$1.25 million super sedan digs through the old Fisker parts bin

Monterey car week typically has no shortage of supercar debuts, and in this decade, they have tended to be electric. The Drako GTE was one such contender last week, revealed with some very ambitious promises of performance, including 1,200 hp and a top speed of 206 mph. As impressive as those promised figures may be for an electric car, or any car, the number that has intrigued fans of both EVs and supercars alike is the promised torque — 6,491 lb-ft of it. (That’ll show Potter!)

How is this industrial level of torque possible?

The GTE has four permanent-magnet hybrid electric motors, one for each wheel, with each motor connected to the wheel via a direct-drive gearbox with the motors drawing juice from a 90-kWh battery. The battery, which incorporates a complex parallel cooling architecture with several cooling channels snaking around each battery cell, sends 900 kW of power to the motors.

“GTE has a maximum torque differential of 4,400 Nm (3,245 lb-ft) between wheels,” the company says. “This means that through corners, GTE’s quad-motor powertrain can vector up to 2,200 Nm (1,622 lb-ft) of positive torque to the wheels on the outside of the turn, while simultaneously applying up to 2,200 Nm of negative torque to the wheels on the inside of the turn. The result of GTE’s immense torque differential potential is the ability to turn through every corner with unprecedented speed, traction and precision.”

There’s more to the GTE than the raw torque delivery: The sedan offers a variety of driving modes, controlled via four Manettino switches on the center console, including ice, snow, rain, dry, track and race. The switches also allow the driver to vary slip control and torque vectoring, in addition to regenerative braking, even though we have a feeling power preservation is way down on this car’s list of priorities.

“GTE is outfitted with top-level components to enhance performance

Just 25 examples of the Drako GTE are planned. on both road and track,” the company adds. “Öhlins four-way adjustable suspension provides superior composure and ride quality for everyday driving, as well as full adjustability for the track. Front and rear carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes deliver phenomenal stopping power without fade during prolonged performance driving.”

At this point, we’ve been dancing around one somewhat obvious aspect of the Drako GTE: If you have a feeling you’ve seen the cabin of this car before, well, you did, almost a decade ago. The midsection of this car is the artist formerly known as the Fisker Karma, whose chassis the Drako uses, while adding its own front and rear fascias which have the whiff of a Dodge concept car from about 20 years ago. The makes the GTE the second car to use the undead Karma’s architecture after the Karma Revero — “what is dead may never die” — and it also helps keep costs down.

Speaking of costs, Drako plans to produce just 25 examples of this electric sedan for $1.25 million a pop. Yes, all of that torque has a price, but if you’re wondering just where one could hope to exercise all of that torque without spinning in place like in a Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoon or, ahem, making contact with the scenery, the company’s answer is the track. That’s despite the GTE’s slightly unassuming exterior and the lack of some kind of giant wing on the deck lid. Or a roll cage as standard equipment.

But if you absolutely need all of that torque in an electric sedan, where else are you doing to take your money? This is perhaps where the Drako GTE has a captive audience of sorts: people who need no less than 6,000 lb-ft of torque in something that looks vaguely like a Fisker Karma.

Source: Autoweek