A 700+ Hp Homebuilt Racer Crashes on Pikes Peak Mountain, Then Comes Back for More
It’s as if an NSX, a Formula One car and a Falcon F7 hooked up in a Las Vegas hotel room, and then nine-months later: Oh, baby! This savagely sexy hill-climbing monster is known as the “Enviate,” and it was born in Cody Loveland’s garage.
Loveland is the owner, founder and lead fabricator of Lovefab, Inc., and together with his team and sponsors, he has strived to fulfill a pipedream that he and a late friend once shared over beers: setting record times at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) by building a racecar designed specifically for climbing 14,115-feet into the Rocky Mountain’s highest summit.
The car, once Loveland’s daily driver ’91 Acura NSX, has been through an intense, fiery history to become the super-aero Batmobile hopped up on steroids that it is today. It has crashed on Pike’s Peak twice: a minor but debilitating wreck in 2012, and then in 2013, when it was recreated as the Enviate, it veered into a wall of boulders and trees at 80-plus-mph. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but just as Loveland escaped the vehicle, it was engulfed in flames. It burned for three minutes while he helplessly watched the heartbreaking scene.
Loveland came back with a vengeance. He and his team chopped off and completely re-built the body, frame, and chassis. The second-generation Enviate is home to a 777-whp twin-turbo LS1 with 770 ft-lb of torque. Pair that with four tons of down-force at 150-mph, and you have yourself a mountain-eating mutant on wheels with the power of a Hennessey Venom GT.
The junkyard 6.0 liter LQ9 block with upgraded HD valve springs and a boost cam is fed by Injector Dynamic’s 1700-cc injectors paired with an Aeromotive fuel pump and pressure regulator. Dual Garret GTX3576R turbos mounted by one-off Lovefab manifolds make the car scream, while a Tialsport blow-off valve teamed with dual wastegates regulates the boost. Dual Mitsimoto radiators fight the heat, and a Porsche gearbox puts the power to the ground. A Haltech ECU is the brain of the operation, and various Vibrant Performance fabrication components bring it all together.
“It has more power, is expertly aerodynamic, and the overall weight dropped to 2,050-lbs from the original 2,500,” boasted Loveland.
The Enviate’s featherlight body was made possible by a lightweight 1-3/8” chromoly tube chassis. The suspension also underwent a complete overhaul: Pushrod-actuated QA1 coilovers provide independent damping and roll control, and a third center shock supports the downforce’s punishing weight. Meanwhile, Formula One engineer Sebastien Lamour developed the stunning aerodynamics, and Loveland and crew formed the carbon fiber body panels with their bare hands. “We have about 500 hours into the carbon fiber work alone,” Loveland confessed.
The team is consistently racing towards record-setting madness, and the Enviate’s swift, compact platform makes it the perfect machine for dominating the winding, unforgiving and ever-changing Pike’s Peak Mountain. The next venture up the slope is planned for 2017, pending invitation from the PPIHC, which just may be the answer to Loveland’s hard-earned dream, in honor of his late friend Matthew Noble Parker.
You can see more of LoveFab’s Enviate here.
via LoveFab.com