The Transformers
Evo|September 2016

There are some cars that should never see the tarmac of a public highway, but someone forgot to tell a handful of Aston Martin Vulcan owners that. Step inside the workshop of RML, the firm that is making the track day monster street-legal.

Richard Meaden
The Transformers

It’s a fact of life that if you tell someone they can’t have something, that something is immediately what they want more than anything in the whole world. If you happen to be one of the 24 lucky souls who managed to secure one ofAstonMartin’s £1.8million and very definitely track-only Vulcans, that ‘something’ is the possibility to drive it on the road.

You’d think threading the 820bhp, slick-shod, down force-drenched monster into Eau Rouge, or howling round the floodlit fantasy world of AbuDhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit would be more than enough fun, but we should never underestimate the importance of being able to drive to the pub and impress your mates.

And so, by popular demand, and despite never being designed with road use in mind, the Vulcan is being made road legal by RML Group, based in Welling borough, North amptonshire. If you’re into your racing you’ll know RML is steeped in motor sport history, but there’s another side to the company: a lesser-known but no less impressive skill set for making apparently impossible one-off cars for a select band of brilliantly nuts customers. Perhaps the best known of these is the Juke-R–Nissan’s noble project to turn its plug-ugly crossover into a thug-tastic 200mph beast that concealed the drive train of a GT-R.

Two were built for Nissan as promotional vehicles, and that was supposed to be the end of it. At least until three people with £300,000 to blow wouldn’t take no for an answer, at which point Nissan bent some rules and allowed RML to build them.TheVulcanproject is a little different in that its starting point is one of the world’s most expensive and exciting hyper cars, but the goal is one and the same, namely making the impossible possible.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2016 من Evo.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2016 من Evo.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من EVO مشاهدة الكل
BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
Evo UK

BEST BUYS BMW M CARS

THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.

time-read
9 mins  |
November 2024
TYRE 2024 TEST
Evo UK

TYRE 2024 TEST

Want to fit the very best tyres to your performance car? The annual evo Tyre Test identifies the cream of the current crop

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2024
HONDA ACCORD TYPE R
Evo UK

HONDA ACCORD TYPE R

A liberal sprinkling of Honda Type R fairy dust on the late-'90s Accord produced an unlikely evo icon and a genuine performance bargain

time-read
10 mins  |
November 2024
TOY STORY
Evo UK

TOY STORY

Where best to store some of Toyota’s most prized and valuable racing superstars? Under the wind tunnel at its Cologne HO, of course...

time-read
9 mins  |
November 2024
POWER PLAY
Evo UK

POWER PLAY

It develops 819bhp. It has no turbochargers, no hybrid assistance. Ferrari describes it as the most complete GT it's ever made. And it’s so proud of its mighty V12 engine it’s named the whole car after it. This is the 12 Cilindri

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
THE FIRST SAMURAIS
Evo UK

THE FIRST SAMURAIS

Japan has been responsible for many of our favourite driver's cars of recent decades, but their ancestors are often much less well known. We take a look at where the big manufacturers began their performance car journeys

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2024
DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE
Evo UK

DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE

Three Japanese performance icons - Lexus LFA, Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan GT-R. Over three days on some of our favourite roads we explore what makes each uniquely thrilling, but also the car culture that unites them

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
1V3.0
Evo UK

1V3.0

F1, P1... and now W1. The next chapter in McLaren's Ultimate Series is the British firm's challenger to the forthcoming new Ferrari hypercar and a £2million, 1257bhp, hybrid-powered, technical tour de force

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
Thornley Kelham European RS
Evo UK

Thornley Kelham European RS

One man’s dream to build the perfect Porsche 911 has resulted inthis aaticMously restored and enhanced classic. We delve into the details and take it for a drive

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2024
Bentley Continental GT Speed
Evo UK

Bentley Continental GT Speed

The new Continental GT is the most powerful Bentley ever, and the beginning of anew plug-in hybrid era for Crewe. But is it still a benchmark grand tourer?

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2024