I might be getting old, but I really love the combination of black and gold on a car, and it will forever remind me of the livery used by the John Player Special formula one car back in the Seventies, the by now legendary black and gold colour scheme was recognisable on the bodywork of the Lotus Type 72D driven by Emerson Fittipaldi, achieving five victories and even the coveted championship victory in the 1972 Formula 1 season.
Lotus would keep using this beautiful black and gold livery on their Formula 1 car right up to the 1986 series, the Lotus 98T driven by legendary Ayrton Senna even boasted this legendary look, the John Player Special livery was the epitome of the most glamourous era of motor racing in the Seventies.
Mark Stubbs comments “The Radford Type 62-2 in John Player Special guise, is a very unique proposition. From a design perspective, the JPS car really stands out as being more extreme than its Classic and Gold Leaf siblings, with larger diffusers, air intakes and wheels. Sporting what is certainly the most iconic racing livery ever to grace a Formula 1 car, gives the car a real presence and sense of occasion. Only 12 of these very special cars will be made, making it a very rare car indeed.”
So while Radford has already limited the production of their Type 62-2 model to 62 units in total, they already announced of those 62 there would be 12 Gold Leaf cars, as presented during Monterey Car Week in August, so only 50 cars remain… and from those another 12 will be even more extreme JPS versions, so only 38 of their Classic version remain.
While the Gold Leaf cars are already very impressive, this new JPS takes the concept even further into the race track segment, being both lighter and faster, with a 600 bhp V6 engine boasting a 3.5-litre displacement and a supercharger, the new John Player Special will be unveiled to the public during the Goodwood Revival in mid-September.
The new John Player Special edition is also the most aggressive looking version of the Type 62-2 Radford is making, the front splitter is more pronounced, providing a race car stance while the side air intakes are larger to cool the more powerful 600 bhp combustion engine, at the rear, the diffuser received a more extreme design compared to the Classic and Gold Leaf cars, extending further out for increased aerodynamic downforce.
And let’s not forget about the bespoke paint on this Radford Type 62-2 JPS, first, they apply a custom gold paint, then they add a total of 10 layers, yes you are reading that correctly, ten layers of Candy Black to get that classic, original JPS color scheme, but in a much more contemporary look, for the show car to be unveiled at Goodwood, Radford even added a hand-painted gold pinstripe before the final clear coat was applied.
No pricing has been published yet, neither any photos on the interior of these Type 62-2 cars while production is scheduled to start within the next few months with the first customer cars ready for delivery in early 2022.
