 | |
| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 28 November 2012 |
| Founder | John Begley Mark Fowler |
| Headquarters | , United Kingdom |
Key people | John Begley Mark Fowler Guy Colborne Jeremy Curnow |
| Products | Elemental rp1 |
Number of employees | 8 |
| Website | www |
Elemental Motor Company is a British low-volume performance motor vehicle manufacturing company that produces the Elemental RP1, a road-legal two seater sports car. The company is based in Hampshire, United Kingdom. [1]
Elemental Motor Company was founded in 2012 by John Begley, a former McLaren Formula 1 engineer with experience in BTCC race cars, and Mark Fowler, a former McLaren F1 Aerodynamics Engineer. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The company's first car, the Elemental RP1 (or Race Project One) [5] was introduced as a prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2014. [6] A re-engineered, production-ready model was presented at the same hill climb event in 2016. [2] [7] The first customer cars were delivered in 2017. [8] [9]
Elemental Motor Company also operates as a design and engineering consultancy, producing the AP-0 EV show car for technology partner Apex Motors in 2020. [10]
In 2021, Elemental announced the development of the RP1 EV, an BEV variant of the RP1, in collaboration with Apex. [11] [12]
The RP1 is a lightweight, open-top, road-legal sports car produced by Elemental. [13] It was first revealed as a prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2014 [6] and a re-engineered production-ready model was presented in 2016. [2] [7] [14]
The original RP1 was powered by a longitudinally mounted 2.0l Ford EcoBoost engine, [15] [3] [16] paired with a semi stressed six-speed sequential Hewland gearbox. [5] [17] Weighing 620 kg with 320bhp, it had a power-to-weight ratio of 516bhp/ton. [5] [18] Later 2.3l engine variants with 375bhp had a power-to-weight ratio of 604bhp/ton. [19] The car accelerates to 60mph in 2.7 seconds and has a top speed of 170mph. [3] It features a carbon fibre tub that weighs 68 kg [19] and meets FIA racing standards. The car has steel subframes at both ends, allowing for easy replacement. [9] It has double wishbone suspension and inboard Nitron dampers at the front and rear. [13] [8]
The Elemental RP1 has a weight distribution of 47/53 front to rear. It features a paddle shifting, pneumatic actuated gearbox controlled by the ECU. [8] The vehicle offers up to 400 kg of downforce at 150mph, thanks to deep diffusers at the front and rear. The driving position is feet-up, similar to a single-seat racecar, which enhances the aerodynamics with front and rear diffusers. [9] Later variants of the RP1 use the 2.3l Ford Ecoboost engine with a revised output of 375bhp producing 500 kg of downforce at 150mph. [15] In collaboration with ex-McLaren Formula 1 aerodynamicist Mark Taylor, [20] the RP1 underwent enhancements to its bodywork using computational fluid dynamics, resulting in an increase in downforce to 1000kg at 150mph. [21] [11]
The car was reviewed by Autocar in 2015 [15] [21] [13] and deliveries started in 2017. [8]
Endurance racer David Pittard worked with Elemental as a test and development driver before returning to pro racing in 2017. [22]
In October 2023, the Elemental RP1 [23] [24] became an option on the Xbox driving game Forza Horizons 5. [25] [26]
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