Riley Technologies discuss the race winning track day car
Le Mans 2009 "This is their weekend at the golf course, or the country club" smiles Ron McMahon (Job Title) at Riley Technologies. But the weekend McMahon speak of features rather a lot more horsepower, Riley is the latest racecar constructor to enter the lucrative trackday market. Its new Mk XXII is aimed squarely at the wealthy weekend warrior.
"Bill became aware of the size of the market" continues McMahon. "So we did some market research looking at the tracks and the people who use them. From talking to people who run Ferraris and Porches we found that they could not run them as hard as that they would like to, because if they have an accident then getting them repaired is a really difficult situation."
Riley decided that a car with similar performance was the way to go "it would be good if they could buy a purpose built racecar with high horsepower and good handling, one you can go out and run hard, that would not cost half the cost of a new car to repair. Bob did some sketches and the reaction was pretty good" adds McMahon.
"The biggest challenge on this car for us was making it affordable. We are used to building cars that are $400,000 or $500,00 and this one cost under $200,000 - it means each piece must be value engineered and the cost of the car is determined by the design once you have a design its very hard to get cost out of it."
Riley Trackday carRiley Trackday car Whilst the look of the car is something akin to a Daytona Prototype but is made of fibre glass. Bodywork experts Five Star do the fabrication. "Whilst keeping the cost down was paramount, aero design was a consideration because in future this may become a competitive car" explains McMahon. "It looks cool and making it look good was more important than making it 100% aero efficient for example its got an off the shelf rear wing. For us drivability, reparability, and affordability are all key factors those are the really important things."
Whilst the car is suitable for a number of racing classes such as ASR and NASA Super Unlimited the staff at Riley Technologies envisage something a little different "maybe a spec series for them, the Riley Series, going to the really cool tracks making a nice three-day event. But that's for the future" concludes McMahon.
