Radford Motors is certainly an interesting idea—reviving a colorful British coachbuilder for a line of customized, Lotus-based sportscars. It's got some big names attached, a nice departure from the usual obscure founders and opaque financial backers. For one, Ant Anstead is involved, the Wheelers Dealers mechanic through the most recent season, and also host of Master Mechanic, both available on the MotorTrend App. And Jenson Button's on board to assist with the driving bit. He's, uh, well-qualified. And the fact that Lotus has agreed to lend the outfit a vehicle to build its creation on makes this seem like more than your average flash-in-the-pan startup.

Radford's first vehicle will be "based on Lotus technology" and then modified by Radford into a new "bespoke limited-edition" vehicle. Here's where Radford's history may prove illustrative, as it's not a new name. Radford was a coachbuilder in the U.K., famous for specials based on Bentleys and Aston Martins, as well as decking out Minis will all manner of luxury features. They were quite expensive, too. Radford was clearly a customizer and coachbuilder, not a sports car manufacturer.

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