Héctor "Tito" Pérez
is responsible for the design of more than 600 racing cars that populated the most important competition categories in Argentina: from
Turismo Carretera
to the vernacular rally, going through TC2000, Turismo Nacional, Top Race or even Formula Renault. .
But his new project leaves the circuits and racetracks and seeks to reach the streets and routes of the entire country:
under his brand Rauda he launched the Díscolo, a 100% handmade sports car
whose appearance honors the name with which He was baptized.
"I wanted to do something very different," Pérez reaffirmed about the spirit of his latest creation, which is the daughter of the first confinements due to the Covid-19 pandemic, back in 2020;
Without much else to do, he grabbed a pen and paper and let his imagination run wild in search of a car geared toward track days, but also capable of multitasking.
Rauda Discolo, the new Argentine sports car.
With the passing of the months the project took shape and continued its course until leaving the theory and
become a sports car in the strict sense:
the artisan car law regulated in 2018 gave it the framework it needed
, and thus Pérez obtained financing for the prototype and, later, the homologation to circulate on public roads and market it.
With an exterior design that could very well make it the fierce and competitive brother of a buggy – in fact, the promise is that with a change of wheels and a few adjustments it can also ride in the sand –
the Rauda Díscolo is a two-seater without doors no windshield to get between the driver and the speed
;
a characteristic that, added to its very low height, enhances the sensation of vertigo when stepping on the accelerator, a concept that its creator borrowed from motorcycles and that is one of the particular hallmarks of this model.
Rauda Discolo, the new Argentine sports car.
That also translates into a really light car, just 680 kilos.
A fundamental characteristic for Pérez, who was looking for a good weight/power ratio to combine with the
Ford
2.0 Ecoboost mid-engine, an inline 4
that, associated with a fifth-rate manual gearbox, delivers some 172 CV to the rear axle at 6,500 rpm.
A tubular front and rear arch and seat belts with optional five-point harnesses are the main safety features of the Rauda Díscolo.
It is that the regulations are more lax in this sense with artisan vehicles than with those manufactured in series, and there it is explained that
the Rauda Díscolo does not have elements that today in general are mandatory for the zero kilometer of Argentina, such as airbags, ABS brakes or stability control (ESP)
.
Rauda Discolo, the new Argentine sports car.
Composed entirely of national parts and under the premise of achieving a simple process for its manufacture and assembly, the Rauda Díscolo is already a reality and
can be ordered directly from the brand for a price of 25 thousand dollars
.
The prehistory of the Rogue Swift
The idea of launching a high-performance sports car with his signature was always a goal for Pérez
, who managed to materialize it after several attempts and experiments that, seen today, were the necessary background for the chassis driver to finish shaping the project.
In 2010, for example,
he was one of the protagonists behind the Donto P1 –the P in the name, of course, alluding to his last name–, the project for export promoted by the TC pilot Laureano Campanera
.
It was a compact two-seater with which they aimed to land on European track days to compete, for example, with cars like the Ariel Atom, or the KTM X-Bow.
Rauda Discolo, the new Argentine sports car.
Although renderings and other details of the proposal became known, the car ultimately never saw the light of day.
But the subject remained in the air, and it would be a matter of time before Pérez returned to take it up again.
So it is that here in time, even in those days of quarantine and uncertainty about the future, Pérez outlined the Rauda T04R, a car of only 800 kilos but which developed radical 365 CV of power and 570 Nm of torque thanks to a Ford V6 3.5 biturbo engine.
Rubén Pérez, in the foreground, in the workshop where the Rauda Discolo is made.
Although he has already built the chassis of the model and part of the bodywork –designed by Luciano Cianni–, the national situation is the first impediment for the project to prosper, especially due to the difficulty in importing the necessary parts.
The T04R rests patiently, then, satisfied for having contributed its grain of sand to promote the birth of the Wayward and, thus, fulfill once and for all the dream of its creator.
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