Falen supercar news - Road kilt - 2008

Not content with inventing penicillin, the steam engine and the double-deep-fried Mars Bar, the Scots are ready to have a shot at the supercar game with this: the Falen. 

Created by Gleneagles-based design studio Dowdeswell and Hardie, the Falen is named after an old Scottish spirit.

Surely the Special Brew would've been more appropriate?

A prototype Falen is expected to be running early next year, with the production version of the car set to be unveiled at the Geneva show in March. We're told that only four cars will be built in total, each powered by a 5.5-litre V10 mounted midships.

Engine-builder Judd - supplier of most of the Le Mans LMP1 engines - is developing the powerplant, which is expected to develop around 800bhp.

In a car weighing only one ton - yes, there's plenty of carbon fibre in use here - that means serious pace... especially when you consider that the Falen is being pitched as a road-legal trackday special. 

It might look like the offshoot of a Koenigsegg/Gallardo Superleggera tryst, but the Falen has a secret weapon all of its own: the entire glasshouse hinges backwards and up to provide access to the cabin.

There's no word on whether full tartan trim - and a slightly smudgy blue-with-white-stripe livery - will be offered as a cost option.

Chances of it actually working? We'd rate them as slim - but then again, that's probably what they said about the breech-loading rifle.

And the steam hammer.

And the television.

Surely you're due a decent invention soon, Scotland?