Steve Nichols designed the most successful Formula 1 car of all time, engineered Ayrton Senna to two world championships, and played a central role in the creation of the first carbon-fibre grand prix car.
Now, the American engineer has lent his name to something rather different: a road-legal, 730bhp trackday supercar that honours the wild Can-Am racers of the 1960s.
The Nichols N1A, developed alongside CEO John Minett under the Nichols Cars banner, draws its visual inspiration from Bruce McLaren’s M1A of 1964 — an open Group 7 sports car that preceded the famous Can-Am series.
But the N1A is no replica.
Beneath its modernised bodywork lies a bonded aluminium chassis developed with the help of Bob Mustard, the engineer credited with pioneering that construction method at BMW Rover Group in the 1990s, work that ultimately led to the Lotus Elise.
Structural sections are reinforced with carbon fibre, and a carbon front subframe is in development.
The N1A is priced around £500,000
At its heart sits a Chevrolet LS7-based 7-litre V8, prepared by Langford Performance Engineering – famed, appropriately enough, for its work on Cosworth DFVs and Ford’s F1 engines – running on individual throttle bodies and producing 730bhp.
Drive goes through a Graziano six-speed manual gearbox, the same unit found in the first-generation Audi R8 and manual Lamborghini Gallardo.
The production car will weigh 890kg wet, giving a power-to-weight ratio of around 820bhp per tonne – comfortably ahead of a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport.
The first 15 cars will be produced to Icon88 specification, a limited edition honouring the 15 victories scored by Nichols’ MP4/4 during the 1988 Formula 1 season.
The gear knob fitted to the pre-production car is the actual one used by Senna to win the 1990 Monaco Grand Prix. Production cars will carry a replica.
Motor Sport‘s test of the pre-production example at the Guadix Circuit in southern Spain found a car that operates in two very distinct modes. On a standard engine map, the N1A produces just over 300bhp.
Press the button marked ’11’ on the centre stack, however, and the remaining 430bhp arrive with what Adam Towler describes as cartoon-like immediacy.
“The noise level doubles. All hell breaks loose,” he writes.
