Quarkus P3 Supercar Entering Production In 2026

A very small French outfit called Quarkus has announced plans to produce its first-ever production vehicle, and it aims to be the antithesis of the heavy sports cars so common today. This comes two months after the company announced plans to enter the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with the P3, an ultralightweight mid-engine two-seat race car targeting a power-to-weight ratio good enough to make a Porsche 911 GT3 RS look fat.

This race car is what will inspire the roadgoing car teased below, of which just 26 examples are to be made. Quarkus is building cars intended to be a return to form for lightweight sports cars and supercars, and unlike many other outfits that just show a render and then disappear into the ether, Quarkus has built real prototypes.

P1, P2, And P3

The journey to this point has been surprisingly eventful for a company that was only founded in 2020. The company started by hyping up the P1, a car intended to weigh less than 1,102 lbs. Unless there is a functioning prototype that Quarkus never revealed lying in some warehouse, the P1 didn’t make it off the drawing board.

Then came the Quarkus P2, with a better power-to-weight ratio than a Bugatti. This was supposed to have a 1.0-liter turbocharged hybrid engine and an adjustable chassis, but save for one development vehicle, we have seen no evidence of this entering production either. Still, this is further than many outfits get, and there’s more to come.

P3 builds on these early attempts with a target weight of 1,322 lbs and an unnamed mild-hybrid four-cylinder engine with 296 horsepower. A carbon fiber chassis is key here, but unlike the traditional monocoque associated with ultra-specialized cars like this, Quarkus is using a tube chassis made of the composite material.

Pikes Peak Is The Key

Racing driver Romain Dumas, the man who holds the outright Pikes Peak record in the Volkswagen ID.R, is part of the project, although he will not be driving the P3 (Ford has asked him to drive the Ford F-150 Lightning Demonstrator for his ninth competitive journey up the mountain).

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Instead, Bruce Jouanny will make the climb in the Quarkus P3 in the Unlimited class. While a good showing is certainly one of the goals, data from this event will also be used to advance the development of its first production car, all so that it can arrive in 2026. It remains to be seen if the vehicle will be sold in the US, but given that so few are up for grabs, we’re sure a wealthy collector or two on this side of the pond will place an order.