This is the one-off 1998 Quaife R4-GTS road car, built to comply with homologation regulations for competing in the GT1 class. If you’ve never heard of Quaife, R.T. Quaife Engineering, Ltd. is a British manufacturer of automotive drivetrain products, and they also have been involved in different facets of motorsport activity for quite some time. The company was founded 59 years ago, in 1965 by a man named Rod Quaife, who initially started his career as a toolmaker and had an interest working with motorcycle driveline design and engineering. During the 70’s the company slowly began getting involved in the car industry, despite their success working with motorcycles, they believed they could implement their drivetrain expertise elsewhere at the time. In the end, that turned out to be a fantastic decision as @quaifeeng continues to supply OEM products for a number of high performance models to this day. Not only do they produce and supply parts for various vehicles, but this car shown here, the R4-GTS, is their very own take of a fully-built road-going homologation vehicle built alongside a racing counterpart. The car was built with a steel multi-tubular space frame chassis and a stylish aluminum body. Powering this monster is a Ford 6.0 L naturally-aspirated V8 that’s mated to a Quaife 6-speed sequential manual transmission. The race version was involved in 21 total events, with the very first being the Privilege Insurance British GT Championship which commenced at Silverstone on March 5, 1998. The car was driven by Michael Quaife and Paul Lee to achieve a 7th overall result, which would actually wind up being Quaife’s best ever racing result from 1998 until 1999 when the car was retired after only two seasons of racing. The mandatory road version seen here lives on to this day, side by side next to the racecar located at the @quaifeeng facilities located in Sevenoaks, England.
How many made? 1 road car, 1 race car
Engine: Ford aluminum 6.0L V8 - 600hp
Debut: Birmingham Motor Show in 1998
Top Speed: N/A
0-60: N/A
Photo Credit: @quaifeeng
Research: @rarecarsonly