RML Short Wheelbase 2022 UK review

 Some cars are so esoteric that it’s hard to know where to start, so I’ll just spit it out. The RML Short Wheelbase (SWB) is a V12-engined berlinetta heavily redolent of the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB and built on the bones of a Ferrari 550 Maranello, mostly using composites. The result costs £1.6million.

So it’s not really a restomod, like the Alfaholics GTA-R, because no 250-series Ferrari is involved. But neither is the carbonfibre bauble before you an entirely clean-sheet affair, like the Porsche 964-flavoured Ruf SCR. RML’s work instead blends 1990s hardware (the driveline and suspension layout) with cutting-edge manufacturing techniques (the Wellingborough-based company’s raison d’être) to capture, in the words of CEO Michael Mallock, the “look, sound and tactility of an epic GT car from the golden age of motoring”.

You might never have heard of RML, but I’ll wager that you know the name of its founder (Michael’s father, former racing driver Ray) and some of its back catalogue, although much of that can’t be publicised.

RML once re-engineered an Aston Martin Vulcan in order to make it road-legal, which is a bit like readying a Tornado for commercial duties out of Stansted, but it did it.

It also developed the fully bespoke engine for the far-fetched Deltawing that Nissan took to Le Mans and has a history of running works teams in top sports car and touring car series going back to the days of Group C.

It has contracts with the Ministry of Defence relating to the upgrading and reliability of our armed forces’ vehicles, too, yet not so long ago a Chinese company ordered an EV that could storm the Nürburgring in less than seven minutes and it obliged.

In 2010, an application to enter Formula 1 was even considered, and it’s currently developing the all-new GT4 Emira racer for Lotus.

The point is that RML isn’t merely qualified to try making something like the SWB but probably better so than many major manufacturers.