefits for local people and enhance the surrounding natural landscape.

Begbroke has been a cornerstone of the entrepreneurial environment of Oxfordshire since its inception in 2000. It was a launching ground for successful companies and has supported many University spinouts and start-ups, including Oxford Nanopore and Oxford Photovoltaics.

Research and development (R&D) tax credits are aimed at companies investing in innovation. The Government rewards them for this through the rebate and they can then use the cash to help them sustain and grow the business.

Through the scheme, businesses can claim back up to 33 per cent of their R&D costs and experts at accountants and business advisors Whitley Stimpson stress that a wide variety of firms are eligible – not just hi-tech companies which is a misconception.

For example, an established solar panel specialist which has an annual turnover worth millions of pounds, has started work on a new piece of technology. Whitley Stimpson has helped the business make a claim for labour, materials, and subcontracting costs to the value of an extra £23,808 off their profits - a tax deduction of 19 per cent. The claim took less than two hours to complete.

Another claim was made for a wellestablished international IT business specialising in cloud-based service support. Whitley Stimpson recently submitted a claim for an additional tax relief of £71,000 representing 85 per cent of its total expenses.