Magnum MK5: Canada's 1st supercar inspired by G. Villeneuve

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In October 2013, a small company in Boucherville, Quebec unveiled Canada’s first-ever street-legal race car.

An intriguing photo and a short video offered a glimpse under the covers, revealing the mysterious silhouette of a speedster.

The news spread around the car world like wildfire.

But little else was known.

Until now.

Fast facts

The Magnum MK5 is powered by a four-cylinder engine found on Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycles. This mid-mounted engine, located behind the two passenger seats, redlines at 11,000 rpm (!) and generates 250 hp, allowing you to reach a speed of up to 240 km/h and to go from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds.

Weighing barely 545 kg thanks to the extensive use of carbon fibre and aircraft-grade aluminum, the Magnum MK5 is a featherweight with a power-to-weight ratio of 460 hp per tonne.

Its extremely bold design is almost surreal—there are prototypes that seem closer to production than the Magnum MK5!

And yet, manufactured the Magnum MK5 shall be. Twenty or so units will be hand-built per year, according to its designer, Bruno St-Jacques (no, not the hockey player, but the race car driver who competed in Formula Ford in the late 90s, then in Formula Atlantic at the turn of the millennium);

Those interested in owning a Magnum MK5 will have to shell out US$139,000 (rest assured that at that price, the rear back-up camera is included). However, they’ll have to wait until late 2014 for the first ones to be delivered.

From father…

Before delving into the specs of the mysterious Magnum MK5, some background information.

You may not be familiar with Magnum Cars, but the company has been around for 45 years. At its helm until not so long ago was Jean-Pierre St-Jacques, a car racing enthusiast who, in the late 1960s, built himself a Super Vee so he could enter a few regional races.

A machinist by trade, St-Jacques quickly ended up designing a second racing car that was faster and more powerful, the Magnum MK1. Sporting the number 77, the car made its racing debut at the 1970 Quebec Formula Ford championships.

From there followed the Magnum MK2 in 1972 and the Magnum MK3 in 1973.

It was during those years, at events in Mont-Tremblant and Trois-Rivières, Quebec, that Jean-Pierre St-Jacques raced alongside a certain… Gilles Villeneuve.

In the market for a race car, Villeneuve approached St-Jacques. He bought the Magnum MK3 from StJacques and went on to win the championship title in 1973 with the car, winning no fewer than seven of ten races.

St-Jacques recently told motorsport journalist René Fagnan that “He [Gilles] was spectacular at the wheel…Never before my Magnum had been driven like that: some wheels on the track, some on the grass, and some in the air…Good thing the car was solid!”

And so, a racing star was born.

Four years later, Villeneuve raced in his first Grand Prix with McLaren.

As Villeneuve’s far-too-short racing career evolved, a deep friendship developed between Villeneuve and St-Jacques, who, from time to time, would leave his machine shop behind to visit some of the world’s biggest race circuits.

This is how the Magnum creator was in a position to donate unique and extraordinary photographs of the Quebec legend taken on the track and with Enzo Ferrari to the Gilles Villeneuve Museum in Berthierville, Quebec.

St-Jacques even donated his own Magnum to the small, but famous Berthierville museum. The car is still on display and has been repainted in the colours of Villeneuve’s first success.

…to son

In the 70s and 80s, Jean-Pierre St-Jacques built a number of race cars under Magnum Cars, the last being the yellow Magnum MK4, which some might remember seeing on the track at Tremblant in 1988.

Already at that time, St-Jacques’ successor was being groomed: Bruno St-Jacques followed his father like a shadow and grew up eating, sleeping and breathing auto racing.

And as his father continued to provide specialized race car and parts support in the very exclusive world of F1, working with the likes of Lotus, Williams and Renault, Bruno St-Jacques embarked on a car racing career.

In 1999, Bruno St-Jacques was crowned Formula Ford 1600 vice-champion and, two years later, vice-champion of the Rolex Sport Prototype car series.

Today, at age 34, Bruno St-Jacques continues to have some serious fun on the track.
Just last month, he broke the lap record at Ontario’s Calabogie race track, clocking 1:52:014 minutes with his Stohr WF1, prepared by race car specialists WeTune, located in Lachine, a suburb of Montreal.

A rock star

And it is to Bruno St-Jacques that we owe the inspiration for the Magnum MK5. The odd thing is that in the gradual process of unveiling the Magnum MK5, very little emphasis has been put on this glorious racing past.

On the contrary, all of the attention has been given to the race car itself.

The Magnum MK5 is 3.9 metres long, 1,884 mm wide and 42 inches high, making it barely higher than the legendary Ford GT40. This open cockpit, windshield-less supercar distinguishes itself by far more than its “rock star” stance, as described in the official press release.

Up against the Caterham Sevens, Ariel Atoms or VUHL 05s of the world, (we hope) the Magnum MK5 will be renowned for:

• a competition-calibre double A-arm (pushrod) suspension, with fully adjustable front and rear racing dampers and stabilizer bars;
• a six-speed sequential transmission, limited-slip differential and cockpit adjustable brake bias;
• aerodynamic components like those found on F1 cars, a cargo compartment “that can easily accommodate two race helmets and a briefcase,” as well as ultra-high performance tires (225/40R18 front, 265/35R18 rear);
• inside, two race-inspired carbon-fibre seats, six-point racing harnesses, and gauges (including a lap timer and data-logger system, of course) mounted directly on top of the removable—yes, removable— suede-wrapped steering wheel.

Above all, the Magnum MK5 boasts a cornering force of 2Gs, which prompted race car driver Carl Nadeau (from the French-language television show Équipé pour Rouler) to say, “A cornering force of 2Gs is quite a lot. This is the type of car I’d like to try in order to get a clearer picture of it.”

Yeah, well, we too would like to try the Magnum MK5.

But until that dream becomes a reality, we’ll have to take Bruno St-Jacques’ word for it. Here is what the Magnum Cars president and designer promises us: the sophistication of a supercar… minus the price tag that goes with it.

“We built the Magnum MK5 to offer the speed and agility of a race car combined with the stance and refinement of a supercar, without the high cost of either one.”

“The MK5 is easy to maintain and, because it is built to take the abuse, it has a very low running cost. It can easily be maintained by its owner or by any established sports car shop. It does not require a full crew or special tools. You just jump in and drive!”