Turkish Onuk Sazan is like Ferrari Dino, only without pedigree

What makes an Onuk Kazan? Well, in base trim you're apparently talking about a 2,000-pound rear-wheel drive sportster that's powered by a turbocharged Nissan VQ V6 that's good for about 450 horsepower. Sounds great to us. However, what if for a little weight penalty you could step up to General Motors' LS7? That would net you about 512 hp, 480 lb-ft of twist and just 2,200 pounds of vehicle to move around. Now we're talking. Okay, but how much? This is the bad news: €200,000, or about $300,000. That seems radically high to us, but we're not up on our Turkish financial analysis.


Need a reason to support Turkey's bid to become part of the European Union? Look no further than the Onuk Sazan, a brand-new sports car that depending on the engine might just slide its way into supercar territory. The Sazan was designed and built by a certain Dr. Onuk, who lost his son Kaan in a car accident. Sazan is a nickname for Kaan. Hence, the Onuk Sazan. Similar to Enzo and Dino Ferrari –only, well... you know.


Before we go, we'd be derelict in our car scribin' duties not to mention Turkey's first sports car, the Anadol STC-16. Quite a looker, actually, the STC-16 was powered by a 1.6-liter Ford Mexico motor found in both the Cortina and Capri. While small and slow by contemporary standards, the STC-16 was enough of a runner to compete with the likes of the Datsun 240Z and was known at home in Turkey as "Süper Türk Canavarı" (Super Turkish Monster)! According to our tipster, Onuk feels there is a link between the historic Anadol STC-16 and the new Sazan. We'll wait and see. A big ol' tip of the AB fez to Ozcan Ozkaya!


Knowing nothing else about the Sazan, all we can comment on are its looks, which for a bespoke sports car from a non-sports car making country aren't bad. The front has a quite a bit of TVR going on, but also some Ferrari F430 (air intakes) and Pagani Zonda (glass canopy). The rear is the Sazan's best angle, with more TVR evident, but in an organic, non-derivative way. The Sazan's weakest angle is when the car is viewed from the side. And really, the Spyker-looking profile isn't so terrible, but the wheels look rather dated. But that's an easy fix!
More Photos