American driver Tanner Foust finished eighth overall at the 2023 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, driving a wildly aero-modified Radford Type 62-2 in a historic John Player Special-aping livery. His time of nine minutes 37.326 seconds was quick enough to win the Exhibition class, despite being nearly a minute slower up the hill than overall victor Robin Shute. To commemorate the tiny company’s class victory, it will build you your own identical downforce monster, should you want one.
Only twelve examples of the all-carbon track-only car will ever be built, and they’ll start at a cool million dollars. The company builds each of its cars to the requested spec of the owner, so you can theoretically get them to coat the whole damn thing in 24 karat gold, if you really wanted to pay for it.
“As a coachbuilder, Radford revels in creating one-off cars. Each bespoke to client wishes in terms of build and performance. Our Pikes Peak-winning car this year was the first example of our new Type 62-2 Track Edition car. A single seat weapon born to tame the mountain,” comments F1 Champion and Radford Motors Co-Founder Jenson Button. “The Pikes Peak car received an additional cooling package to combat the overheating risks at altitude as well as a F1 engineered aero to keep the car planted. Tiptronic controls at the steering wheel and an increased turning circle to tackle the bends and curves of Pikes Peak all combined to not only allow us a class win, but to set a new class record. Quite the debut.”
Radford is also interested in helping their clients actually race their cars, should they so choose. If you’re interested in taking a replica of a Pikes Peak winner to Pikes Peak, for example, Radford can help you there. It lists the Goodwood Festival of Speed as another example.
“Under the skin of each Radford Motors Type 62-2 Track Edition is a highly tuned supercar that leans into our F1 partners and engineers as well as Colin Chapman’s ethos of simplifying everything and adding lightness,” comments Radford Motors Co-Founder Ant Anstead. “Our cars are some of the lightest supercars on the planet and offer an exhilarating driving experience that we believe has been lost in recent years. As increasingly complex features seem to be added more and more by many car manufacturers, Radford Motors works to actively remove them. ”
With 710 horsepower on tap from a 3.5-liter V6 engine, the Type 62-2 Track Edition is capable of a 2.2-second 0-60 time, helped largely by its low weight. Radford claims an incredible 2160 pounds for this car, ready to race, which is identical to its street-going siblings. Presumably the weight of things like the car’s interior and air conditioning system have been offset by the added weight of a roll structure, wider wheels, and the aero components. Ultimately, that’s an impressive power to weight ratio, as each horsepower only has to push around 3.04 pounds.
While I will always prefer the unfettered appearance of the standard Radford Type 62-2, this extremely wild racing car is still pretty stunning to look at. That “base” model car starts at $400,000-ish, so it’s a pretty big leap to a million dollar race car version. The kind of people who can afford a million dollar car, however, probably won’t bat an eye. Get a good look at this one, because you’ll probably never see the privately owned examples. Something tells me they’ll all be shuffled into a pristine heated garage with a white floor somewhere.
