The terribly irresponsible Nilu27 hypercar is the car we all want

In an automotive age where safety, sanity, sustainability, and responsible eco-friendliness have taken center stage, enters the scene from the far right, Nilu27. America’s newest V12 hypercar has been specifically designed with no frills, no digital, no driver assistance, and not much heavy metal in mind.

The name behind Nilu is Russian automotive visionary Sasha Selipanov, whose portfolio includes striking exterior designs such as the Koenigsegg Gemera, Lamborghini Huracán and Bugatti Chiron.

But as beautiful as the Nilu is, this car is best challenged by what it lacks. Selipanov says no to electric motors, hybrids, batteries and traction control. No to active wings and suspension. No to stability control, navigation, driving modes and even such meager luxuries as AM/FM radio.

Instead, it says yes to carbon-fiber monocoques, aluminum subframes, big analogue instruments. It says yes to gearshift gates and steering wheels without buttons. It says yes to the days when the only way to see was to reach up to adjust your side-view mirror or reach over to the passenger side to manually roll down the window.

Yes, then, to the raw sensation of driving a barely controllable hypercar as fast as humanly possible—this machine is a gut-wrenching appeal to the desires of our lizard brains. Selipanov has designed the most understated, high-functioning work of automotive art we’ve seen in a long time.

The exhaust, too, looks more like a sculpted work of art than a “hot V” port used to exhale combustion demons from the fiery belly of the 1,000-horsepower, 6.5-liter, big-bore, short-stroke, fire-breathing, naturally aspirated, 80-degree V12 engine, which was developed specifically for Nilu by Hartley Engines.

We think that will be enough to propel the 2,645 lb (1,200 kg) chassis to its limited top speed of 248 mph (400 km/h).

Interestingly, the entire exhaust system is 3D printed from Inconel, a nickel-chromium-based superalloy. For one, the intake and exhaust are swapped, allowing Hartley to create 12-into-1 “snake pit” exhaust headers.

In Hartley Engines’ design brief for the power unit that would bolt to the Nilu, the focus was on “being cool as f—,” according to founder and CEO Nelson Hartley. In a world where the brilliant performance engineering of most hypercar engines is spent ferrying their owners from yacht to casino in heavy traffic, “being cool as f—” might be the most practical design brief you can give.

One thing that's not as cool as f— are hypercar launch videos where the audio is superimposed, but alas, that's what Nilu has. Which is a shame, because the audio promises to be absolutely epic.

North of 11,000 rpm, the redline looks a lot like a Formula One car in the video – two Formula One cars, in fact. If it were to sound like this live, we imagine it would elicit equal parts joy, admiration, contempt and disgust, depending on what neighborhood and what time it was passing through.

Either way, it's likely to be the highest-revving tram ever built that doesn't have Gordon Murray's name on it, and it'll pump out just as much adrenaline and cortisol inside the cabin as it will outside. Listen:

Moving on to practical matters. The Nilu has Italian AppTech centre-lock rims at each corner. 20″ at the front, 21″ at the rear, all wrapped in sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. Behind these rims are big 6-pot Brembo carbon-ceramic dampers.

Go higher and you'll reach the Nilu's double-wishbone, pushrod suspension. It's very similar to Formula 1.

This big-horsepower, rear-wheel-drive vehicle with a 7-speed manual transmission has all the vibes of an old-school muscle car—with a modern rear-engine twist. Speaking of twist, Nilu has one concession to the onboard technology: a small screen in the cockpit that doubles as a rear-view camera, since you can’t see through the rear-mounted engine.

This looks like the kind of car that 8-year-old me would put together and mix on paper the best bits of my favorite cars and motorcycles: Ferrari F40, McLaren F1, GT40, Speed ​​Racer's Mach 5, Colin McRae's Subaru STi 22B, Corvette Stingray (circa 1975, of course), Ducati 916 SPS… It's a design worthy of pride on the fridge.

Nilu27 will build just 54 cars total out of Irvine, CA (27 is half of 54… what's the big deal?). The car will be unveiled to the public at the Pebble Beach ramp in Monterey, CA on August 15th. Don't miss the image gallery of this vehicle, folks, these are some of the best hypercar photos we've seen in a long time.

Here you go!

Source: Nilu27