Summer 2024

C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 145 RBW. The initials stand for his children Rose, Becky andWesley. Rose and Becky are employed at RBW; teenage Wesley is an up-and-coming race driver.With sustainability a concept the fam- ily is passionate about, the decision was made to build an EV. “The roadster was the first and only choice we considered.” Why? “It’s known as ‘the poor man’s sports car,’” Swain says.“My first car was an MG Midget, and there’s been one in my garage ever since. Driving this car gives one a feeling of youth, of nostalgia. But it’s also good for the environment.” Upon its release in 1962, U.K. magazine Autocar pronounced it “perhaps the prettiest sports coupe ever to leave the BMC drawing boards.” It’s an instantly recog- nizable, timelessly classic shape. A Brand-New Classic Importantly, these iconic steel bodies are available brand new. Yes, brand new. Exactly as they were made by MG back in the day. Make no mistake: RBW EVs are not conversions of old model MGs.They are brand new, hand built from the rubber to the ragtop.“It’s a completely new old car. The roadster was the first choice because we can get the body shells in volume,” says RBW Marketing and Events Manager Becky Haines.The bodies are crafted by British Motor Heritage Limited in Witney, 88 miles south of Lichfield, using the original, decades old tooling (the firm also has the tooling for original Jaguar and original Mini bodies) then shipped to RBW where they are finished, painted and brought to the main plant for assembly. Poetically, not all the hundreds of parts that go into these electric marvels are new. A very few are from actual, scrapped MGBs, such as what was the original’s gear box support structure and some mechan- ical bits and bobs. Indeed, there’s a bit of DNA from the past in each one. Swain surrounded him- self with talented engi- neers and craftspeople who share his love of auto- mobiles, high quality work and sustainability. They came to RBW with experi- ence at some of the top-tier British auto com- panies such as Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Bentley, in addition to EV market leaders like Continental Engineering Services, where RBW’s Managing Director Ian Mills was previ- ously employed as chief engineer.“We are in the ‘triangle of automotive excellence,’” Mills says. His impressive CV includes developing the powertrain for an electric Smart car for Daimler while employed by Zytek Automotive. “Peter is The immaculate assembly line. The red roadster in the foreground is a high performance “track” version, used as a test bed for new features. When new technology is available, owners can upgrade, paying only for parts. Each of RBW’s cars is unique. The customer chooses from a wide range of details, making each a bespoke, one-of-a-kind work of handcrafted art. Photo: Rebecca Haines of RBW EV Cars