What did a wise man once say?
Wiesmann is one of those boutique car companies that a lot of people are not aware of—for fairly obvious reasons, but I guess that’s what being a boutique car company is all about. Although based out of Germany, their cars had retro-modern Italian-British styling and were powered by BMW engines. I guess you could jokingly expand ‘BMW’ to Boutique Motoren Waren. But jokes aside, Wiesmann’s latest project is this Project Thunderball—which debuted a year ago but is yet to enter production. However, Wiesmann claims that the reservations for the first year of production (2024 delivery) are closed, but reservations for 2025 are open for a refundable deposit of €3,000.
The Wiesmann Project Thunderball continues to sport the brand’s retro-modern styling with a curvaceous body that gives off Alfa Romeo-Jaguar mixed vibes, but it doesn’t look all that different from Wiesmann’s first model MF 30 and its successor MF 3. However, the Thunderball is all-electric, which is probably why there are some subtle yet noticeable changes such as a black background for the headlight housing and what appears to be aerodynamically optimized wheels. The rims are called ‘Wiesmann Aero’, measuring 21-inches at both axles, wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.
Braking duties are handled by 380 mm discs at all four corners, gripped by 6-piston calipers at the front and 4-piston calipers at the rear. The chassis is an aluminium spaceframe but the body parts depending on where it is used are made of carbon fibre, steel and aluminium. The suspension setup is apparently sporty tuned and adjustable; the anti-roll bars are adjustable too. Wiesmann claims a kerb weight of 1,775 kg (3,913 lbs) which is not surprising considering the fact that the car is all-electric. The weight distribution is 48:52 front:rear.
The cockpit is pretty nice; the prototype here has exposed carbon fibre and mocha-colored leather theme which I think pairs quite well with the gray exterior. While the driver gets a digital display, the gauges in the middle of the dashboard appear to be pure analog; notice that the battery level gauge is also analog. The steering is EPS, of course.
Moving on to the juicy bits of the story, the Wiesmann Project Thunderball has a rear-wheel-drive layout. Meaning, the two motors are at the back, developing combined figures of 500 kW (680 metric hp) and 1,100 Nm (811 lb-ft). The official 0-100 km/h (62 mph) sprint time is 2.9 seconds, and for 200 km/h (124 mph), it’s gonna take 8.9 seconds, apparently. Nope, it’s not disclosed if Wiesmann approached BMW to borrow the latter’s 5th-gen e-drive unit. But anyway, a 92 kWh battery pack is estimated to offer a WLTP range of over 500 km (311 mi). And thanks to 800-volt architecture, the battery pack is DC fast-charging capable with up to 300 kW.
I know, I know, all these numbers are fine. But let’s hope Wiesmann begins shipping the cars soon.
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