Steve Nichols returns: The N1A and the DNA of McLaren’s golden era
The street-legal N1A is inspired by McLaren’s 1960s Can-Am racing cars. Adam Towler takes to the track – with its F1-famed designer Steve Nichols playing race engineer
My right arm rises to chest height, my forearm and wrist on the diagonal, fingers bent forwards at 45 degrees. I push my elbow forward to simulate rotation; the internationally approved representation of oversteer; track driving’s very own version of air guitar.
The kindly, white-haired gentleman standing in front of me grins and I stop myself mid-sentence, a lump suddenly obstructing my throat. This is an absurd moment even by the standards of this privileged ‘job’. “Steve, how many times did you have just such a conversation with Ayrton during the 1988 season?” I eventually splutter. Steve Nichols smiles and replies simply, “Many times.”
Nichols N1As are handcrafted and will be individually tailored for owners; each will be unique
Jaime Walfisch
The opportunity to discuss chassis dynamics with Steve Nichols is just one of a number of remarkable things about the Nichols N1A, a new road-legal track-day supercar with a gilded bloodline. It’s been a long time coming: CEO of Nichols Cars, John Minett, has had the dream to produce a new British sports car for decades, coming close to purchasing embattled TVR from its Russian owner Nicolai Smolenski back in the late 2000s. When that deal didn’t materialise he kept pushing, for a while contemplating the resurrection of the Elva marque, before forming the company’s branding around his business partner, Steve Nichols.
The N1A has a family resemblance
Jaime Walfisch
McLaren M1A – the team’s first self-produced racing car
Bernard Cahier/Getty Images
Minett has decades of experience in automotive and racing, but Utah-born Nichols surely needs no introduction in these pages. Let us not forget this is the engineer who played a key role in the creation of the first carbon-fibre grand prix car, the McLaren MP4/1; who was Niki Lauda’s race engineer; designed the most successful grand prix car of all time and surely one of its most beautiful, the MP4/4; and was Senna’s race engineer for two seasons. Alain Prost took him to Ferrari for 1990 as chief designer and, well, you know the rest…
“Nichols CEO John Minett has had the dream to produce a new British sports car for decades”
This is one good reason to buy an N1A even before you’ve driven one, because as brands go, Nichols has cast-iron credentials, despite its embryonic status. It’s also a project that calls upon the pair’s black book of contacts in an exceptional way, mobilising some of the brightest minds in the UK’s fertile motor sport and engineering ‘valley’, some who have semi-retired and who have been keen to contribute exactly because of the people at the helm, and the nature of the project.
Steve Nichols with Ayrton Senna and the MP4/4
Sutton Images
Indicators – for much overtaking on the road
Jaime Walfisch
The N1A takes its inspiration from Bruce McLaren’s first eponymous car, the M1A of 1964 – a Group 7 open sports car, powered originally by an Oldsmobile V8, that competed in the precursor to the Can-Am series. Of course, once that championship began in 1966 the firm would become one of its key protagonists, starting with the M1B. Yet the N1A is far from a replica: its form is unique, subtly but deliberately modernised, and under the skin it’s very different –considerably more advanced.
“The heart of any Can-Am-esque car has to be the engine and that means a very angry V8”
Nichols has opted for a bonded aluminium construction, eschewing carbon fibre on cost grounds but wanting something much stiffer and safer than the tubular frames of the ’60s. That chassis has been designed with the help of Bob Mustard, the godfather of such technology at the BMW Rover Group in the 1990s, which led to the Elise and a lot more besides. For the N1A, the team has incorporated the rear subframe into the bonded structure, and also reinforced structural sections with carbon fibre. A carbon front subframe is on the way.
Simplicity itself
Jaime Walfisch
Writer Adam Towler has his instructions from Nichols at Spain’s Guadix circuit
Jaime Walfisch
“This is an authentically analogue driving machine and not a car to be trifled with”
The heart of any Can-Am-esque car has to be the engine however, and frankly that means a humongous and very angry V8. In the case of the N1A there will eventually be a range of options available, but the first 15 cars are to Icon88 specification, a special edition honouring the 15 wins scored by the MP4/4 in the 1988 F1 season. The car I’m driving today is the mysterious ‘No16’ pre-production example; I’ve christened it Jean-Louis…
Sixteen currently runs a Chevrolet LS7-based 7-litre V8, running on individual throttle bodies, prepared by Nichols’ designated engine partner Langford Performance Engineering, famed for its Cosworth DFVs and assorted Ford F1 engines, among others. This currently produces around 700bhp, but as this test takes place, Langford is testing the definitive motor built up from LS components to a more bespoke spec. A wholesome 730bhp is being claimed for these units. Drive is sent though the tried and tested Graziano six-speed manual ’box, as used on the Mk1 Audi R8 and manual Lamborghini Gallardo, with the delicate, slim gearlever mounted on the sill. The N1A is right-hand drive, like sports prototypes always have been, but you change gear with your right hand.
Aerodynamics were assisted by hours in a wind tunnel
Jaime Walfisch
The ‘11’ button sits at the top
Jaime Walfisch
“This is an authentically analogue driving machine and not a car to be trifled with”
A classical double wishbone suspension layout is suspended by four-way adjustable dampers from Quantum Racing, and in the case of the Icon88, carbon ceramic brakes and (in time) carbon wheels, shod with Michelin Cup 2 tyres. Suspension consultancy has been carried out by another famous name: suspension guru Richard Hurdwell worked with Senna on the active Lotus-Honda 99T in 1987.
That road-legal rubber has quite a task ahead of it. Sixteen still has development panels in glass-fibre, but even so weighs only 900kg with fluids. The carbon-bodied production car will weigh 890kg wet, so to save you doing the maths, with the 730bhp motor that’s a spectacular 820bhp/ton. A rapid track day car like a Porsche 992.1 GT3 RS boasts 370bhp/ton; a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, 791bhp/ton. Hmm. Nichols says he’s done some aero work to negate lift, but hasn’t chased downforce. There is ABS, and spark-based traction control set-up, but the message is as loud, clear and strident as the Chevy’s thumping note at idle: this is an authentically analogue driving machine and most definitely not a car to be trifled with.
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By
Adam Cooper
I’m sitting in the N1A in a deserted pitlane at the small but pleasingly challenging Guadix Circuit in southern Spain. Visor up, there’s a moment of serenity with the V8 silenced, yet the impending violence from those trumpet stacks just aft of my shoulder blades seems to soak into the cockpit all the same. My view over the low set perspex aero screen shows little of the car in front, but I feel a little high – as if I’m on top of the car, not in it. Nichols promises a new seat mounted lower is on the way; in fact, there will be three seat options, right up to a moulded insert around the driver. The wheel is too much of a stretch for me as well, but again, any customer of an N1A will spend time in a seating buck before their order is taken to tailor the perfect driving position.
The cockpit is attractive and reminds of the Wheeler TVR approach, in that it looks better than it actually works; in sunlight it’s hard to see confirmation that a button is selected. The most prominent button is at the top of the centre stack and simply says ‘11’. I won’t press it to begin with.
Thumb the start button and the V8 booms into life. Reach for the delicate little lozenge of a gearlever on the sill and navigate the open gate into first; the throw is light. The gear knob is the actual one used by Ayrton to win the 1990 Monaco Grand Prix. Production cars will have a replica of it.
When you boot up the N1A it runs a ‘normal’ engine map, which is to say it makes just over 300bhp. That equates to a power-to-weight ratio similar to a Lotus Exige, so it feels quick, but also manageable and not particularly intimidating.
The unassisted steering is as direct as you might expect, but you only notice the weight building in slow corners, exacerbated today because of the position of the wheel. It’s not an issue, more part of a fabulous dialogue that lets you build a picture of the forces at work, and a real understanding of what’s happening at either axle. When the N1A starts to slide, you know about it.
Note the golden gearknob, which is the real one Senna used when winning the 1990 Monaco GP
Jaime Walfisch
Temptation being what it is, it doesn’t take long for me to turn things up to ‘11’ –literally. I actually depress the button while using full throttle, and yet the N1A suddenly bolts forward as if from a cartoon. The noise level doubles. All hell breaks loose.
This is the full Can-Am, surround-sound experience. The rate of acceleration is as vivid as the numbers suggest, and the roar from the V8 so visceral it’s making my brain oscillate inside my skull, and my eardrums buzz with the frequencies – even inside a full-face helmet. There isn’t a supercar, or hypercar for that matter, that offers such a brutal, unfiltered experience, and at Guadix the N1A is barely able to reach fourth gear. It’s only afterwards that I reflect on how the Nichols balances precariously on the precipice between raw exhilaration and occasional moments of terror. It’s wild.
“Temptation being what it is, it doesn’t take long for me torun things up to’11’”
My time with the car out on the public road is brief, only long enough to report that on admittedly smooth surfaces it rides well and is happy to amble around without a hint of the mayhem it’s possible to unleash.
At just under 900kg, the N1A has a similar weight to early Can-Am spec cars of the day – but with more comfort for the driver
Jaime Walfisch
At around £500,000 the N1A is a notable investment for a track-day car, but it’s hard to see how you can have a bigger thrill and, frankly, racing credentials come no finer than those of the N1A.
Nichols N1A
Engine 7-litre Chevrolet V8 Chassis Bonded aluminium sheet extrusions and carbonfibre panels Power 730bhp Transmission Graziano manual six-speed (with Ayrton Senna-inspired gearknob) Suspension Independent front and rear with double wishbone Wheels Magnesium front 11in x 15in and rear 16in x 15in Weight 890kg Max speed 180mph+
