Cars belong to places. Riding across a Greek island in a Mini Moke, for example: heaven on earth. But drive one of those where it's cold and wet: purgatory at the very least, probably hell. A McLaren Senna on a track is a symphony of downforce and barely (but just enough) controllable aggression. Put it in a parking garage of a few floors and you will drive yourself to pieces with some pleasure.
I bring this up because car-plus-location just about doesn't get any better than this. A ridiculously expensive tribute to the Ferrari 250 SWB and a whole morning to ourselves on the Californian peninsula of Monterey, the almost surreally beautiful golf Mecca that attracts the rich like a wasp colony to your barbecue.
The Ferrari 250 SWB from RML is a lot cheaper than the real one
Here they do not see prices (such as the 1.8 million euros that RML asks for a Ferrari 250 SWB) as we do, here they see an object that they want or not. Which is good and bad news for RML. Because we can now just sweep that price under the carpet (and if you take into account that an original Ferrari 250 SWB nowadays sells for somewhere between 8 and 15 million, you could also say that this car is the bargain of the century ), but when you're competing to capture the attention of billionaires, the quality and execution of your product better be the best of the best.
I must immediately point out that the Ferrari 250 SWB we are driving is the prototype that RML will never sell, and that it is currently in the middle of the test to demonstrate the reliability of everything, so that certain interior parts are not yet completely final. But the exterior styling, the way it drives and sounds – it's all as it should be. Only 30 units will be made for customers, the first three of which are now being built.
How the Ferrari 550 Maranello turns into a 250 SWB
Each example starts life as a Ferrari 550 Maranello, which is then completely stripped and only the engine, six-speed manual transmission, parts of the electrical architecture and a central part of the chassis are retained. All engines produce the full 485 hp, as the factory intended.
A carbon fiber shell is built around it for maximum stiffness and a weight of just over 1,500 kilos, 150 kilos less than the original Maranello. Servicing can be done at your friendly local Ferrari dealer and everything from oil filters to tires found on the shelves of various tire shops have been kept as simple and easy to maintain as possible.
The owner of RML talks about the company
The question is: why would anyone get involved in a project like this? I'm having a cup of coffee with the only man who can give a sensible answer to that: Michael Mallock, Ray's son and his successor as CEO of the RML Group.
'RML was founded by my father in 1984, purely as a motorsport company. But the name Mallock in this context goes all the way back to the 1930s, when my grandfather specials built. In the past seven years since I took over the business, we have changed enormously; We were mainly focused on motorsport, but now that is only 15 percent of turnover.'
Michael already has a packed CV: Aston Martin continuation models, McLaren's Senna GTR and the 'Ring-crushing Nio EP9 are all on it, as are several British Championship touring cars and Lotus' new Emira GT4. “So we're quite diverse in our work, but a few years ago I decided that instead of just doing things for other people, it was time we did something for ourselves.”
The first idea was a hypercar with 1,000 hp
First there was a 1,000 hp front-engine hypercar that was “already well under way,” until Michael realized that “this wasn't what I wanted to do; I don't want to drive 200 km/h on a B-road to feel like I'm going fast'.
So he scaled it all back and looked at the 'Golden Age of the Automobile', at cars like the Aston Martin DB4 GT, the Jaguar just didn't fit. And he wanted something that wouldn't immediately fall apart if you kicked it. And something that came with the achievements of the modern era, such as CarPlay, air conditioning and a reversing camera.
The 250 SWB is beautiful, if you look at it from the right side
I can confirm: this car has all that, and when it rolls out of the garage it looks so good from most angles that it would make your knees weak. But not from all angles. Three quarters in front, and from the side? Absolutely beautiful. But the back… The taillights look a bit aftermarket and remind me of the David Brown Speedback GT (not in a good way). A set of better fitting wire wheels would also be welcome.
There's a lot to love on the inside. Not least that deliciously thin steering wheel, the open metal grille of the gearbox with a lever that just begs to be click-clacked, and all that delicious brown leather. I enjoy the 'simplicity' of the gauges and lined up switches, but the final touches are still to come: the stuff that elevates components to the level of jewels and helps justify the astronomical prices. That's what Singer does so incredibly well.
The RML prototype drives like a charm
Driving it is a pure triumph: with a lot of self-confidence it sits somewhere between a wobbly classic and a granite-hard modern supercar. So there is still some 'play' in it, so to speak, enough to keep it moving at higher speeds flow and also make it feel lively in the lower regions. Every point you touch the car is a pure pleasure – the sharpness of the accelerator pedal response, the steering wheel that squirms in your hands, the feeling of metal on metal every time you shift gears and give a little blip of throttle; just for fun.
It is an ode to an earlier time, when driver involvement was more important than pure speed, but seen through the lens of modern technology. The brakes do what they're supposed to do, it starts like a charm, it feels solid and can withstand some mild abuse. The engine is a hair-raising feast of howling revs and all the urgency you could ever ask for. Tell me again why a road car should have more than 500 hp?
What could be even better is the Ferrari
It is daring and brilliant, the Ferrari 250 SWB from RML, and it does exactly what the brief was: 'celebrating the involvement in driving'. My only concern is that much of the magic comes from the donor drivetrain, which is excellently chosen. The design and finishing around it, the part that must be above all suspicion or doubt at this level, appeals to the imagination, but could really be improved.
What is in no doubt is the amount of passion that has been poured into this project by Michael and his team: 'It has been very emotional. I drove a short distance on the road in England, but it is not yet homologated. I've done most of my riding at Millbrook, on the hill route, so to ride it here, in traffic, back and forth on 17 Mile Drive, parking in Carmel… The response has been fantastic. I just drove around with a bigger smile than I've ever had.”
#beautiful #Ferrari #SWB #million #euros #bargain
