Canadian Spirit GTS

2019 Canadian Spirit GTS

Ayden Pearson (2018)

Darius Wood (2019)

The **Canadian Spirit GTS** is a limited production street-legal sports car collaboratively built by Canadian automakers Canadian, Velocity Racing, and several other manufacturers.

The sports car is a product of collaboration between Canadian Motors and Velocity Racing to develop a track-oriented car entirely usable and enjoyable as a road car, conceived by Arion designers Montgomery Houghton, Dr. Marcel MacDonald, Ayden Pearson, and Darius Wood. Montgomery Houghton, Velocity Racing's Chief Technical Officer aided in the design of the car.

## **Design**

### **Exterior**

A non-driving show car variant of the Spirit GTS was initially unveiled at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in order to give the public an idea of its design. The design was nearly finished at the time in a near-production-ready form.

The exterior of the Spirit GTS was extremely aerodynamic for a sports car, let alone a megacar, with a extensively flow optimized carbon fibre underfloor that works on the principle of the Venturi effect and is capable of producing 472 kg (1,041 lbs) of downforce at high speed. Engineered ducts on top of and below the car and a large front splitter aide in generating downforce. The carbon fibre wheels are also designed to manage the airflow and be as light as possible at the same time.

#### **Spirit GTS Spider**

In September 2019, Canadian Motors announced a Spider variant for the 2020 model year of the Spirit GTS. Production commenced in the second half of 2019 with a stated intent of 50 examples being produced. The Spirit GTS Spider has a removable polycarbonate roof panel and trades the coupé model's gullwing doors for a pair of front-hinged dihedral butterfly doors.

### **Interior**

The interior design of the Spirit GTS was leaked online onto social media on September 10, 2017 and gave the public a preview into the car's interior design. The alcantara-padded interior has no traditional gauge cluster, but rather a collection of screens. By the left and right corners are the climate control vents for the driver and the passenger, with a large split-screen infotainment-style screen for the side view cameras. Another screen sits below that at the top of the center console, which may have a collection of live vehicle information, and regular vehicle controls, but this cannot be confirmed by Canadian Motors. A screen is used on the race-inspired steering wheel and acts as the driver gauge cluster. Dials and switches sit beside the wheel screen to allow for easier changes without driving interruption. The seats, formed from hollow carbon fibre straight into interior perimeter, are bucket variants, and have two seat belts for each car seat.

Because of the extremely small interior and doors (which are practically IMSA-chassis style hatches), each seat is designed and tailored specifically for the owner's body shape through 3D scanning. A removable steering wheel provides slightly more space for entry and exit.

## **Specifications**

In April 2017, Canadian Motors revealed most of the vehicle's specifications. The final specifications were revealed later in the year.

Several manufacturers (other than Canadian Motors and Velocity Racing) have taken part in the Spirit GTS's construction, those being Arion, 8M, Mugshock, Promaster, GR Intake, Freezer, Hactek, SPC, J&K, Baush, and Yokosuka.

The car contains a 7.1-litre twin-turbocharged 90-degree V10 engine, tailored by Arion and GR Intake, which produces approximately 1,081 kW (1,450 bhp) @ 6,500 RPM with a redline of 7,500 RPM. This will make it the most powerful forced-induction engine ever to be fitted to a production road car in Canadian Motors' lineup, as well as the highest-revving. The exhausts exit at the top of the car, as is the case with virtually every other production car.

At the same time the car's power output figures were released, the weight was announced to be 1,542 kg (3,401 lbs), surpassing the intended 0.4:1 power-to-weight ratio with 0.426 horsepower per pound (0.9 horsepower per kilogram)

## **Production**

Initial estimates of the Spirit GTS's production put initial production numbers within the ballpark of 150 units at a fixed unit price of $2.7 million, however a massive influx of pre-order sales led Canadian Motors to bump production up to 450 units (400 coupes, 50 targa tops) at the cost of being 3 times oversubscribed.

Five cars, fewer than planned, were delivered in the last quarter of 2021, causing the company to miss its profit target. The company said that this only affected timing, all production had been sold but not yet delivered.

## **Resale Policy**

Canadian Motors CEO Lucas Wilkinson announced a policy in a Talkbird post on November 15, 2018, stating that if the owner were to "flip" the car (buy and sell quickly to make a profit), the owner would not be provided the opportunity to buy any further special edition models from Canadian Motors and/or any brands partnered with Canadian Motors.

## **Media**

### **Motorsports & Digital Media**

* In March 2022, at the opening round of the 2022 Formula Beam World Championship at the Lerance International Raceway, the Spirit GTS Spider was driven for two laps.
* In March 2023, a ViewTube video from the channel TheStraightPipes was released, where the Spirit GTS and Spirit GTS Spider was driven by Jacob and Yuri at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.
* In July 2023, the Spirit GTS and Spirit GTS Spider was added into Beam Horizon 6 as part of the 3.573.836.0 update.

### **Car Show Appearances**

* In November 2018, the Spirit GTS was unveiled as a non-working full-scale model in Canadian Motors' headquarters in Hamilton.
* In July 2020, the car was featured in a private Canadian Motors showcase at the Landhotel Schönberghof in Spielberg, Austria, the day before the 2020 Formula Beam Austrian Grand Prix.
* From January to February 2021, the car was featured in a virtual version of the 2021 Festival Automobile International in Paris, France.
* In February 2023, the car was featured as the star car in the 2023 Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto.