New Nilu27 NILU holds bonkers hypercar full house: 1,000bhp+ V12, manual gearbox and gullwing doors
The NILU’s creator is the former head of design for Koenigsegg and Bugatti, and may need a lie down in a darkened room.
Meet the latest addition to the pantheon of huge horsepower speed machines: the NILU hypercar. It was created by the former head of design for Koenigsegg and Bugatti, and is powered by a 6.5-litre, naturally-aspirated V12 that revs to 11,000rpm and is paired with a traditional manual gearbox. Crikey!
Sasha Selipanov is the man behind the NILU. After working on poster-worthy cars like the Bugatti Chiron, Koenigsegg CC850 and Lamborghini Huracan, decided to launch his own hypercar brand, which he rather confusingly called Nilu27. So the first creation of the new company is technically called the Nilu27 NILU, but enough about that.
We’re told the outrageous design takes inspiration from everything, from classic American muscle cars to modern day drift cars. Underneath is a bespoke carbon fibre monocoque chassis with tubular aluminium-alloy subframes, double wishbone, pushrod suspension and carbon-ceramic brakes sourced from Brembo.
Like an Aston Martin Valkyrie, the NILU features gullwing doors that supposedly provide great access to the two-seat cabin. The seats are fixed and there are no controls on the steering wheel which sits in front of a set of analogue dials. There’s only one display screen inside the NILU and it’s for the rear-view camera/mirror.
The car’s V12 is fully exposed for all to bask in. Nilu27 partnered with Hartley Engines from New Zealand to produce, what it claims to be, “one of the most powerful and visually striking naturally aspirated engines in the world”. Peak power is rated at 1,055bhp and 860Nm of torque.
The engine isn’t mated to electric motors or a hybrid system of any kind, but does feature 12 individual throttle bodies and a hot-V configuration, whereby the exhaust and air intake positions are swapped around, to aid packaging and heat extraction.
This design also allows for the NILU’s “snakepit” headers, which flow into a tri-tip exhaust pipe. Meanwhile. the open-gate, seven-speed manual transmission is housed in a ceramic-coated, aluminium-alloy subframe.
15 track-only examples of the NILU hypercar will be produced at first, followed by 54 street-legal versions. The car will make its public debut at Pebble Beach in California during Monterey Car Week.
