British motorsport powerhouse the RML Group is open to operating a Le Mans Hypercar project if an opportunity arises to join the World Endurance Championship grid.
The Wellingborough-based company is best known for carrying Vauxhall’s and Nissan’s works teams to British Touring Car Championship glory during the halcyon 1990s Super Touring era and claiming World Touring Car Championship crowns for Chevrolet in the 21st century.
But RML, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary – and whose current chief executive Michael Mallock and his father, company founder Ray, were recently interviewed by Autosport – has its origins in sports-prototype endurance racing.
The first RML project was the Ecurie Ecosse Group C2 squad that claimed teams’ title glory in the world sportscar championship in 1986, before the company ran the factory Aston Martin operation in the main Group C class in 1989 and then partnered Nissan North America’s 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours assault.
While RML has not had a full race team since it bowed out of the WTCC when Yvan Muller won the 2013 title with the Chevrolet Cruze, Mallock Jr said when asked by Autosport that that the will is “100%” there to return in that form.
“Hypercar is a fantastic concept. The growth of WEC and IMSA has been incredible, and it’s fantastic to see so many manufacturers.
“It’s a bit frustrating that we’re not there actually in a lot of ways, but we would love to be there as a team.”
As well as a string of high-performance road-car and record-breaking projects, RML supplies spec parts to the BTCC, and its advanced work on battery technology means that it is now working with undisclosed clients not only in Le Mans Hypercar, but also in Formula 1.
RML ran the Nissan Primeras that claimed 1999 BTCC title with Laurent Aiello
Photo by: Malcolm Griffiths / Motorsport Images
The group has also revealed a special edition Hypercar-inspired P39 project, based on the Porsche 992.1 Turbo S and limited to just 10 examples.
“We are in Hypercar in unknown ways as well, with our battery technology working with an OEM on their next three generations up,” added Mallock Jr.
“The other area where we’re using our battery know-how capability is in the big single-seater championship [F1]…”
RML is already active in lower echelons of endurance racing through its production of the Lotus Emira GT4 car, which follows its work on the Jaguar F-type, and the company is also keen to explore GT3 avenues.
“Endurance racing is very much the core of Mallock and RML,” said Mallock Jr. “If there was an opportunity with a well-funded GT team and OEM, we would absolutely be there.
“We’ve got a lot of long-term staff – this year we’ve had three 20th anniversaries, which is quite impressive.
“Even though the business has evolved hugely, there’s still a lot of the core motorsport love and focus throughout the business.
“We wouldn’t struggle to get support from within our business if the right motorsport opportunity came up.”
A special feature on RML’s 40 years in motorsport will feature in this week’s edition of the Autosport Engineering supplement, out on 17 October. Click here to find out more about Autosport magazine.
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