It takes big brass ones to hustle a 700-horsepower car in the rain. Having a pair of Garrett GTX35 turbos pumping air into the 5.3-liter LM4 complicates things further, and a tube-frame composition is the cherry on the scary sundae. Running without bodywork on these slippery series of laps, the Enviate wasn’t enjoying the 5,000 pounds of downforce it uses to trace a tidy line up Pike’s Peak, but we nevertheless get a taste of this monster’s brutality.

During this romp around Gingerman Raceway, driver Paul Gerrard has his work cut out for him. At the slightest sniff of the throttle, the rears spin. Having 777 horsepower and 771 lb-ft of torque to the wheels—all on just 12 pounds of boost—has something to do with that. In fact, they downsized to the 5.3-liter motor to reduce the torque output since wheelspin is an issue in most circumstances—even on the dyno!

Additionally, with a car this stiff and this compact, it’s quite hard to carry much slip angle. That edginess is multiplied tenfold by the fact they decided to run their Continental slicks in this weather. Some people have a pretty high threshold for thrill, it seems.

Fortunately, it’s composed for a car weighing 2,050 pounds with this much torque. With a dry circuit and all 5,500+ pounds of downforce, it’s a very compliant machine over the relatively bumpy surface of Pike’s Peak. This comes down to a clever suspension setup, which utilizes both a pushrod layout and a third damper at each axle. That third damper helps keep the aero platform stable when the suspension begins to compress under downforce, while still allowing for relatively soft spring rates and plenty of compliance at lower speeds and over the course’s undulations. Not that those were doing much work on those wet laps at Gingerman, but it’s still impressive to understand how a few motivated enthusiasts created such a monster, on a relatively strict budget, with the motor from a Cadillac.

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