Picture an Audi R8 Spyder that's been thoroughly washed in an atomic reactor, and you'll get a sense of what the Tushek Renovatio T500 seems to be going for.

Tushek, a new automaker founded by a Slovenian race car driver, is hell-bent on making elite European supercars like the R8 feel slow. The Renovatio, based on a Slovakian kit car called the K1 Attack, uses aircraft-grade chromoly steel and carbon fiber. It also sports removable body panels that make it an all-in-one roadster, hardtop and coupe.

The midmounted engine is the 4.2-liter V8 from the R8 Spyder, tweaked to produce 444 horsepower and mated to either a 6-speed manual or semiautomatic gearbox. Beyond the requisite scissor doors is a Spartan cockpit with a removable steering wheel, digital F1-style readouts with an optional racing-style telemetry system, and plenty of naked carbon fiber. iPhone connector, Bluetooth and air conditioning are standard, though with the odd vent positioning (below), your fingers may get cooler than your forehead.

Tushek says the Renovatio weighs just under 2,500 pounds, can reach 60 mph in less than 3.7 seconds and tops out at 193 mph -- no doubt hindered by that huge rear wing. While this all sounds achievable even for a startup, the one stat we can't yet buy is the claimed 1.7 G's of lateral grip, an impressive figure by race car standards and absolutely sky-high for a street car. Even lighter, more extreme cars such as the KTM X-Bow can't pull much more than 1.5 G's."Top Gear" briefly drove the Tushek around Le Mans -- the city, not the track -- and all we know is that it "rides amazingly well" and that the clutch is "road-car light." We're sure "Top Gear" will soon put all of Tushek's stats to the test. (But hey, Tushek, we're volunteering to do that, too.)

Only 30 cars will be built, at a cost of $376,000 each. After debuting at Monaco's Top Marques supercar show in April, the Renovatio heads to London next month for the Salon Prive, a small concours and exotic-car show. Tushek, according to illustrations on its website, is planning a faster, even more expensive supercar, the Forego T700.

[Source: Salon Prive]