On this day exactly a month ago, rebirthed Lotus coachbuilder firm Radford unveiled its first new car in decades; the 62-2. Now, it’s shown off as the flagship variant for the diminutive British sportster, named the John Player Special edition.
Much like the first Radford 62-2 variant shown off in August, the mid-tier ‘Gold Leaf’ edition, the JPS Edition draws on Lotus’ iconic Formula 1 heritage in its livery. It’s decorated in the familiar black and gold that Lotus’ factory F1 squad used in the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s a stunning look, with each gold pinstripe adhering to the 62-2’s minimalist bodywork. The famed JPS logo features in both its full text format along the doors, and in its layered-style logo on the sides of the engine cover. Curiously the font used for the logos appears to differ to the original font, perhaps for legal reasons.
The number ‘12’ on the side is not only a reference to the number used by Nigel Mansell when he drove for Team Lotus in F1, but it’s also representative of how many of these Radford plans to build.
As previously reported, the JPS edition is more than just a pretty coat of paint, however. The flagship model also gets a set of AP Monobloc brake calipers paired to 360mm carbon-ceramic rotors (each of which is naturally also black and gold). Each of these in turn is paired to a lightweight carbon-composite wheel sourced from Dymag.
Finally, the other change apparent on the JPS edition is its bodywork. While it looks pretty much unchanged on first look, eagle-eyed fans will notice a more pronounced splitter, and larger, more rearward side intakes.
Under the bonnet is the same supercharged 3.6-litre V6 as what features in the Gold Leaf edition [pictured below]. It produces 447kW of power, and comes paired to a seven-speed dual clutch.
“The John Player Special Type 62-2 is the most extreme Type 62-2 that money can buy,” says Radford co-owner and former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button.
“It is low, sleek, and powerful and sports one of the most iconic racing liveries ever created — one of the liveries that the heroes of Formula 1 such as Emerson Fittipaldi and Ayrton Senna used to race with, in the cars that made me want to be a driver.”
“The JPS Type 62-2 is even more dynamically focused and extremely capable on both road and track – it’s very light, very fast and nimble – a proper assault on the senses that will hold its own among even the most accomplished track cars,” Button added.
“Naturally, it is also embellished with all of the high-end touches of a bespoke coachbuilder such as Radford.”
