The Trophy gave birth to a road-going spin-off, the Venturi 400 GT. The latter was officially presented in 1994 by Venturi's new owner, Scotsman Hubert O'Neill who had bought the company in March 1994.
No wonder it easily gained awards for the most powerful and quickest French production car ever. In attempt to push the first French road car over 300 km/h, Echappement magazine stranded at 293 km/h (182mph). The 0 to 60mph sprint took 4.6 seconds. Sold at £90,000 the 400 GT's provided an interesting alternative to the Italian supercars of the day. The 400 GT was basically a converted Trophy race car, complete with 407 bhp twin turbo engine, full roll-cage and massive 18 inch wheels. It even inherited the carbon discs, thus becoming the first production car equipped with such brakes. Still the GT's cosy cockpit was clad with 25m² of leather. 
The Venturi story goes back to the 1984 Paris Motor Show where nestling in a corner under an unknown 'Godfroy' banner stood a beautiful coupe. The Ventury (with a 'y') featured a space-frame chassis with Peugeot 205 McPherson suspension, wrapped with a two-tone metallic grey glass-fibre body work. At the rear was a humble 120bhp VW Golf GTI engine. It went down a storm with press and public.
The Ventury was the brainchild of two passionate car designers Gérard Godfroy and Claude Poiraud. Both had been working with the major French car manufacturers and had become colleagues at Heuliez, the design company.
The Venturi 400 GT is an exotic car you won't see every day on the road. It uses the Peugeot/Renault V6 engine (used in the 406 coupe), but the power is tuned from 194 hp to 408 hp thanks to two intercooled Garret turbos. With it's light weight, the Venturi 400 GT is a rival (but a bit faster) of the Porsche 911 turbo.