TV host and car buff Ant Anstead made his dream a reality when he partnered with Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button and businessman Roger Behle to form Radford Motors. The move was one that the Master Mechanic host called a “huge risk,” but has since had one of the greatest rewards. “Lots of supercar companies produce an image or a render and then the car never gets built. So now, some years later, what started out as a real big dream, a really ambitious vision, drawing the business model — the idea was drawn on a whiteboard, and I look back at that whiteboard now going, ‘Oh my God, we did it. We did it. We actually built the supercar,'” Ant gushed in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife.com. “I’ve taken some huge risks over my life starting companies… and anybody who sets out with an entrepreneurial spirit to go and do something that they truly, truly believe in has to fully jump and commit to it.”
Ant marveled that Radford has gone on to be “accepted” within the supercar industry, developing the lightest supercar in the market that is the Radford Type 62-2, and their newly announced Pikes Peak race car. “Multiple outlets have talked about this car because it’s so marvelous and it inspires people,” he gushed. “Growing up, I put posters of Lamborghinis on the wall… there’s something that we are doing here in California that I know that there’s kids all over the world that have got it as screensavers on their phone, and that’s awesome.” The Radford Pikes Peak edition competed at the 2023 Pikes Peak race in Colorado at the end of June, alongside Ferrari, Porsche, Ford, KTM, Radical, and more supercar brands in the field.
“For a small brand that’s relatively new, that’s a really ambitious leap to take,” Ant admitted. “It’s a lot, but one of our interest is world-class. We built a world class car and we’re up against world-class brands. We have a world class driver and we’ve put ourselves in a really good position to go and do world class things!”
Ant has also ventured Radford into the optics sector in a recent collaboration with SALT. Optics. Radford Motors released a collection with the luxury eyewear brand, imagining the chic design of luxury cars translated into eyewear, taking cues from classic Italian driving frames and emphasizing strength and endurance. “Radford is a truly global brand, and one of the things that we set ourselves out to do was only partner with world-class brands, like SALT. Optics,” he explained. “And, just like us, SALT. Optics is obsessed with materials, obsessed with design, obsessed with engineering, obsessed with quality. So in terms of world-class partners, they fit.” The limited edition collection features two aviator styles, the RS-500 and RS-600, each coming in 4 different lens shades inspired by the iconic Radford Type 62-2 colorways.