Check Out the 1,000-HP Nilu Hypercar in All Its Radically Simple Glory

• The Nilu is the lifelong dream of previously frustrated car designer Sasha Selipanov, who has penned some of the greatest modern supercars made.

• Selipanov wanted a return to pure analog driving, all the way down to the seat adjusters. Sounds like he got it.

• Only 15 will be made initially, with 54 more later. No price or release date yet.

(Nilu is the name of the car, Nilu27 is the company that makes it. That’s not confusing at all, is it? But the rest of this makes more sense, and it truly sounds impressive. Read on!)

Designer Sasha Selipanov has had a career that any design student would kill for: In his 20 years of experience he has penned more than 50 projects for Koenigsegg, Bugatti, Genesis, Lamborghini, Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Bentley, Seat, and even Hyundai, WayRay and others.

His career highlights include: the Bugatti Chiron, Koenigsegg Gemera, Bugatti Vision GT, Koenigsegg CC850, Bugatti 2015 Atlantic, Lamborghini Huracan, Genesis Essentia, Genesis Mint, and the WayRay Holograktor. Any one of those could be the art-of-choice for any budding car enthusiast’s bedroom wall.

But he never got to do things exactly his way; he was always working for The Man, even though the men were generally pretty good to work for.

So before he could create the car he really wanted, Selipanov had to know what he didn’t want. And when it came to modern cars, sports cars, and supercars in particular, there was plenty he didn’t want.

“We’ve had, as an industrial civilization, an infatuation with technology that has taken us off track,” Selipanov said at the car’s August 8 Los Angeles reveal. “I think we’ve added a lot of items to spec sheets. Modern hybrid cars, modern sports cars, modern supercars are more capable than ever before. But are they emotionally more fulfilling?”

Do you see where this is going?

“I think they are not,” said Selipanov. “I think that infatuation with technology and adding more items to the spec sheets of cars—seamless shifts, lane assist, autonomous driving, connectivity, digitalization—has actually, one step at a time, disconnected the driver from the car. There’s a lot of interfaces they have to navigate.”

But rather than just complain about it to anyone who would listen, Selipanov made his own car, the Nilu you see here. It has a fabulous V12 engine mounted behind the two seats that is capable of over 1,000 hp, sending it to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, unless Selipanov was tossing out hyperbole at the car’s reveal in Los Angeles.

The Nilu is a purely analog car in a digital age, right down to the manual levers on the adjustable seats.

“The idea was that we should try to eliminate every kind of interface between the driver and the road and then try to boil down a car to its essence. Every single technological advancement has basically added a layer of complication in terms of what we do to drive our vehicles.”

So what did he do about those layers? He peeled them off and tossed them away.

“I have to say, emotionally, the old school stuff is what did it for me. I felt a real connection. I felt haptic, an aural, a visual multi-dimensional connection to the vehicle that is just not happening with modern stuff. So my idea was to combine this advancement of design and technology that we have achieved in terms of developing the product with the old school recipe, back to the roots, back to the basics, back to the first principles, eliminating everything that stands between the driver and the road except those necessary things.”

The list of “necessary things” was short.

“We need the tires. We need the wheels. We need the engine. We need the steering wheel. We need to shift gears. So that’s pretty much all we wanted to keep intact and take everything else away.”

The heart of the Nilu is a 6.5-liter 80-degree V12, with a dozen large bores and a dozen short strokes for easy high-revving. Its magnificent bundle-of-snakes exhaust comes out of the top like a Ferrari Grand Prix car from the late-’60s.

Made by Hartley Engines in New Zealand, Selipanov says the V12 is, “one of the most powerful and visually striking naturally aspirated engines in the world,” with an output listed simply as “more than 1,000 horsepower.”

That’s not all.

“And while its large bore and short stroke will make it rev like an electric motor, the even-fire engine will provide the driver with the perfect amount of tactile vibration,” Nilu27 promises.

“Make no mistake, this is not an OEM engine from another manufacturer converted to the Hot V. This is a bespoke, large-bore, short-stroke monster,” said Nelson Hartley, founder and CEO of Hartley Engines. “It’s got aggressive cams, aggressive port flow, lightweight components, and exotic materials. We want to get a cold sweat every time the V12 starts and revs.”

It’s mated to a seven-speed CIMA manual transmission spinning Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires, 265/35R-20s in front and 325/30R-21 rear, mounted to 10x20 and 13x21 Nilu27 centerlock wheels stopped by AppTech’s carbon ceramic brakes.

A double-wishbone pushrod suspension soaks up the bumps. It all sits in a carbon fiber monocoque, augmented by tubular aluminum-alloy subframes.

That oughta do it.

Next, Nilu27 says, is production. According to the company, the initial Nilu prototype vehicles and first batch of customer cars will be assembled by Aria Group in Irvine, California, allowing Nilu27 to ramp-up its own facilities overseas.

After that, Nilu27 says it is “simultaneously developing a street-homologated version. This variant will be limited to 54 units, four of which will be unique, one-off designs.”

No price was announced at the car’s reveal, but it has to be steep. Will it be worth it? If you’re one of the lucky buyers, let us know.

Is this the supercar of your dreams? Or do you want traction control and Bluetooth?