Sonic promotion!

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler.

Let's say you're an automobile accessory company and you're looking for an eye catching way to promote your merchandise. Perhaps you might hire a car, fitted with your wares, and tour all of the relevant trade shows with it. Seems reasonable, a safe approach, but Wolfrace Wheels were neither reasonable or safe in their promotional strategy. They wanted something extra special on their stand.

Wolfrace had a new line of "Pepper Pot" style alloy wheels they wanted to promote and what better way to do that than to commission a twin-engine, 6 wheeled, bespoke, open air supercar to grace their tradeshow stands? If you're promoting a new line of wheels, you might as well have 6 of them on your car! So began the story of one of the most infamous of all 80's show cars, the Wolfrace Sonic.

Hot-Rodder, Nick Butler, owner of "Auto Imagination", with his creation the Wolfrace Sonic.

To pull off their vision, Wolfrace hired noted Hot-Rodder Nick Butler's company Auto Imagination to construct the beast. Butler’s background was in engineering, having trained at Hawker Siddeley at Kingston and Dunsfold. He cut his teeth on the incredible Harrier Jump Jets and Hawk aeroplanes, working on stress analysis and flight testing. In 1976 he left to follow his passion for special cars, setting up Auto Imagination. He was the perfect man for the job and cost was no object.

The Sonic had a spaceframe chassis, to which a pair of Rover V8's were mounted, along with a set of four wheels in front, and two larger wheels at the rear for drive. Power was routed through a Jaguar rear axle and two differentials. The whole thing was controlled by a clever "drive by wire" system which synchronized the throttle output and handled the power steering, among other things. The whole project cost Wolfrace around £100,000, but the notoriety of the car was priceless.

Autocar magazine featured the car in 1981, and it made regular appearances on the motor show circuit for a couple of years before disappearing out of view. It was sold to a private collector by Wolfrace in the 1990s, supposedly for a cool £1 million, and went on to feature in the opening of the British Grand Prix. It was ultimately sprayed red for a feature in Playboy magazine.

Though accounts vary as to whether a second example was ever produced, possibly because of the repaint, the sole surviving example was sold on eBay for £18,100 to an anonymous buyer in 2015. The owner stated, at the time, that they were unable to keep up with the inevitable maintenance of such a complex vehicle and sadly the car was stored for the prior decade or so and had declined into a state of disrepair, needing a full restoration to get it back to its former glory. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

The Wolfrace Sonic being brought out of storage for delivery to its new owner in 2015.

Wolfrace Sonic interior, as seen in 2015

Partially assembled and ready for sale in 2015.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler chassis, at rear.

The Wolfrace Sonic chassis, sans body and interior,
as stored, prior to sale in 2015.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler at speed.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler.

Two very brave souls on the ride of their lives in the
Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler!

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler, seen head on!

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler from top, front.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler shown after being
repainted "red" for a feature in Playboy Magazine. The car also made
the cover of UK magazine, Autocar, in 1981.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler was always a hit at the trade shows

To allow entry and exit, large sections of the body opened on the Wolfrace Sonic.
However, there was no roof or windscreens on the car.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler with pop-up headlights up.

The Wolfrace Sonic, twin-engine, six-wheeler from top, rear.

The dashboard of the Wolfrace Sonic.

The insane cockpit and controls of the Wolfrace
Sonic twin-engine, six-wheeled, supercar.