Steve Nichols’ Nostalgic Can-Am Fantasy Lands at Pebble Beach

Nichols Cars, a small but ambitious British outfit, unveiled its first creation at Monterey—the N1A, a car that makes no attempt to hide its love affair with the past. Its inspiration lies squarely in McLaren’s Can-Am prototypes of the 1960s and, even more directly, in the 1988 McLaren MP4/4, designed by Steve Nichols himself and immortalized by Senna and Prost in a season of total domination.

The debut version, called ICON 88, will be built in just 15 examples, each dedicated to one of the MP4/4’s victories. It is a romantic idea, though one that wears its marketing-driven exclusivity openly. The machine is a hand-built 900-kilogram sculpture, powered by a naturally aspirated, reworked 7.0-liter GM LS3 V8 delivering 650 horsepower through a six-speed manual. Here, at least, the promise of a “pure, analogue driving experience” rings concrete.

Graphene-reinforced carbon, aerodynamics honed in the MIRA wind tunnel, and Michelin Cup 2 tires give the car serious engineering credentials on paper. Yet the question lingers: how much of it is 21st-century technology, and how much is nostalgia poured into retro form? Inside, the Senna-inspired gear lever, analog dials, and stripped-back luxury feel more fetish object than forward-looking cockpit—tailored to a very narrow circle of enthusiasts.

Fewer than 100 N1As are planned, ensuring they remain niche pieces more likely to live in collections than on public roads. On the lawns of Pebble Beach, though, the car could not have been more at home: an artifact that speaks simultaneously of an engineer’s nostalgia, the romance of vintage racing, and the super-wealthy’s perennial desire to buy a fragment of McLaren’s golden age.