Ex-McLaren F1 Engineer Builds a 700-HP Roadster

Building a genuinely new sports car from scratch is one of the hardest things to pull off in the automotive world, but Steve Nichols has done exactly that. The man who once shaped Formula 1 legends like the McLaren MP4/1, MP4/3, and the dominant MP4/4 has spent the last four years channeling that same obsessive engineering mindset into a road car. The result is the Nichols N1A, a car that has now finally been revealed in its finished, production-ready form after years of prototyping.

What makes the N1A stand out isn't a massive horsepower figure or a touchscreen full of driving modes — it's the complete opposite approach. This is a car engineered around subtraction rather than addition. Nichols built the N1A's structure from bonded aluminum and carbon fiber, wrapped in carbon-fiber body panels, and the result tips the scales at under 2,000 lbs (900 kg). For context, that's lighter than a current Mazda MX-5, despite the N1A packing significantly more muscle under its hood.

Buyers get a choice of two naturally aspirated Chevy V8s. The entry point is a 6.2-liter unit producing 475 hp and 470 lb-ft (637 Nm), while the range-topping option is a thunderous 7.0-liter LS7 pushing out 700 hp and 600 lb-ft (813 Nm). Paired with the featherweight chassis, that top-spec engine catapults the N1A to 62 mph (100 km/h) in a scant 3.5 seconds — numbers that rival cars costing far more and weighing considerably more too.

The reason this matters goes beyond raw performance figures, though. In an era where even entry-level sports cars come loaded with traction control, stability nannies, launch control, and adaptive everything, the N1A strips all of that away entirely. There's no electronic safety net here — just a six-speed manual gearbox sending power to the rear wheels, full stop. It's a deliberate throwback to a time when driver skill, not silicon, determined how a car behaved at the limit, and it places the N1A firmly in the lineage of Britain's long tradition of building light, purist sports cars that prioritize feel over spec-sheet bragging rights.

That philosophy extends to the chassis tuning as well. The N1A rides on independent front and rear suspension with double wishbones at each corner and four-way adjustable dampers, giving owners genuine control over how the car reacts on track days or backroad blasts. Wide Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires — 245-section up front and a beefy 305-section out back — ensure there's enough mechanical grip to make the most of that low weight and manual-only drivetrain.

Nichols isn't going it alone on production, either. He's partnered with RML Group, a name with roots in British motorsport dating back to the 1980s and now also known for building its own Porsche 911-based supercar. Together, they'll cap total N1A production at fewer than 150 examples, ensuring exclusivity remains part of the appeal alongside the analog driving experience.

Pricing reflects that exclusivity, with the standard N1A starting at £450,000 (about $604,000). For those wanting something even more special, the first 15 cars will be built as the Icon 88 edition, priced from £500,000 ($671,000), each one paying tribute to a specific race win scored by the McLaren MP4/4 during its legendary unbeaten 1988 F1 season — a fitting nod to the man behind the machine.