Radford was once a luxury coachbuilder in the mid-20th century, before gradually fading out of view. The name has been brought back however, revived by a team including Jenson Button and Ant Anstead, with the Radford Lotus Type 62-2 the new company’s headline product. This week, Radford revealed the limited-production sportscar will feature a bespoke interior designed in partnership with luxury watchmaker Bremont, complementing the vehicle’s elegant throwback styling.
The aim was to embrace the lightweight ethos of the Lotus brand, given the car is built on an Evora platform and is inspired by the original Type 62 racer. To this end, carbon-fiber is used heavily throughout, from the A-pillars to the headliner and floor, providing a modern aesthetic that’s both sportscar-appropriate with a high-end feel.
The design is intended to keep drivers comfortable and focused while stretching the legs of the car, which ships with a 430 horsepower supercharged V6 in Classic guise, shared with the Lotus Emira. The Radford Gold Leaf models get a bump to 500 horsepower. Meanwhile, the limited-edition of twelve John Player Special models will sport an upgraded supercharger, taking power up to 600 horsepower at the flywheel.
Naturally, Bremont’s influence is felt strongly in the design. Nick English, co-founder of Bremont, is proud of the company’s work on the interior. “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, all exquisitely engineered in Britain, just like the Radford Lotus Type 62-2 itself,” said English. The twin dials are big, bold, and brash, unmissable where they stick out on the dash.
Looking to the past, Radford design director Mark Stubbs wanted to acknowledge the history of the brand. “I always ask myself, what would Harold have done?” said Stubbs, referencing the proprietor of the original company, Harold Radford. “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,” adds Stubbs.
To achieve this goal, much of the interior features machined, milled and turned finishes on metal parts that give the car a hand-built, premium feel. The manual transmission gets an exposed linkage for the shifter, with many shiny metal parts, and the dash sports a row of hefty toggle switches.
As the primary interface for the driver with the road, the steering wheel itself is beautifully simple, a three-spoke design with a bold R for Radford right in the center. It’s paired with clean, basic controls to avoid distracting from the purist nature of the vehicle. The seats, meanwhile, are proper racing buckets, complete with harnesses and embossed metal nameplates bearing the Lotus wordmark.
While the design is primarily intended to harken back to the era of the original Lotus Type 62, technology has indeed moved on. There’s a main digital display in front of the steering wheel, and in the place of traditional rear-view and side mirrors, cameras and screens do the job instead. There’s also a magnetic phone dock with wireless charging, though this can be deleted for drivers that want an “uninterrupted” driving experience.
In demonstration trim, bearing black and gold highlights to match the limited-edition John Player Special (JPS) livery, the interior shows off the best that Radford is capable of. Switchgear and touch surfaces are clearly designed to show off the fine engineering and machining that went into the car, and it shows. With plenty of scope for customization to suit individual tastes, and Radford’s focus on the essentials of coachbuilding, sitting inside the Type 62-2 should be a special experience indeed.
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