Although we’ve long known what the Radford Lotus 62-2 looks like from the outside, the company has only now revealed what the interior of the lightweight sports car will look like. Filled with carbon fiber and analog dials, it’s a love letter to Lotus’ past.
“Radford embraces and amplifies what the original manufacturer would do,” said Mark Stubbs, Radford’s design director. “We build upon it. With this interior, we still want it to be a Lotus Type 62-2, but with expert craftsmanship and using the finest materials available that don’t take anything away from a lightweight sportscar driving experience.”
Paying homage to the philosophy of Lotus, the interior features ample carbon fiber accents to capture the “light, agile essence” of its sports car underpinnings. The centerpieces of the interior, though, are the Bremont timepieces.
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Built by the world-renowned Bremont Watch Company, the clock and stopwatch have been added to help drivers time themselves over the course of a lap or a stage.
“We’re thrilled to have been asked to create a beautiful mechanical rally timer featuring a stopwatch and clock for the interior of this car,” said Nick English, co-founder of Bremont. “Radford is reviving the art of coachbuilding and Bremont has been proudly spearheading the revival of British watchmaking for nearly 20 years, there is a lovely synergy between both businesses in terms of celebrating the best of British manufacturing and design.”
The rest of the interior, meanwhile, stems from the sweeping line that tracks all the way around the interior of the car, starting at the driver’s shoulders and around the screen display. Interior finishes can be customized to suit the owner, while a fully-exposed gear linkage (for the manual transmission) shows the company’s focus on maintaining a mechanical link with the driver.
The touchscreen, meanwhile, comes with customizable elements and is designed especially for the car. It is designed to be subtle, though, and all of the in-car controls are operated with physical toggles and switches crafted of fine materials.
There are, however, three smaller screens for rearview cameras to make up for the Radfords lack of a rear window.
“Everything is driver-centric and built around that,” says Stubbs. “It’s all about experiences, and the feeling the driver gets when getting in and out of the car is really important. You step into the car and slide into the interior, where the seat grips you and urges you to drive.”
The model photographed here is the high-power John Player Special model and its black and gold coloring is designed to match the exterior design. It is powered by a 600 hp (608 PS/447 kW) from a 3.5-liter supercharged V6 engine. The more brightly colored Gold Leaf models make 500 hp (506 PS/373 kW), while the Classic Type 62-2 gets 430 hp (436 PS/320 kW) from the same engine, which is shared with the Lotus Emira.