This Italian hypercar is made from Spider Silk

Exotic materials are not new to supercars and the need for lighter but tougher materials is leading to newfound alternatives within the realm of automobiles. Velozzi for example is a hypercar made from Spider Silk being infused in its construction along with carbon fibre. The Velozzi hypercar is the first such automobile to do so and showcases the potential benefits of using Spider Silk. To execute this, Velozzi has entered into a collaborative agreement with Spidey Tek and Gram for gram, certain spider silk fibers can be stronger than titanium and more elastic than rubber, absorbing considerable amounts of energy before failure. 

Spider Silk is known as the strongest natural material on Earth and the Velozzi uses it in its body as well. It is elastic, strong, and light- hence makes perfect sense for automobiles. It infects surpasses the lightness and flexibility of materials such as steel, carbon fiber, titanium, and Kevlar. 

What this means is that the use of Spider Silk could be useful for added efficiency, lightness, and strength. The Velozzi hypercar uses this and the design stays true to the supercar rulebook with a low-slung look. There is a cab-forward stance but crouching along with a series of tapered lines. With its Spider Silk construction, it weighs only 888kg while the performance claims are nothing short of hypercar territory with 1000bhp. 

All this power is courtesy of a naturally aspirated V12 which is something of a novelty with hybrid supercars currently occupying this genre in greater numbers. The top speed is 230mph and it can do 0-60mph in just 2.7 seconds.

Rather interestingly, the Velozzi uses a 6-speed manual F1 gearbox by Traction Products, an F1 World Championship-winning Weismann Transmission. The choice of an analog manual F1 transmission is indeed some of a novelty in a world where most cars have double-clutch automatic gearboxes. The driving experience then would be analog and like earlier supercars with a raw experience entrenched in it. The talking point is the power-to-weigh ratio since it weighs a paltry 888kgs and is much lighter than other supercars or even hypercars. 

Velozzi will only build 100 units of these spider silk missiles and each costs upwards of $ 3 million along with a 4-year waiting list. Going forward Spider Silk could replace carbon fibre composites within the aerospace and automobile industry.