Supercar crafted from spider silk has price tag that defies reality
- Strong, light, flexible and cheap, spider silk is a wonder material
- Now one company is planning to build a supercar from it
- But is its $3 million price tag actually worth it?
Published on Jan 03, 2024 at 8:56 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Jan 09, 2024 at 6:50 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Adam Gray
Four wheels is taking inspiration from eight legs as a US company is hoping to make a supercar from spider silk.
When thousands of tiny nanostrands make up larger silken ‘cables’, per Science, it’s five times stronger than steel.
It’s also light, more bendable than brittle carbon fiber, and it’s cheaper than carbon fiber, aluminum, or titanium.
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Now a company in Utah and California has a plan to make a supercar out of it.
And while we see a lot of wacky concept cars – this is pretty out there.
Spidey Tek is a biotech company dedicated to the mass production of spider silk.
Using their own cutting-edge research and findings from Utah State University’s Synthetic Biomanufacturing Facility, they can grow the proteins cheaply by infusing it into alfalfa.
After being grown, it’s extracted, weaved into fibers, and blended with carbon fiber.
Their hope is to make 100 naturally-aspirated, V12-powered two-seater supercars.
While we’ve seen supercars crafted from cardboard and a Cybertruck made from wood, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
The supercar’s creator, Roberto Velozzi, is hoping that it will be the strongest and lightest supercar ever – and its $3 million price tag reflects that.
And while they’ve missed the boat for a 2024 supercar launch, if everything goes to plan, it’s hoped the supercars can be delivered in three to four years.
Various aerospace companies and the medical industry are interested in spider silk, too, due to its strength and natural antigen qualities.
Velozzi has partnered with Utah State University’s Dr. Randy Lewis, to apply her findings to the ‘Velozzi Hypercar’.
Velozzi wants to blend spider silk with carbon fiber to make an even stronger material.
These will form the body and the chassis of the V12-powered, six-speed manual transmission two-seater.
“Spider silk has high strength, elasticity, and toughness which is unmatched by most industrial fibers,” Velozzi said to Autoweek.
“Gram-for-gram, certain spider-silk fibers can be stronger than titanium and more elastic than rubber, absorbing considerable amounts of energy before failure.
“This exceptionally lightweight biomaterial is an ideal replacement for, or a reinforcement to carbon-fiber composites.”
He continued: “Carbon-fiber composites maintain their inherent strength and stiffness when blended with spider silk yet gain improved fracture toughness.
“Harnessing this synergy between the high-performance nature of carbon fiber and spider silk will produce an enhanced composite for the next generation of high-performance, efficient, resilient vehicles.”
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
