For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term ‘restomod’, it refers to an older car that has not only been restored but also updated to reflect more contemporary technology and, maybe, styling.
My first encounter with a restomod was when a friend brought into the UK a Beacham MK2 Jaguar many years ago. Beacham was, and still is, a New Zealand-based restoration company that may well have been the first business to actually set out to create a specific restomod of a particular model. In this case, the base car was the 1960s Jaguar MK2 saloon that was the preferred choice of any aspiring criminal in London (or so it seemed!) back in the day.
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Beacham would, if instructed, uprate the ageing mechanical components with newer Jaguar equivalents. Hence the term restomod accurately reflected both the restoration of a given car as well as use of more modern running gear thereby making the donor vehicle into a much better driving car in most peoples eyes.
In recent years, one of the best known restomoders has been Singer, based in California, who have developed a reputation for producing the ultimate reincarnation of 1970s and ’80s Porsche 911s.
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The success of Singer, and others, has led to a proliferation of restomod offerings by a range of companies on a very diverse selection of older cars, typically ’70s to ’90s models that were very appealing back in the day, but would maybe benefit from upgrades.
However, some don’t work as well as others, and some restomods simply can’t justify the prices being asked for them by very optimistic people. And sometimes there’s a failure to realise that one person’s obsession with a particular model might not be shared widely enough to make a restomod version commercially viable.
Four retromod highlights for me are;
Vicarage Jaguar MK2
Like Beecham, Vicarage has been around for decades and was one of the very early restomoders. Based in the UK, they’ve always concentrated on Jags, and they do make a two door convertible version of the ubiquitous MK2.
But that’s an abomination in my eyes. An early 1960s 3.8 four-door saloon with the original, legendary, straight six engine would be my base car, then uprated with a cooling system that actually works in more than 20 degrees celsius ambient, rack-and-pinion power steering, decent suspension, proper air-con plus the subtle Coombs-style rear wheel arch mods and bonnet louvres.
A superb looking car in my eyes, but it’s probably a touch irrelevant to the younger crowd who don’t remember the cops ‘n’ robbers TV shows of the ’60s and ’70s.
Cyan Racing Volvo P1800
Cyan Racing is actually the Swedish company that was behind the Volvo V8 Supercar engine that raced here with GRM a decade ago. In those days the company was called Polestar, but that name morphed into the pure electric brand of Volvo – hence the performance/racing business was renamed Cyan. They’ve continued to race, under the Lynk & Co (Geely owned) brand, but they’ve also branched out and created a sheer masterpiece, IMHO, with their restomod version of the classic Volvo P1800.
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Rather like the Aston Martin DB5 came to prominence in the Bond film Goldfinger, so the P1800 sprung into the public psyche through the 1960s TV series The Saint, starring future James Bond, Roger Moore. And now Cyan has taken what was always a superb looking car, but extremely ordinary to drive, and transformed it into one of the best restomods in the business. The external looks are only mildly tweaked, but the running gear is all new with up to 420hp available from the four-cylinder engine. Prodigious use of carbon fibre keeps the weight under a ton giving a power-to-weight ratio to equal that of 992-gen Porsche 911 Turbo S. All that is rowed along with a little help from Australia in the form of a Holinger gearbox. This car is a work of art.
Alfaholics GTA-R
Take a 105 Series GTV Alfa Romeo and let UK-based Alfaholics transform it into another masterpiece. For many, the GTV of the ’60s and ’70s was the all time best looking Alfa. Of course, being an Alfa meant that it did carry a full range of features that some may, accurately, describe as faults. Not least of these was a propensity to rust away. The best way to save a GTV then must be to have it updated with the 2.0-litre engine taken out to 2300cc (giving 240 horses), and fit the complete Alfaholics running gear package. Add a beautiful bespoke interior, plus air conditioning, and you’ve got the ultimate, very useable Alfa Romeo restomod.
MST Cars Ford Escort
I love MK1 and MK2 Ford Escorts. The various hot versions of both models, the Mexico, the RS1600 and the RS2000 were all attainable supercars of the time. Moreover, they were all incredibly easy to work on and modify.
These days, the monied enthusiast doesn’t need to mess around with a restomod version of the Escort. There are so many brand new parts available that you can build a new one from scratch. And that’s what Welsh based MST Cars do. Yup, they’ll build you the ultimate MK1 from the ground up that looks like it’s on steroids. With wide arches, a 2.8-litre four-cylinder 360hp Millington engine, sequential box and full tarmac rally spec contemporary running gear, this is the stuff of dreams.
The closest I’ve got to making something in the restomod style was back in 2014 when, at Triple Eight Race Engineering, we built the re-imagined Holden Sandman. That was actually a track car only because it’s base was a V8 Supercar Commodore. It was a fun project and we worked very closely with the design team at Holden, particularly a young bloke by the name of Tom Grech (and if the name strikes a chord, it should. He’s the son of ex HRT team manager, Jeff) who is now cracking through the ranks within GM Design in the USA.
What made the Sandman special was the use of Holden parts such as the Ute b-pillar and quarter windows plus the wagon tailgate. All the paneling was in steel and shaped with an English Wheel. These days the car is in the safe hands of the Grove family but hopefully it’ll come out of the shed sometimes. How about the Adelaide Motorsport Festival next year guys?
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