f you only read headlines, you could believe UK Automotive Manufacturing Plc’s entire business (still healthy despite the predictions of doom) was conducted entirely by car makers and giant parts suppliers whose names are carried three metres high on factory walls.  That’s not quite true. Below the radar sits an extensive network of discreet technical consultancies the majors commonly use to solve their thorniest problems. They survive and thrive by maintaining a limpet-grip on leading-edge technology and delivering results with a need-for-speed usually honed in motorsport.  A prime example is Northants-based RML Group, an engineering and technology company with racing roots back to the 1950s and which expanded into top-level race car design and engineering in the 1980s. It has since further expanded its activities to become a leading authority in lightweighting, prototype construction and electrification, mostly for time-poor automotive giants but also for defence and aerospace clients. Sitting atop this compact empire in Wellingborough, Northants, is CEO Michael Mallock, grandson of Arthur Mallock, an architect of Britain’s post-war motorsport engineering heritage that spawned influential companies such as Colin Chapman’s Lotus and Eric Broadley’s Lola.  But while Chapman Co embraced commerce, Arthur Mallock kept making simple, affordable cars go amazingly fast. His Ford and Austin-based specials regularly beat far more expensive and complex designs; his finest hour was probably the creation of the U2 family of clubman race cars that applied basic physical principles so brilliantly that they remain highly successful in modern and classic racing even today.  It fell to Arthur’s sons, Richard and Ray, to develop businesses off Arthur’s inspiration. Richard’s stayed with Mallock’s racing cars and Ray’s expanded into RML Group – embracing big-time racing and engineering. It built and campaigned BTCC cars and Le Mans racers (Ray’s special love) before expanding to become a self-styled ‘high-performance engineering company’.  This transition corresponded closely with Michael Mallock’s elevation to CEO, following Ray’s staged retirement. “When I left school I came to RML on a formal apprenticeship,” he says, “working in all the departments: stores, electrics, design. As well as driving the van.”  RML was doing well with Ray at the top of his game, so there was time for Michael to chase the professional racing dream for a while, starting in single-seaters and moving to sports cars with some impressive results. He returned to RML full time after 2011, first taking a commercial role. He is disarmingly modest about his achievements compared with those of his father: “Ray’s very much an engineer, and a fantastic driver,” he says. “I’m not a bad driver, but not an engineer at all.”  This change of emphasis at the top has helped RML adapt itself to the modern market, says Michael. “When I came back, I studied the fortunes of our traditional competitors, people like Triple Eight, MSD, TWR and Prodrive. Some have gone now and the rest have changed. I pushed for us to start moving away from pure motorsport while keeping the race mentality and the cutting-edge technology. Today only about 10% of our business is directly connected to motorsport. We’re still in high-performance engineering, but the work isn’t mainstream. We don’t do Ford Fiesta door seals…”  Michael Mallock’s first big project was to manage development and production of the Nissan Juke R, an ultra-high-performance version of the quirky compact SUV. Although production numbers were small, it brought much attention to RML and its changing capabilities, and it is remembered fondly.  The biggest recent change, says Mallock, has been the rise of electrification. In just a few years, through clever hirings and rapid acquisition of know-how, RML has become a leader in low-volume electrification, to the extent that it now has a newly established HV (for ‘high voltage’) Centre about 10 minutes’ drive from the company’s traditional base.  Most early electric programmes can’t be discussed, but one that attracted huge publicity was Nissan’s ZEOD RC Le Mans car, an experimental petro-electric sports racer built for the famous 24-hour race’s ‘Garage 56’, traditionally reserved for a car that imaginatively employs new tech and doesn’t conform to an established class. With initials standing for ‘Zero Emissions On Demand’, the ZEOD RC used chassis technology developed from the rule-breaking but conventionally powered Nissan DeltaWing and was built to deliver the first-ever all-electric racing lap at la Sarthe. Powered by a tiny, lightweight 1.5-litre, 400bhp three-cylinder petrol engine plus two 110kW electric motors, the ZEOD RC did indeed complete its electric lap, achieving a top speed close to 190mph on the Mulsanne Straight – although it failed to finish the race.  Any tour of RML faces participants with a conundrum: most of what
Origin: Under wraps: Britain’s most secretive engineering firm