LSX-Powered Enviate Hypercar Being Sold?

The Enviate hypercar was just put up for sale. What does that mean?

A post on social media from the Enviate team made it seem like the brand was going away. It looks like the best effort to bring the time record of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb may be lost to the French. However, we sat down with Cody Loveland of LoveFab and the Enviate Hypercar to set the record straight. Fortunately, it’s not entirely the doom and gloom you would expect.

Let’s be honest with ourselves: racing is expensive. Those of us that know, know all too well. Most drivers get a harsh reality check right after their first event. You only multiply that when you fabricate an entire car from scratch like Cody and team did. “After four years and countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears, we are at our limit to continuing the program,” he told us when we asked him about the sale of the car and program, “without committed buyers to purchase more Enviate Hypercars. We couldn’t have gotten to where we are today without our sponsors and team members – who donated their own time – but to run another year, we have to cover debts, properly compensate team members, as well as improve the car where funding allows.”

The idea of the Enviate from the start was to create a chassis as a proof of concept to fabricate and sell it like Dallara, Lola, and Riley/Multimatic have in IMSA and the WEC. So, to see the Enviate for sale shouldn’t mean doom and gloom. Well, at least not entirely, “The chassis is developed, the aero is perfected, the car is ready for more. We are refreshing another LM4 with some additional tricks to keep the heads clamped down, and are trying to get the car to GridLife Road Atlanta toward the end of the month to see what we can do.” However, that still takes money, “We are still courting sponsors, but unless we hit our budget goal, or sell additional Enviate Hypercars we will not be attempting the big race (Pikes Peak) again.”

If the money comes, either by sponsors or by selling Enviates, will they race again? “Just because it’s for sale, doesn’t mean we are ‘quitting.’ This is still the goal, but time is running out and we have to make moves,” says Cody, “With the proper budget, we can not only win overall up there, but ‘Bring America’s Mountain back to America’ and challenge Loeb’s 8:13 run.” That’s a tall claim but one backed up by the numbers.

From this years race, they had set the fastest speed of the week at 147-MPH, which was also the second fastest speed recorded on the mountain. Had it gone right, they would have pulled an 8:45. “Despite a mystery stall and running three-quarters of the race with no coolant in the engine, we still finished 2nd in class, 13th overall,” say Cody. “Without the stall costing 30-35 seconds, we still would’ve remained 2nd in class, but would have finished in the top 5. Had the driver, Paul Gerrard not had to switch to survival mode just quarter the way up, we would have contended for overall victory.”

So, what about Torquezillion, the diesel truck project based off a NASCAR Camping World Truck chassis? “This will be finished as time and funds allow,” Cody commented, “and the eventual goal is to share wheeling duties with Aric Streeter and myself. The Enviate Hypercar has been the main goal for this year, so now that the race is done, we can start shifting some time back to Torquezillion.”

So, what was the major lesson learned by doing the Enviate Hypercar project? “To not to,” Cody stated, “No seriously. (With) the amount of work and sacrifice this car has taken, I wouldn’t do it again without a solid seven-digit-plus figure sitting in my savings account. But, through the build, I’ve learned structural and aerodynamic carbon fiber processes, chassis design and setup, on top of all of the other fabrication and whatnot the car took.” Despite that harsh lesson, it does go further than just the Enviate. “Every bit of that (knowledge) goes into every customer car.”

So, while it’s not the end, it is an interesting new beginning for Cody Loveland and his LoveFab crew. If they can get the budget again or they sell some chassis, the car will race at Pikes Peak in 2018. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see.