The Doorless, High-Downforce Elemental Rp1 Is Finally In Production

After two years of delays, a wholesale change in factory plans and a rumoured doubling in the asking price, the Elemental Rp1 has finally entered production.

It’s a road-legal trackday special that can be fettled with basic tools and easily set up for road or circuit use. Although it was originally destined to be built from a factory in Wales, it’s now produced in Hampshire by ex-McLaren engineers using 75 per cent locally-made parts. This £100,000 go-kart is a serious piece of kit.

Expect 550bhp per ton from a Ford EcoBoost engine with ‘over 280bhp.’ To get that power-to-weight ratio our maths makes more like 340bhp necessary, but it’s possible they’re referencing the car’s dry weight. Ready for the road, the 620kg car sprints from 0-60mph in 3.1 seconds, 60-100mph in 4.4 seconds and brakes from 100-0mph in a lung-squeezing 4.5-seconds.

The company claims a metric ton of downforce at 150mph, which is rather a lot, and if you don’t want the rear wing, 400kg of that ton comes from the under-body aero inspired by its makers’ work on epic road cars cars like the MP4-12C and P1.

Built around a bespoke carbon tub that weighs just 68kg and is strong enough to conform to FIA racing standards, front and rear tubular subframes are attached in such ways as to be easily replaceable if you have a bit of an off at the track.

The driving position is a feet-up affair, like a single-seat racecar, which allows Elemental to lift the floor and get cleaner airflow beneath the chassis, enhancing the aero package along with the front and rear diffusers. The company claims the Rp1 corners “like no other comparable car.”

Just three have been built so far, with the first finding its way to its owner in January, but there are hopes for another 12 this year. When the Rp1 was first fully unveiled back in August 2014 the firm was hoping for at least 40 orders per year, though, and with prices originally estimated to be half what they are now, it’s a tough ask for the startup to succeed.

Could it be another Zenos, which started with such promise before realising it simply couldn’t cover its costs and has now been partly saved from oblivion? Or could it be the start of a new Caterham for the 21st century? Let’s hope it’s the latter.