Upon laying your eyes on the Elemental RP1, we won’t be surprised if names like KTM X-Bow is mentioned, or even the Caterham Seven, since the Elemental RP1 is pretty much eyeing those cars for supper. The Elemental RP1 is the brainchild of John Begley, who first conceived of the idea some 7 years ago. He and another 5 other men, developed the car, not in a workshop, or a garage, but rather interestingly, in the cloud, as the designers and engineers shared CAD drawings via the internet, before meeting up and actually building the prototypes.
The Elemental RP1 is a mid engined 2 door roadster, which is powered by a 2.0L Ford EcoBoost engine which produces 280hp. Since the chassis is constructed mainly of carbon fibre and aluminium composite, it weighs a mere 450kg. Coupled with the Ford EcoBoost engine, the Elemental RP1 boasts 500bhp per tonne. Very impressive indeed, considering the guys behind Elemental has both F1 and aerospace experience. Besides the 2.0L Ford EcoBoost mill, Elemental will also offer a slightly more civilized Ford EcoBoost 1.0L with roughly 180bhp. If you’re a track junkie, then Elemental also has the right powerplant for you, as opposed to the 2 Ford EcoBoost engines, they’re also offering a Honda Fireblade engine. The Honda engine is a mere 999cc, but revs up to an insane 13,000 rpm. Not practical for daily driving, but ideal for the track junkie who stays beside a track.
Every Elemental RP1 gets a taste of a sequential gearbox, courtesy of Hewland. No mentions of a manual gearbox making an appearance, however. The Elemental RP1’s brakes are 4 pot Caparo with 280mm discs. Currently Elemental is still in the midst of developing and engineering the RP1, but once the car is officially for sale, we’ll update for sure.
