The Sin R1 is the supercar from Bulgaria, a country without a proud automotive heritage.
In fact, there aren’t many countries on this continent that could be accused of having a more dire motoring history.
The former communist state has been home to a handful of car factories over the years, mostly foreign-owned and almost always churning out miserable tin boxes and joyless utilitarian workhorses, but thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of one man, it now has a supercar company of its very own.
Sin R1 – Bulgaria’s saviour?
Sin Cars, based in Ruse, on the Romanian border, is the brainchild of Rosen Daskalov. The company’s first road car, the R1, is a mid-engined, V8-powered arrowhead of a car that produces more power than the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. And that’s not even the really quick variant.
Forty-something Daskalov strides around the Sin Cars factory like a man with too much to do and too little time to do it. His phone never stops ringing. He thinks and talks fast, but when he gets onto describing his cars or telling tales of racing them there’s a child-like enthusiasm and a boyish laugh.
The facade of his sprawling facility in the north of Bulgaria is ultra-slick and modern - the factory doubles up as an official BMW service centre - but in the back, where the R1s are built, the place is rough-and-ready.