Automotive

Drako launches the fastest, most ludicrously overpowered SUV in history

Drako launches the fastest, most ludicrously overpowered SUV in history
You bet your cotton socks those doors go up
You bet your cotton socks those doors go up
View 10 Images
You bet your cotton socks those doors go up
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You bet your cotton socks those doors go up
Underfloor battery pack holds enough juice for a 420-mile (676 km) estimated range
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Underfloor battery pack holds enough juice for a 420-mile (676 km) estimated range
Enormous gullwing doors offer access to front and rear seats
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Enormous gullwing doors offer access to front and rear seats
Savage slash into the hood cuts right down into where the grille would have been, and eliminates any frunk storage you might've been hoping for
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Savage slash into the hood cuts right down into where the grille would have been, and eliminates any frunk storage you might've been hoping for
The cabin pushes the limit on how big of a touchscreen you can fit in a car
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The cabin pushes the limit on how big of a touchscreen you can fit in a car
Spacious luxury seating and headrest-mounted tablets
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Spacious luxury seating and headrest-mounted tablets
Confirmed: it'll have headlights
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Confirmed: it'll have headlights
Diagonal stripe taillights and superfluous swoopy
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Diagonal stripe taillights and superfluous swoopy scoops
This has gotta be the most comfortable way to get from 0-60 mph in less than two seconds
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This has gotta be the most comfortable way to get from 0-60 mph in less than two seconds
Outrageous power meets practicality in the Drako Dragon
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Outrageous power meets practicality in the Drako Dragon
View gallery - 10 images

Priced at just US$290,000, Drako's new Dragon hyper-SUV looks like the most comfy and practical way by far to get from 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) in 1.9 seconds. This Model X-killer combines outrageous power with huge-screen luxury and doors that go up.

OK, "just" 290 grand is a chunk of change to spend on a car. But it's not much more than the US$230-odd thousand you'd spend on a Lamborghini Urus, and heaps cheaper than Ferrari's US$400,000-and-upward Purosangue, so it's definitely in the ballpark if you're looking at super-SUVs. And whatever you think of the looks, the Dragon will merrily defecate on both of these, and pretty much anything else, from a great height when it comes to performance.

It's no contest at all; you can make more or less as much power as you feel like with an all-electric powertrain, and Drako has opted for the full banana of two thousand ponies, as well as some presumably horrific but unspecified torque output, from its 4-motor powertrain. That makes it pretty much as powerful as any other production car you can buy.

Savage slash into the hood cuts right down into where the grille would have been, and eliminates any frunk storage you might've been hoping for
Savage slash into the hood cuts right down into where the grille would have been, and eliminates any frunk storage you might've been hoping for

If soccer practice is a quarter of a mile away, Drako says you can get the kids there in around nine seconds, although you'll be moving at a rate of knots and coach had best be prepared to talk them out of a state of shivering post-traumatic stress. Should you be possessed by sufficient hubris to hold the go-pedal down, the Dragon will pass the 200-mph (322-km/h) mark and continue accelerating.

In essence, if you're sitting at the traffic lights in this five-seat family carriage, you have nothing to fear but fear itself, and possibly the very occasional Rimac Nevera or theoretical future Tesla Roadster with rockets on the back. Anything else will gobble your dust and curse your name, including the vast majority of multi-million dollar fancy-pants hypercars. Some of them will catch up above 200 mph, but you can just back off and pretend you're not trying any more, grinning at them as they do the ol' loser's flyby and reminding them at the next set of lights that you can traumatize up to four passengers at a time, plus a considerable amount of luggage.

That luggage all has to live at the back; the Dragon offers no frunk. Where the front storage could've been, there's an outrageous speed hole borrowed from the hypersports world, creating a front wing and air passage that helps create downforce. There are flappy, scoopy things at the sides of the front bumper and on the rear haunches too, which Drako says also offer aerodynamic functionality, although between you and me I suspect these would struggle to justify themselves as much more than spiffy styling touches. No judgement here, I say if you make a 2,000 horsepower SUV, you're allowed to zhoosh it up 'til it's as fierce and fabulous as Beyoncé.

Diagonal stripe taillights and superfluous swoopy
Diagonal stripe taillights and superfluous swoopy scoops

The colossal gull-wing doors open the sides of the car up so wide that both front and back-seat passengers can get in with a reasonable degree of dignity, without having to endure the shameful act of folding the front seats forward to do it. Once you're in there, you can take your mind off the imminent, lung-compressing terror of high-G acceleration by staring at even bigger screens than the ones on your phone or laptop.

The infotainment system in the dash spans a full 17.1 inches, and looks comically enormous. There are two more in the back seats that look almost as big, dangling a little crudely from the front seat headrest. In a family of five, only the kid in the middle misses out, and is forced instead to watch the scenery streak and blur as if the Dragon's making the jump to hyperspace. Such is life for middle-seat kids, you know who you are and must spend your lifetime striving to overcome your station.

Drako fully expects people to take these things off-road, to some degree. As such, it has fitted suspension capable of lowering the car to just 6.4 inches (16.3 cm) of ground clearance for hard-charging racetrack driving, or lifting it up to offer 12.4 inches (31.5 cm) of clearance in an "overland" setting that might also help your grandma get in without blowing out her foofer valve.

Spacious luxury seating and headrest-mounted tablets
Spacious luxury seating and headrest-mounted tablets

Drako is taking reservation deposits now, expecting to begin delivering customer cars in 2026. It plans to ramp production up to 5,000 units a year by some point ... if there's enough lithium. Check out a video below.

Drako Dragon - A New Kind of Hypercar

Source: Drako Motors

View gallery - 10 images
14 comments
14 comments
Bob809
Why is it that lots of 'reporters' (including yourself) when discussing a new EV have to challenge or hate Tesla? A Model X Tesla Killer in this instance. Why? Have Tesla done somehing that you don't like? I just don't get the hate for Tesla. If it wasn't for them it is likely that EV's would still be on the drawing board locked in the cupboard until someone or some event forced manufacturers to come up with an EV. Tesla have done so well considering all the attempts to stop them from being successful, yet look at them. They have (shamed) got other car manufacturers to wake up and get their own products rolling. Yet, look at how late some have come to the party, Toyota for example, at least outside China, have dragged their heels. Mercedes and others are still producing EV's based on their fleet of fossil fuelled products. So, what is so wrong with Tesla?
Mark Hentz
These SUV's are great to dream about.
cjeam
Hm, I dunno, frankly I'm looking for at least 2500 horsepower in my vehicles these days, this just seems like not quite enough to pop to the shops when I forget the milk.

It also says 500kW charging capability, and I prefer a vehicle that is a least in the MW range, if you're not sucking down the power output of a small hydro system, what are you even paying for?
Uncle Anonymous
Practicalities aside, this is one cool ride that I hope it lives up to the hype.
Jinpa
Where soccer moms commute, the speed limits usually are in the 25-45mph range, so how fast can this thing stop from its 200mph takeoff from that last traffic light, when another mom's ICE SUV, or a school bus, trundles out from a neighborhood side street? Maybe there is a one-room schoolhouse somewhere on the periphery of the Bonneville salt flats where there room to vroom, but prove it.
1stClassOPP
Uhh, is that a stick holding up the door? …..not cool.
eMacPaul
@Bob809, it doesn't look like Tesla hate to me; Tesla is the leader and the standard-bearer, so they are naturally the one to be compared to.
Daishi
@cjeam Agreed and as much as I'd like have a 24" TV on my dashboard I think I'm going to hold out for one with a 32" TV. The full home theater experience is a refreshing change from just looking where I'm driving.
melmark
SUVs' dont have 2 doors. Try again
MCG
I would buy this, just for the...doors, those things are beautiful. Practical too, think rain storm and no seams for leaks between the fore and aft as we enter this super craft. Yes, I realize, it is not a boat haha. That said, I'm sure they could build a nice boat.
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