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McLaren’s former Chief Designer Steve Nichols has founded his own car company and unveiled the N1A, which is a celebration of the McLaren M1A.

The N1A has already undergone several years of development and thousands of test miles on road and track, and it is now due to be released early this summer.

Nichols said: ‘We didn’t set out with the intention of going into production. It was an idea that John Minett, Nichols Cars’ CEO, and I had been talking about for a while. In the end we thought we might as well build one and see how it turned out.

‘Once people saw it on the road, the response was incredible. It’s a bit like the original M1A that started the whole McLaren story. Bruce McLaren built it as a one-off for his own personal use. Then people starting asking him if he could produce a few more!’

The N1A has been developed in a wind tunnel and has a more aggressive look than the original McLaren. It also has an aluminium and carbon fibre tub, while power comes from a Chevrolet LT1 V8 with power outputs from 450bhp to 650bhp on offer.

Nichols added: ‘One of the most rewarding aspects of the project has been the opportunity to work with some incredible world leading experts on structures and suspension, based here in the UK, as well as some fantastic colleagues from my McLaren days.’