If you haven’t heard of the Radford, here’s a quick summary. You used to have the Lotus Type 62. A group of enthusiastic Brits like that car, but asked themselves: What if that car was not built in the late sixties, but now? With contemporary materials and knowledge, they built the Radford Type 62-2, a car inspired by the Type 62.
To properly set up the car, they pulled ex-F1 champion Jenson Button on his sleeve. Now the car is almost ready for production. But before customers get it, Radford is making another crazy version of the Type 62-2 to compete in the Pikes Peak hillclimb.
The monster you see above got a giant splitter, a mohawk of a roof scoop and an even bigger rear wing. A diffuser under the coffee table provides even more downforce. TopGear speaks to driver Tanner Foust who has to keep the special Radford Type 62-2 intact on the Pikes Peak.
“I know this car is going to be a beast. In fact, it shares nothing with the street car. It shares the design ethos and some components, but the rest is either modified or a bespoke version of what’s on the road car,” says the driver. The engine is also not the same. The lower block shares the Pikes Peak version with the regular car, but everything else is new.
Specifications of the Radford Type 62-2 for Pikes Peak
Radford supercharges the 3.5-liter V6 engine. Partly because of this, the power grows from 613 hp to 710 hp. Power only goes to the rear wheels and gear changes are via a sequential gearbox with paddles behind the steering wheel. Radford thinks a sprint from standstill to 100 km/h is possible in just over 2.2 seconds. The top speed is 257 km/h. Those are not bad numbers.
Keep in mind that the car only weighs 861 kilos with the power. This makes it 200 kilos lighter than the street car. The weight loss is partly due to about seventy 3D-printed parts and a lightweight battery. The Radford Type 62-2 wears a special jacket that pays tribute to the John Player Special racers of yesteryear.
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