The car is named from the initials of Ascari's owner Klaas Zwart, a wealthy Dutch businessman.

Each car required 340 hours of handcrafting at Ascari's 45,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Banbury, England by a team of 30 highly skilled craftsmen.

[2] Owners also received the opportunity to drive the car at the Ascari-managed Race Resort Ascari in Spain.

The KZ1-R uses the same mid-mounted, naturally-aspirated, dry sump BMW S62 90-degree V8, but it has been tuned for a total of 520 bhp (388 kW; 527 PS)[7] at 7000 rpm.

Both front and rear suspension are double-wishbone with coil over dampers, mated to anti-roll bars for stability.

The racing version manages to reach 62 mph (100 km/h) in about four-tenths of a second less than the standard KZ1, with numbers comparable to the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640.