Mansory Chopster: a face only a mother could love
15 June 2009
“Ridiculous”, “monstrous” and “disastrous” These were just some of the interesting comments made about the Mansory Chopster at this year’s Geneva Motor Show.
You can see why – on a stand which included a sublimely modified Bugatti Veyron and a nicely tuned Bentley Continental, the Chopster stole the show.
This is for three main things: the size, the wheels and the orange and black paintjob.
The Chopster’s designers certainly had some fun with their fancy art pencils, deciding the phwoar-by-phwoar should be lower and wider with the wheel arches playing home to a set of 23-inch alloys.
The grille is obnoxious and the exhaust pipe is big enough to hide in. And despite all the characteristics which would lead a psychiatric doctor to stamp ‘loon’ on the design team’s forehead, I actually like the Chopster. Maybe I should wear the madman label but there’s something (strangely) charming about the Cayenne on Creatine.
We see no end of Porsche 4x4 conversions and most of them are uglier than the donor car they’re based on. The fact the Chopster goes to a new level of extremity somehow endears itself to us.
And the Chopster isn’t ‘loads of show and just a little go’ – Mansory’s mechanics have got their hands on the engine and given it performance figures which match a modern-day supercar.
The 4.8-litre V8 engine now develops 710bhp meaning a top speed of 187mph. Mansory has paid loads of attention to the car’s driving, fitting 420mm front disc brakes and an air suspension which lowers the car by 45mm.
Then you get to the interior and we’re pleased to report Mansory once again avoided playing it safe. It’s black and orange (obviously) and features TV screens, a DVD player, laptop with Internet access and a fridge. Presumably to store Cristal for the hip-hop star or water for the Sheikh who will end up buying the Chopster.
At a motor show which saw debuts of the fastest ever production Bentley, a new Rolls-Royce and a track-only Ferrari, the Chopster stole the show. Because it’s stupid. And I liked that.
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