Specialist coachbuilder Radford has unveiled its Type 62-2 sportscar, which looks great, but it has decided to wrap a limited edition with the retro stylings of the John Player Special (JPS) spec. For those of you too young to remember, JPS was a fag brand that was all over sports in the 60s and 70s. The livery was on Lotus F1 cars until 1986, including the Lotus 98T driven by the legendary Ayrton Senna.
As Radford says, it epitomised the glamour era of motor racing in the 1970s, but it fell from public sight when we wised up and stopped advertising cigarettes in this way.
We know it sounds a bit pious, a bit po-faced and boring of us, but should we really be glorifying fags on a sports car?
This does not detract from the fact these beasts are going to be mighty impressive. A 600bhp from the 5-litre supercharged V6 engine; every one unique and bespoke, built to precise customer requirements; and just 12 of the limited build of 62 cars will be liveried with the JPS design.
The JPS car will make its first official public debut next week at Goodwood Revival and Radford is now taking build slot applications for this ultra-exclusive model.