Raw results

‘I WENT A little deep into that corner – ended up in the kitty litter,’ laughs Steve Nichols. I’m sitting in the back seat of a Range Rover Velar, shoulder-to-shoulder with the design maestro behind the legendary McLaren MP4/4 that Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost drove to dominate the 1988 Formula 1 season.

- By Elliott Hughes

2025 Nichols N1A

Young Australian hotshoe – and Aston Martin F1 simulator driver – Bart Horsten is at the wheel, sighting a lap of southern Spain’s Guadix Circuit. Steve, unusually gregarious for an engineering genius, is along for the craic. His jocularity is in stark contrast to my growing trepidation.

Clouds build as we clamber out of the Velar and gather around the 700bhp, sub-900kg, rear-drive creation that bears his name: the Nichols N1A. Tap, tap, tap. The car’s curvaceous bodywork and Perspex screen are being peppered by spots of rain. Not ideal. Yet not even January gloom can diminish the N1A’s purposeful presence. Dimensionally, its footprint is close to that of a modern Alpine A110 although it’s far lower – think table-height. Exposed Jenvey throttle-body trumpets rise in lizard-like spines from its rear deck, while the transaxle gearbox casing peeks provocatively from the rear diffuser.

Its sculptural composite bodywork – and the barnstorming 7.0-litre Chevy V8 lurking beneath – is a modern interpretation of the mythical McLaren M1A Can-Am car that Bruce McLaren used to claim the first of his marque’s five consecutive series titles. The idea of creating this unapologetically analogue machine came from former automotive consultant John Minett, who enlisted Steve Nichols as technical director.