Radford and Lotus collaboration

Historic British coachbuilder Radford, which made its name producing limited edition Bentleys and Minis in the last century, is being revived by a star studded team that includes car designer Mark Stubbs, Formula One World Champion Jenson Button and TV restoration personality Ant Anstead. The team’s first project is to be inspired by the Lotus 62 – the race car offshoot of the original Europa – built from genuine Lotus underpinnings. A statement that makes us wonder whether the new Radford model could be based around the soon-to-be axed Lotus Elise, the tooling of which is currently for sale.

In addition to the Lotus underpinnings, the bespoke new car will be developed in partnership with Lotus Engineering. It will also be limited to just 62 units. Lotus Cars MD Matt Windle had this to say on the new venture: “This is a hugely exciting project for us. It is an engineering partnership at its heart, but one without the usual constraints of working with a large corporate group... A limited run of the most special of coach-built vehicles is engineering nirvana as it allows us to break free of the usual parameters of a more conventional project.”