Melbourne-built E-Vade to Make World Debut at Melbourne Motor Show

Step aside for a minute there Ariel Atom; there’s a new sheriff in town. E-Vade is the name and Australia is the county. Well, country in this instance. The E-Vade is the result of a lifelong dream by former naval Commander David Walter. He and his wife Peta have been working on the dream for over six years, and the results should be astonishing both on and off the track.

Instead of going the kit-car way like many would and have, Walter took the road less travelled by designing and building his own sports car. Using lightweight materials, the E-Vade came out a two-seater in the mould of normal roadsters. This was achieved by utilizing a steel space-frame chassis clad in fiberglass. Thus 995kg is all the E-Vade weighs on a scale, that weight reduced by 50kg for the track version of the car.

Thrust is provided by a 3.5 V6 engine from Nissan, which is longitudinally mounted behind the driver and kicks out 300kW (405 bhp). The lighter track version of the E-Vade gets more beef in the form of 500kW (680 bhp). Each version uses a 5-speed transaxle.

E-Vade should be more popular in track form for track days since speed laws Down Under are seriously enforced. It’s easy to see how this thing can evade angry traffic officials though. A sweet feature is the built-in hydraulic jack system that can lift the car up to 20cm high to change tyres and so on.

Although to be shown at the Melbourne International Motor Show which runs from February 29, the car is not meant for public sale, rather for the builder’s own private enjoyment. However, Walter reckons if they do end up selling them to interested parties “then that's something extra".