Radford came out of the gates storming with the Type 62-2, a highly bespoke take on the Lotus Exige. Its next vehicle, though, won’t be a sports car, says company co-founder Ant Anstead.
“We’ve very publicly and openly talked about Lotus. We teased up to eventually revealing it. We have got other OEMs contracted, inked, and started,” Anstead told Top Gear in a recent video. “Jenson [Button] actually drove one – the second car – and all I can say is that it’s not a sports car.”
Radford is keeping its cards close to its chest with who its next automaker partner will be, but it’s an interesting move for the company. The name Radford dates back to a mid-20th-century coachbuilder, and Anstead indicates in the interview that he is interested in the experience offered by coachbuilders of the era.
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“The point is that it’s always going to be customer-led,” says Anstead. “If you go back to the 1920s, you went to Rolls-Royce, you couldn’t buy a car, you bought a chassis with an engine and then Rolls-Royce would direct you to one of their favorite coachbuilders and then you’d go to Mulliner or Park Ward. But that’s the key is the client works with the artist.”
The old Radford originally made a name for itself with its coach-built Bentleys, Aston Martins, and, famously, a Mini that was owned by the likes of Peter Sellers and Enzo Ferrari. Whether or not the brand will stick to British automakers remains to be seen but according to another of the company’s co-founders, former F1 champion Jenson Button, working with brands from the U.K. is what’s most exciting about Radford.
Mind you, the Radford Type 62-2 isn’t just a reskinned Lotus. Although it’s based on an Exige chassis, it’s been extended and thoroughly worked over to make it completely bespoke. That means, according to Button, that it’s progressive, forgiving, and capable of drifts, if not necessarily focused on drifting.