Proto / Spirra Spirra History

The Spirra's origins trace to the mid-1990s, when Han-chul Kim — then a designer at SsangYong Motors — conceived a Korean supercar. He founded Proto Motors with his wife Ji-sun Choi in 1997 to pursue the idea. A prototype codenamed PS-II was shown at the 2000 Seoul Motor Show, but funding shortfalls stalled the project. The car resurfaced at the 2004 Beijing Motor Show, now wearing the Spirra name, yet production remained elusive until entrepreneur Dong-hyuk Park's company Oullim Networks acquired Proto Motors in 2007 and injected the capital needed to reach the factory.

Production began in 2008 at a facility in Gyeonggi Province, with the company headquartered in Seoul's Gangnam district. The base Spirra N used a 2.7-litre DOHC V6 Delta engine producing 175 hp, reaching 100 km/h in 6.8 seconds and topping out at 220 km/h. Higher trims — Spirra S, Spirra Turbo, and Spirra EX — extracted progressively more from the same architecture. A racing variant entered the Korean GT Manufacturers (KGTM) tour and won its debut race at Yongin Speedway in 2008.

In 2014, the line was fundamentally updated under the CregiT sub-brand, switching to a 3.8-litre DOHC V6 Lambda RS engine across all variants. The CregiT N produced 305 hp and targeted emerging Asian export markets, while the range-topping CregiT EX claimed 600 hp, a 3.5-second 0-to-100 km/h sprint, and a 320 km/h top speed. An electric variant was also developed in partnership with Dutch company Electric Power Holland. Prices ranged from approximately $74,000 for the base N to $175,000 for the CregiT EX in export markets including China, the UAE, Malaysia, and the Netherlands. Oullim Motors filed for bankruptcy in 2017, ending production permanently.