RADFORD Bankrupt AND Being Sued?! | Jenson Button | Lotus Radford Type 62-2 Supercar News

[@MisterMonsieur]

Radford never made ONE car themselves. They were ALL built by Aria Group out of Irvine, CA. The Radford Type 62 is still on their website. They build cars for movies ("Tron: Legacy", "Transformers") and protypes for the aerospace industry. That's why the cost was so high, despite using a Lotus Evora chassis; most of the money paid for Aria Group to build them. Has anyone seen Radford's factory? No, because they're built by Aria. These guys are a design firm presenting themselves as a full-on automaker.

[@Cheesecake433]

They also make certain singer porsches

[@DR3ADER1]

Another lesson for the kids in the back of the Classroom: NEVER OUTSOURCE PRODUCTION! If you really, really have to outsource, make sure that you leave the most essential work and funding done in-house. ONLY outsource the least-essential, and easily redundable parts to people who can be trusted and have a history of reliability and consistency.

[@MisterMonsieur]

@@Cheesecake433 They did early on. Singer is completely in-house now.

[@PS-ps8mo]

Its not an Evora chassis used, but the smaller Exige one, that then had a rather basic spacer installed between the chassis and rear subframe in order to lengthen the wheelbase.

[@lordmegatron65]

I like these news videos! Thanks for sharing as always!

[@Driff97]

2025 breaking news: HSG Automotive forgoes his Gran Turismo 7 content in favor of covering automotive financial news.

[@HSGAutomotive]

HSCoin is just around the corner!

[@welles28]

Fun fact: being famous doesn't automatically make you a competent businessperson. Who knew?

[@JustBadly]

Gee shucks, couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch!

[@huyra8019]

This is why you cannot trust these small brands unless they let you see everything from the factory. the difference between this and a pagani or a zenvo is the openness of production. If you pay 100,000 fir a deposit you better let me watch my shit get made

[@HSGAutomotive]

Too right, even the classic garage which is doing the upcoming electrical work on my Roller project photographs and notes down every hour of work they do on the car, which also doubles as the invoice package. That's how it should be done

[@UKBUILT]

It's sad this didn't work out. I liked that car 👍

[@theofficialstig]

shame because that was probably the prettiest car on sale at the moment

[@HSGAutomotive]

The parent company have given the usual spiel about it coming back in some form, so hopefully someone picks it up

[@BLKBRDD]

What a shame, I feel really bad for the passionate people that designed and built these, Financial mismanagement has let them down

[@sheerluckholmes5468]

But was it financial mismanagement or was it managerial malfeasance.

[@ckryses3962]

Other than type 62 every Radford was looking like potato....I dunno if you guys agree on this or not...their deep dish four spoke on 62 makes them quite appealing...without those these Radford looking mediocre....

[@MrFlyingguy]

highly informative

[@andylaws4247]

TVR are currently a going concern and are supposed to be putting the new Griffith into production, although is years behind what was envisaged with plans for a new factory in Wales now abandoned.

[@eliotmansfield]

TVR is dead

[@HSGAutomotive]

I really want a return for Marcos, even made a vid about how I could see it working out, ironically a method which Caterham is basically doing with their new EV. Make a modern Mini Marcos on the Cooper EV platform as a city runabout sports model

[@andylaws4247]

​@@eliotmansfieldYou would think so after the Welsh factory collapse but they're still taking deposits for the new Griffith.

[@nickz4993]

I wonder if this will affect Radford Racing School in Arizona, since their name and logo is on there.

[@dalton-at-work]

just rebrand it, again. That school was Bob Bonderant's until he passed.

[@joelkangombe-w7o]

HSG Automotive, I was wondering if you had any information about the Audi sport quattro concept such as what model it could have been made for?

[@jonleger1157]

Sucks. On the surface at least, with the ties to Lotus, and backing from people like Jenson Button, along with the Pikes Peak running, and just the fact of how absolutely AMAZING this car looks, Radford seemed like one of the better positioned companies, that really could have made it into the industry and done well... Unfortunately, now, looks like this will be the end of the road for Radford, and the end of that fucking AWESOME John Player Special themed car making appearances at places like Pikes and Goodwood. Extremely unfortunate. This was one new Automotive Manufacturer i was really looking forward to watching grow into something big. Even more than the Gordon Murrey Automotive and the T50. I was WAY more excited about Radford... 😑

[@_Ben4810]

& therein lies the problem...They weren't a bona fide motor vehicle manufacturer, with no production facility, assembly line or engineering shop & a coachbuilder with seemingly no on-the-books, directly employed, time-served experienced coachbuilding staff or shop employees...

[@joshknutson16]

Damn I really wanted one of these

[@hammer-r]

Well at least it didn’t hurt the little guy, just the Uber rich. No worries here, I didn’t lose a penny. lol

[@dasfunkyzeit8848]

As soon as you mentioned the name Ant Anstead, I thought there would be a tale of woe. Never been a fan. Hasn't he had other bespoke car ventures go under? Last I saw of him, he was trotting out the same old stuff on Discovery.

[@HSGAutomotive]

I'd never heard of him before, but certainly seems to be no love lost from people here in the comments about him

[@JamesCairney]

​@@HSGAutomotivehe took over Ed China's roll on wheeler dealers years ago. That killed that show stone dead.

[@lukemallory7832]

I had a bad feeling about this one from the start - my woman's intuition I guess.

[@MossMini]

Ant was more interested in the California Lifestyle than building cars.

[@johnathanmoyer2375]

Damn, is there enough of a disconnect between Radford the car manufacturer and Radford the racing school? Their track and school are a pretty important institution to the motorsports scene in Arizona, so it would be a huge loss to the racing hobby to lose Radford in its entirety.

[@HSGAutomotive]

Given there’s a bigger company over them, I’d assume they’ll keep it separate, but we’ll see

[@_Ben4810]

I'm intrigued by the relationship with Lotus Cars/Classic Team Lotus of this entire project...Radford pulled off a real coup by getting the partnership with Lotus Cars, but presumably as the original Type 62 was a Team Lotus built car, did Radford have to get a licensing agreement from the current day Classic Team Lotus for the 62-2...??? I believe Lotus did build some of the bare running Exige chassis for Radford...But the Elise/Exige was rapidly ending production so I presume if Radford were unable to secure a full order book & pay for ALL the entire 62no. chassis, then Lotus were unable to complete a manufacturing run of these chassis before the Elise/Exige assembly line was finally closed down & the Hethel major reconfiguration & re-tooling works commenced for the then upcoming Emira...? I did read some interesting online comments, one of which was Lotus Cars were at one time offering to their dealer network a couple of ex-factory completed bare running Exige chassis for sale...these appear to have been non-delivered Radford spec chassis...🤔 The other online comment was that of someone who'd put a deposit down on a 62-2, & had purchased an Exige 390 Sport to be shipped from Europe to California in Q1 2023 to be the donor car for his 62-2...& hadn't heard anything on the progress of the build for 12 months...😲 Whilst unable to verify these comments, they do sound highly plausible in the current circumstances... & then there's the Goodwood interview earlier this year, where everyone's favourite TV master mechanic was quick to interject Jenson & state how Radford were now building the 62-2 ''without any parts from Lotus''...🤔It seemed an odd statement to make, was certainly a swipe at Lotus Cars & left me wondering ''When is a Lotus not a Lotus..???'' if there has been a falling-out between them...? The best way forward for this car is for Jenson & Roger Behle to take full control of Radford, go cap in hand to Geely Chairman Li Shufu & plead for Lotus to take this vehicle in-house, re-assess, re-engineer on an Emira-based chassis, productionise & manufacture it at Hethel as a more realistically priced Lotus Cars vehicle...

[@HSGAutomotive]

If their practices are less than stellar, would make sense with Lotus trying to distance themselves from them, especially with Lotus effectively rebranding themselves with SUV's etc

[@PS-ps8mo]

Glad I was not the only one to notice Anstead making that very bold and highly unbelievable claim at the time, especially if you had seen the bare chopped up Exige him and Button drove around a track, with bits of equipment simply zip tied here and there, they also claimed another project was in the pipeline that everyone would be amazed by, not heard a peep about that since. Blowing money going for exotic launches and shipping everything to Goodwood before a single car had even been delivered did sound alarm bells, plus the Pikes Peak malarky, it now appears that is what the customers deposits were actually spent on. Button is not the sharpest tool in the shed, probably talked into getting involved by Anstead, I imagine that bromance is now well and truly over.

[@_Ben4810]

@PS-ps8mo I'm sure the driving of the cable tie special bare Exige chassis for maximum TV effect was Bug Bedstead's idea, because he'd done exactly the same previously when building his MX-5/Lancia Tipo car...I would have thought Lotus Cars might have been pretty unhappy about this stunt tbh... I wonder if that other project in the pipeline may have been a Land Rover, if only for the Series 1 Land Rover strangely hiding in plain sight in the background of their fake workshop/unbelievable coachbuilding works during that interview...🤔

[@mikeypv6]

Sounds like the original VW Beetle story 😅

[@DR3ADER1]

At least the original Beetles couldn't be built because of the SECOND WORLD WAR preventing the Nazis from building them. Wartime often prevents car companies from making cars that are not meant for the armed forces.

[@Andrew-vx2ls]

This is rather surprising news (but I must say I have never understood what AA brought to this endeavour). Was no market research done? Why would professional dealers let go of such large down payments? (are n't Californian car dealers professional wise guys?) More realistically, perhaps the car market for frivolous items is looking very over-supplied?

[@HSGAutomotive]

The whole thing does seem very odd, and as I eluded to toward the end of the vid, strikes me more as the kind of shenanigans I'd expect from brands in the 70s or 80s

[@marioantoniazzi2265]

Just look at it! It’s hardly surprising it has failed. Looks like it was in the oven too long 😂 Had it been designed properly by an eminent design house, it would have stood a better chance. This will undoubtedly damage Button and Anstead reputations. And I could never see the tie up with Radford coach builders, that was not what they stood for.

[@_Ben4810]

Designer Mark Stubbs was definitely heading in the right direction, but the 62-2 really needed to have styling applied by one of the Lotus Cars old guard, someone who both really understood & has the Lotus design DNA in them, Peter Stevens, Julian Thomson or Steve Crijns would have made that car astonishingly beautiful for certain.

[@clintonherring]

Pretty, such a shame

[@BOABModels]

I always wonder - where did the money go? If you are taking deposits for hundreds of thousands and not making the cars, what has happened?

[@HSGAutomotive]

There's some...interesting stuff in some articles regarding a Daniel Bednarski, former 'life coach' of Ant Anstead who was also chief financial advisor for Radford, where there were occasions of apparently wiring cash just taken as desposit into a personal account 'within half an hour' of deposits being given. Feels like there's more going on here than just bad financial decisions, but we'll see what comes out in court...

[@rhodriedwardwilliams]

Always pay with your credit card 💳

[@DR3ADER1]

@@HSGAutomotive Bednarski was pocketing the funds. You don't need a personal bank account for depositing customer and investor money for a company you work at as a CFO. Ever.

[@ataxpayer723]

Answer, wages for the sales team.😊

[@P.E.O.ll-RhodesScholarGraduate]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍IBM/ Kitt Karr Auto-manufacturing Langley AFB, Hampton Roads VA. The Wraith / Turbo Interceptor

[@motosteggy3980]

Explains why Ant Antstead has done a runner back to the UK and is on Quest channel with some lame old show

[@_Ben4810]

Worth checking his IG post on the very day Radford went into administration...Mr All-For-The-Camera himself was pretending to be working on an incomplete 62-2 when he is handed a note which states how successful the first episode of this new TV show was in the UK... It was cheesy, lame, ego-stroking, Alan Partridge-esque & the sounds of electric power tools in the background & Radford's fake workshop with a gleaming floor & empty storage bins in the background merely added to the 'Bug Bedstead - Master Faux Sports Car Manufacturer' illusion that has seemingly duped many...

[@PSA78]

I had forgotten that he left Wheelers Dealers, it's Marc now instead if I'm not mistaken.

[@adamweston4152]

And he's on TV building a big house for his parents by doing up car's for a profit, what a piece of work he is.

[@Ottobon]

Wasnt Ben Collins helping develop this? Dang probably would of been good

[@DR3ADER1]

It was never going to happen, as it was a massive scam from the start. Turns out employing a shady "Life Coach" as your Chief Financial Officer is about as intelligent as hiring Gary Busey as a Game Designer, or Steven Seagal as a Director of Animation for an animation company.

[@mrrolandlawrence]

should not have mixed "passion project" with real business. Jenson should have known better. Sad but when you saw the build, there were alarm bells.

[@Pete68T]

You Never Know The Truth.

[@richhand930]

So you buy a $500k car from a TV presenter who's about to build it? Dang.

[@HSGAutomotive]

The power of personality in the case of these buyers I guess. They probably got off the call and immediately bought some Lunchly's and NFT's

[@mrmoss149]

This enterprise seemed doomed from the start; bad vibes all around....look at the footage from when Jenson was taking one around on a press tour- its evident on his face from then. Bad business move for both he & the other " spokes person".

[@stanmil5495]

Mozler i thought it was molser pronunced like mole-sler

[@nelsonclub7722]

You are correct

[@bugattieb110ss]

Oh boy, hearing Ant Anstead getting screwed just made my day. Can't stand the tw*t.

[@danb.3397]

OR it's like Nikola, a SCAM from the beginning.

[@a-fl-man640]

design doesn't do much for me, i've seen better, never saw the lotus version or heard of this.

[@_Ben4810]

The original version was a Team Lotus curiosity only...It looked spectacular, but during testing it was soon discovered the car was slow & could actually lap faster without all the aero bodywork on...!?! (There is a pic of then Team Lotus driver John Miles driving around Snetterton circuit minus all the body panels) & so proved during it's single season of factory team campaigning. It was also the loudest race car you'd ever heard, with Lotus' own LV240 race engine in it, incredible how a 4 pot engine could produce so much noise, it was absolutely deafening...! It probably had more success after Team Lotus sold both cars to privateers, jazzman Chris Barber ran one with legend Dave "Run Baby Run" Brody driving it, & Portuguese driver Ernesto Neves owned the other one for many years. So it was an interesting car to recreate, particularly with input from original designer Martin Ware also, but trying to turn a $200k Exige into a near $1 million "supercar" wasn't going to convince too many people...