A new British company, called Revolution Racecars and based in Peterborough, has launched a radical new LMP style racer, designed for competition and serious track day use.

The Revolution is the brainchild of Phil Abbott, one of the co-founders of highly respected Radical Sportscars also based in Peterborough, and well known for their own international race series. Not long after he took up racing, Phil realised no-one made the kind of car he wanted to race. As a talented fabricator he had the expertise to do something about it and so Radical was born.

After leaving Radical in 2016 and following a stint at racing car manufacturer Ligier, Abbottt has created another two-seater track car, with the emphasis of providing customers with a high tech, well-made and reliable car but for a reasonable budget of less than £100K. Simon Cox, formerly head of design at Infiniti and GM and also with experience at Ligier, has been in charge of styling the Revolution A-One. Also in this experienced team is Pete Watts, former head of composites at BAR F1, Bentley Le Mans and a design engineer on the Bugatti Veyron.

Customer deliveries have begun and the first of their own race series is already planned for 2019.

Riversimple is a start-up company based in Llandrindod Wells, Powys and has dedicated the last few years to developing a small, lightweight, hydrogen powered electric car. They use hydrogen, not batteries and emit nothing but water and are able to refill in three minutes.

This highly innovative car is called Rasa, which comes from the Latin Tabula Rasa meaning 'Clean Slate'. The latest pre-production version is known as the Rasa Beta.

The team behind the Rasa, led by Guy Battle, Hugo Spowers, Fiona Clancy and Estelle Clark, come from all sorts of background including motor racing, yatch design, engineering and automotive design.

Once the car is in series production, customer 'ownership' will be a very different proposal from the norm. New customers will receive a car – their car – and all the maintenance, insurance and fuel to run it.  One payment to cover everything – at the equivalent monthly cost of running a normal, average car.

The new prototype car is the forerunner to a 12 month Beta test of 20 cars starting in late 2018. They plan to move into a production phase rapidly after the trial.

RML Group grew out of the motor racing endeavours of the Mallock family, starting in 1936 when Major Arthure Mallock fielded his first Austin 7-based special. His great impact on the sport came in 1958 when he introduced the legendary U2 series of club racers. They launched the careers of dozens of successful drivers and engineers.

Brothers Richard and Ray Mallock followed in their father’s footsteps in the 1970s, both winning championships driving cars bearing the Mallock name. Ray Mallock built a successful career behind the wheel, climbing the single-seater ladder on his way to becoming a professional driver with the Aston Martin Group C Sportscar Programme. He later led Ecurie Ecosse’s successful assault on the World Sportscar Championship’s C2 division.

Along the way, Ray set up his own motorsport business to take advantage of his combined engineering and driving skills. Initially, the venture supported the Aston Martin effort before evolving into RML.

Now, they are a world-leading high performance automotive engineering company working for global brands seeking first-class product and services solutions, usually against short deadlines. They operate in four main sectors: Automotive, Motorsport, Defence and New Energy.

They are led by Michael Mallock, Ray’s son, who took over as CEO in 2016 after joining the firm as an apprentice and working in all its areas. Following a break as a successful full-time racing driver, he returned as business development manager in 2010 then became CEO when Ray retired.

The company is in the process of building the first examples of their exciting, handbuilt RML Short Wheelbase heritage GT car, inspired by the legendary Ferrari 250 SWB. There is a planned limited production run of just 30 examples.

Roadrunner Racing is a name relatively new to the specialist car industry, and is backed by a passionate team of enthusiasts who offer a significant number of years experience in and around the automotive industry. Initially designing and building the SR1, a pure performance single seater track and road car and more recently the SR2, a two seater Lotus Seven influenced sports car. Roadrunner Racing was established when two engineers with a history in motor sport were introduced to a young designer from the automotive industry and together they produced the SR1.  After a small but successful production run, attention was redirected towards the SR2, a totally new two seater Lotus 7 based sports car and with new financial backing the SR2 has had an excellent reception  Roadrunner Racing has recently set on a number of new staff and moved to larger and more modern premises at Newport, near Hull and straight off the M62, where manufacture and retail of the SR2 and recently launched LM1 is taking place.

Since 1904 Rolls-Royce has created instantly recognisable motor cars that have made the marque an enduring icon all over the world. Inspired by some of the most evocative cars ever built, the company has the great privilege of taking this legacy into the future. In the words of their CEO Torsten Müller Ötvös: "Rolls-Royce has been a motoring icon for over 100 years". Rolls-Royce currently build the Phantom, Ghost, Cullinan, Wraith and Dawn models at their state-of-the-art factory near Chichester, West Sussex.