JEFF DAVID: The Quantum is a culmination of my life-long dream to build a super car.
COMM: This is the Quantum GP700 and that 700 stands for both the 700 horsepower it produces
and the incredibly low 700 kilos it weighs. That’s an incredible 1:1 power to weight ratio.
COMM: It might look like a track car and it does nought to 60 miles/hour in just 2.6 seconds.
COMM: That’s only a fraction slower than a Formula1 car. While you might think it took
a whole Formula 1 size team to put it together, it was in fact built by one man, Jeff David.
And, perhaps, most incredibly of all not only did Jeff build this car himself, he built
it in his shed.
JEFF DAVID: So, my dream was to always build the Quantum. So, I thought I would start with
the best car at the time, the best roadster that I could buy and that was an Ariel Atom.
JEFF DAVID: So, I bought one and I dismantled it and then started modifying it. So, I progressively
altered the engine and the chassis and the drivetrain and the brakes to improve the performance,
eventually culminating in a car that weighed 700 kilos and had 600 brake horsepower.
COMM: Having modified the Atom, Jeff used his knowledge to set about building the Quantum
from scratch.
JEFF DAVID: Starting at the nose we have got the hand fabricated front wing that I made.
The design was based on a Formula 3 wing and I shaped it to try and give it a really narrow
front nose. Come around here and you can see all the moulds and I have made all the original
panels for the Quantum in carbon fibre. As we have all seen in Formula 1 cars when they
have an accident and the tracks strewn with carbon fibre all over, it shatters. So,
I experimented with various ballistics grade Kevlar weaves and aramid cloth in carbon fibre
mixtures. This is a result if this panel stand to the ground and I try this...
JEFF DAVID: It’s unbelievably robust for carbon fibre Kevlar-aramid cloth.
JEFF DAVID: The car is a road legal semi-sleek. The steering wheel is, like, custom-made.
COMM: Jeff’s talent for custom making even extended to creating a bespoke engine for the car.
JEFF DAVID: The engine has evolved over many of the different versions. The overall result
has been this progressive increase in power from 300 brake horsepower, where we started,
to 700 horsepower now.
JEFF DAVID: It’s probably the highest-powered supercharged engine in the world of that style
and which is emission compliant and road legal.
COMM: And Jeff even made sure the car was comfortable to drive.
JEFF DAVID: During the design process of the car, it was really important to me that the
car was comfortable to drive on the road and I applied suspension that I have developed
over 30 years into shock absorber concept on Quantum and that’s actually worked much
better than I ever expected it might have. It provides a comfortable, compliant ride
on a very rough road.
JEFF DAVID: The whole process was enormous time-consuming. I would get up at 5:30 in the
morning and the curfew was enforced by my wife at 7 o'clock at night and that was
7 days a week. My wife was really lovely and she offered to provide the financial support
for the family and she gave me a two-year deadline. So, I was able to work full-time
for two years uninterrupted and to try and get the car finished.
JEFF DAVID: Component cost was about just over three hundred thousand US, three years
ago when the car was built. And it’s approximately 1,800 hours to build the car.
COMM: With a price tag that has definitely exceeded $300,000, Jeff’s masterpiece isn’t
for sale although he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of building a new model if he
found an eager customer.
JEFF DAVID: I just love the look of the car, the way it has turned out, the handling, the
performance, the acceleration; every aspect of the car I really enjoy it and I really love it.