Friday, November 22, 2024

RML previews radical 911 upgrade and carbon-bodied V8 Vantage | Autocar

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RML Group, the British engineering outfit behind a number of successful global motorsport programmes and highly exclusive road cars, will mark its 40th anniversary with four unveilings.

RML was founded in 1984 as racing team Ray Mallock Ltd and has since run works motorsport efforts for the likes of Seat, Vauxhall, Aston Martin, Saleen and Chevrolet across multiple series.

It has also designed the engine for Nissan’s striking Deltawing Le Mans racer, engineered customer rally cars for Opel-Vauxhall and raced successfully in the UK’s short-lived Ascar stock car racing series. 

In recent years, RML has become known for highly exclusive road cars, including the Aston Martin Vulcan, the Nissan Juke-R and the Ferrari 250 GTO-inspired RML Short Wheelbase.

The company hasn’t yet confirmed debut dates for each of its four new projects, but it has previewed one in the form of a radical upgrade package for the Porsche 911, with influence from top-flight Le Mans Hypercars. 

Codenamed P39, the package has been developed by RML’s Engineering division to “work across the 911 range”, with the promise of enhanced engine and aerodynamic performance to “extend the car’s speed and handling capabilities well beyond standard” while maintaining full reliability”. 

It hasn’t detailed pricing or availability for the P39 package, but similarly conceived 911 upgrades from the likes of Brabus, Manthey and Techart tend to increase the list price by a significant percentage. 

The P39 will be the second of RML’s 40th anniversary celebrations. The first, codenamed P40, will be a track day car that “builds on all the company’s multi-championship winning experience” with Formula 1-inspired aero addenda and “new levels of speed and handling for track-day cars”. 

Meanwhile, the RML Bespoke division, which created the Short Wheelbase, is poised to reveal a thoroughly modernised and uprated version of the original Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

The restomod of the 1977 coupé will be sympathetic to the design of the original, RML said, but will wear a lightweight carbonfibre bodyshell and adopt “21st-century mechanicals to create one of the world’ finest and most capable grand tourers”. 

RML’s Power electronics division is also gearing up to detail its VarEVolt battery technology, which it says has already “proven itself at the Nürburgring” and is installed in a ‘current’ Goodwood hillclimb record holder, understood to be the McMurtry Spéirling fan car. 

Company CEO Michael Mallock said: “RML Group has achieved an enormous amount in the previous 40 years. We are still focused squarely on the future as these product launches show.

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