Whatever else is going on within motorsport at the moment, historic motorsport looks in fine health. This is reflected in packed historic racing and rallying entries, demonstrating the widespread desire to compete in historic cars as well as the increasing opportunities to do so. There also has been a dramatic rise in the cars’ values, especially for vehicles that have had high-profile success.
Prodrive, the world’s most successful independent motorsport constructor, has obviously noticed this, via growing demand for its historic competition machines as well as “a significant rise” in requests from their owners to verify their cars’ providence and then to restore them to compete again. In response to this Prodrive has launched a new operation called Prodrive Legends. This will not only restore and support these Prodrive cars, built since its formation in 1984, but also provide authentication vital for the car’s value.
There are plenty of applicable cars out there, as Prodrive over time has built more than more than 1100 race and rally machines. These include more than 700 Subaru rally cars, including nearly 100 Impreza and Legacy Group As and 160 Impreza World Rally Cars. It also in the 1980s built nearly 40 BMW E30 M3s and more recently built nearly 50 Aston Martin racing cars based on the DB9 and a further 180 on the previous-generation Vantage.
Completing the circle, Prodrive cars have also had no shortage of championship success. They have taken World Rally titles for Subaru with Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, as well as world sportscar and Le Mans titles with Aston Martin and Ferrari, and British Touring Car Championships with BMW and Ford.
And Prodrive Legends’ unique selling point is that, as its head of motorsport operations Paul Howarth explains, “quite simply, there is nobody in a better position to rebuild a Prodrive car—we literally know them inside out and many of the people we have on the Prodrive Legends team built the cars originally.
“Many of these cars are now appreciating classics with immense value to their passionate owners. With the formation of Prodrive Legends, owners can now bring the cars home to the same company—and even many of the same people—who originally designed and built them and took them to multiple wins. What’s more, we have all the original build data and also hold the rights to reproduce key parts of the cars, while sourcing genuine components that are notoriously hard to find doesn’t pose an issue thanks to the network of contacts we have established since the early 1980s.”
The program includes a ‘fixed price’ authentication service; factory-specification engine rebuilds and whole-vehicle work from servicing and race preparation to ground-up restorations to the original specification. All work is carried out in-house in Prodrive’s Banbury engineering facility.
“The level of our work pays dividends for customers who wish to compete with their car and those that lean more towards seeing it as an investment,” Howarth continues. “Any car that leaves us will be turnkey and ready to run competitively.
“For those that wish to optimize the value of their car, as well as its performance, having Prodrive Legends authenticate and rebuild it ensures that it meets market expectations. The difference between two cars that are similar in all respects other than provenance can run into tens of thousands of pounds or, if there is evidence of significant competition success, even six figures.”
Images courtesy of Prodrive
