Bondurant’s Been Bought, Now to Be Called Radford Racing School

From Autoweek

• The Bondurant School got new owners two years ago, now it's called Radford Racing School.

• Radford was a coachbuilder in London founded in 1948.

• Now Jenson Button, Ant Anstead and two others are planning big things, both for coachbuilding and for the school.

Throwing 50 years of brand equity out the driver's side window, what had formerly been known as the Bondurant High Performance Driving School will henceforth be known as Radford Racing School. Not since the War of 1812 has such a treasured American institution been taken over by Brits. But this time they are behaving much better and actually repaving the track.

While you can debate the name change all you want, it’s not like we got to vote on it. The name comes from Harold Radford & Co Limited, a “bespoke” coachbuilder founded in London almost 75 years ago. One of Radford & Co.’s better known acts of coachbuilding was to turn Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Astons Martin into “shooting brakes,” or what we might call station wagons, in order to accommodate their owners’ automotive needs whilst spending time on their various country estates. Radford & Co. most famously produced custom Minis for all four of the Beatles, as well as Twiggy and even Peter Sellers.

Last week it was announced that Radford the coachbuilding entity had been acquired by four new partners, at least two of them Brits whom you may know: TV presenter Ant Anstead and Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button. The other two are designer Mark Stubbs (looks like a Brit) and lawyer Roger Behle, who seems American.

Now jump back two years to May, 2019 when the Bondurant School was purchased by new investors who undertook “…an extensive multimillion-dollar renovation and revamping of its curriculum,” which revamping includes the name change to Radford Racing School. Then came the famous names.

“I acquired the brand some time ago and it’s been a little baby of mine,” designer Stubbs told the British publication Top Gear. “Ant and I met, and we can’t reveal too much right now, but we basically had a collaborative project that we were working on that was in essence what Radford could be.

“That’s when we formed a collaboration for us to be Radford. And then Mr. Button came along and obviously he brings a lot to the table. Roger (Behle, the lawyer) has been there since the early days as well. He’s the glue that puts us all together and keeps us all sane.”

One part of the collaboration is to bring back Radford the coachbuilder, and there are plans afoot to start producing low-volume motor cars, though details on exactly what they’ll be are not yet clear. In a separate video interview Behle says the cars will be built in Southern California, where all four figureheads live. They'll also be tested at the racing school.