Despite being home to a large number of car manufacturers, including Suzuki->ke87 subsidiary Maruti->ke3954 and Jaguar->ke39 Land Rover,->ke46 owner Tata Motors,->ke3001 in India, has yet to spawn a high-performance vehicle. However, Mumbai-based DC Design, known for building the Aston Martin AMV8 Vantage concept in 2003, vowed to produce the first supercar->ke177 fully designed and developed in India. Dubbed the DC Avanti in a nod to the Studebaker Avanti of the early 1960s, the fast-looking vehicle arrived in 2012 as a pre-production concept, and in 2014 in production-ready clothes.

But despite being apparently ready to hit the streets and reportedly having 450 pre-orders on its books as of 2014, the DC Avanti suffered several delays, failing to reach its customers as of early 2015. Not surprisingly, the Avanti is still being tested on India's roads, and the word is that it may finally go into production with deliveries to commence as soon as March 2015.

Click past the jump to read more about DC Avanti.

DC Avanti - spy shots

The spy shots coming from our friends over at IndianCarsBikes suggest that DC Design did not meddle with the styling it showcased in 2014. Despite wearing swirly camouflage front to rear, it's quite obvious the Avanti sports the same aerodynamic slopes and aggressive angles and massive front grille and headlamps, as well as the awkwardly shaped front bonnet. Even the wheels are similar on this test car, boasting the same twin-five-spoke configuration as seen on both the concept car and last year's production version.

So why is the Avanti out on the streets again, you may ask? Well, it's probably because the Indians finally managed to convince Renault Sport to supply its 2.0-liter turbo for the car, the primary reason for the Avanti's delay. With the mill now shipped to the company's facility near Pune, DC Design can finally test the car under real-world conditions.

Speaking of the engine, the DC Avanti is not exactly a supercar, although its manufacturer has been describing it as such since day one. With only 260 horses hitting the pavement under full throttle, the Avanti is barely sporty by modern standards. Sure, it might be quicker than its horsepower-rating suggests, a possibility that depends on its curb weight and other factors, but we won't find out more about that until DC Design spills the beans later this year. Meanwhile, all we know is that DC plans to build 500 examples of the Avanti in 2015.

Why it matters

While it might not be a full-fledged supercar in the vein of the McLaren 650S or the Lamborghini Huracan, the DC Avanti is indeed an exotic by both design and country of origin. If I were to take a guess, I'd say the Avanti is the Indian version of the Mitsuoka Orochi, a supercar-looking sports car motivated by only 233 ponies coming from a Toyota engine last used in 2007. I wouldn't bet on it being a sale success either, although it might find a following in certain Asian markets, especially with an affordable sticker.