Classic Venturi 400 Trophy Relives Its Glory Days at Spa-Francorchamps

Owner flogs 1-of-73 twin-turbo French race GT cars around Spa.

If you played the classic Playstation sim racer Gran Turismo 2, you will undoubtedly remember the name Venturi. Even in pixellated late-1990s video game renderings, the Venturis stood out with gorgeous design. The French cars were designed to take the competition to Lotus and other small-run, lightweight supercars. YouTuber 19Bozzy92 caught this Venturi 400 Trophy running around the Spa Classic vintage race earlier this year.

The 400 Trophy was a purpose-built race car for a one-make support category to the FIA GT Championship. All Venturis used the PRV V6, an engine maligned for early versions’ association with the Delorean DMC-12. Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo (PRV) designed the engine as a joint effort in the 1970s. Hampered by general poor performance in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the early PRV made “not-much” horsepower in its early years.

By the time Venturi got their hands on the engine in the 1990s, however, most versions were pretty potent. Displacement had increased to 3.0 liters and Renault had built turbo versions of the engine for some years. Venturi used a 24-valve, dual-overhead cam PRV in all cars, but the 400 GT road car and its associated race cars added twin turbos.

In the 400 Trophy, that meant 400 horsepower and the opportunity for an erudite racer to drive one of 73 Trophies built. This car, number 73, may well have been the last one built. If so, it raced as late as 2001 in the French National GT Series (FFSA GT) without much success.

But hey, wins or not, we always enjoy seeing old race cars get their grooves back. We can’t ever tire of this late PRV wailing up to more than 7,000 RPM and then popping and banging and spitting leg-hair-threatening flames out the exhaust pipe.