British motorsport powerhouse the RML Group is open to working a Le Mans Hypercar challenge if a possibility arises to hitch the World Endurance Championship grid.
The Wellingborough-based firm is finest recognized for carrying Vauxhall’s and Nissan’s works groups to British Touring Automobile Championship glory throughout the halcyon Nineties Tremendous Touring period and claiming World Touring Automobile Championship crowns for Chevrolet within the twenty first century.
However RML, which this 12 months celebrates its fortieth anniversary, has its origins in sports-prototype endurance racing.
The primary RML challenge was the Ecurie Ecosse Group C2 squad that claimed groups’ title glory on the earth sportscar championship in 1986, earlier than the corporate ran the manufacturing unit Aston Martin operation in the primary Group C class in 1989 after which partnered Nissan North America’s 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours assault.
Whereas RML has not had a full race group because it bowed out of the WTCC when Yvan Muller received the 2013 title with the Chevrolet Cruze, its chief government Michael Mallock Jr mentioned when requested by Motorsport.com that that the desire is “100%” there to return in that kind.
“Hypercar is a incredible idea. The expansion of WEC and IMSA has been unbelievable, and it’s incredible to see so many producers,” he mentioned.
“It’s a bit irritating that we’re not there truly in quite a lot of methods, however we might like to be there as a group.”
In addition to a string of high-performance road-car and record-breaking initiatives, RML provides spec elements to the BTCC, and its superior work on battery know-how implies that it’s now working with undisclosed shoppers not solely in Le Mans Hypercar, but in addition in Formulation 1.
RML ran the Nissan Primeras that claimed 1999 BTCC title with Laurent Aiello
Picture by: Malcolm Griffiths / Motorsport Photos
The group has additionally revealed a particular version Hypercar-inspired P39 challenge, primarily based on the Porsche 992.1 Turbo S and restricted to only 10 examples.
“We’re in Hypercar in unknown methods as properly, with our battery know-how working with an OEM on their subsequent three generations up,” added Mallock Jr.
“The opposite space the place we’re utilizing our battery know-how functionality is within the large single-seater championship [F1]…”
RML is already lively in decrease echelons of endurance racing by its manufacturing of the Lotus Emira GT4 automobile, which follows its work on the Jaguar F-type, and the corporate can be eager to discover GT3 avenues.
“Endurance racing could be very a lot the core of Mallock and RML,” mentioned Mallock Jr. “If there was a possibility with a well-funded GT group and OEM, we might completely be there.
“We’ve received quite a lot of long-term workers – this 12 months we’ve had three twentieth anniversaries, which is kind of spectacular.
“Although the enterprise has developed vastly, there’s nonetheless quite a lot of the core motorsport love and focus all through the enterprise.
“We wouldn’t battle to get help from inside our enterprise if the appropriate motorsport alternative got here up.”
A particular function on RML’s 40 years in motorsport will function on this week’s version of the Autosport Engineering complement, out on 17 October. Click on right here to seek out out extra about Autosport journal.
