Bursting onto the scene in 2024, the UK’s DRVN Automotive Group promises many wonderful things. DRVN’s restomodded take on the Ferrari 355, the Evoluto, aims to bring the iconic 90s supercar bang up to date, while the group’s Boreham Motor Works division is partnering with Ford to bring back and reinvigorate a series of the Blue Oval’s greatest hits.
Based in Coventry, one of the UK car industry’s many hubs (and historic home of… most of the UK’s cars), DRVN’s offices look, from the outside, like any other block on an industrial estate. When you peek inside, though, things get very, very serious.
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
DRVN Automotive isn’t one company but a collection of businesses that can create a car from start to finish without really having to bother anyone on the outside. Its goal isn’t to create an EV for the masses, but rather to bring an analog experience back to the fore.
DRVN endeavors to become the world’s automotive brand delivering a peak analog experience…
“What we mean when we say that—we don’t put a 0-60 time or a VMAX on the product definition scope for the vehicles,” says DRVN Automotive Group CEO Iain Muir. “That’s now what the cars are about, but hopefully every car we deliver will put a big smile on your face as you’re driving.”
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
A look at the very top end of the market shows that while hybrid hypercars are popular, a group of buyers want an idealized version of the cars they lusted after when they were kids. TWR’s Supercat, the Totem Alfa GT Super, literally anything Singer produces… and now DRVN’s fleet is there to serve them.
Much has been written about the Evoluto F355 already. Potential takers need to sling a donor car and a wad of cash to DRVN, and after fettling has been done, they’ll get an as-new, tweaked car back in return. The new car takes the Ferrari that many love, and replaces its body with freshly designed carbon fiber panels better suited for aerodynamics, stability, and engine cooling.
The F355’s famous V-8 has been given a going over and a bump to 414 horsepower. There are suspension tweaks, and the interior is no longer a feast of ’90s plastics. It’s a grown-up affair. In creating the car, the team found there were either parts that were too expensive to buy, weren’t quite as good as they would like, or that simply didn’t exist anymore. Rather than giving up, they found a way to design, engineer, and produce their own version of these parts to put on the car, and potentially stock 355s, should customers want them.
Photo by: Evoluto Automobili
Ferrari 355 by Evoluto Automobili
As an opening salvo, restomodding one of the most loved Ferraris of all time was a big one, but DRVN wasn’t done. Its Boreham Motorworks arm teamed up with Ford to produce ‘continuomods.’
Their Escort Mk 1 RS has already been revealed, and it’s… not a cheap car. At all. But Boreham promises that every one of your $375,000 is going to a good place, and that seems to have gone down well.
“I remember when the embargo [on the Escort] lifted. I think it was 1:00 PM on the 12th [of December 2024], and we were really humbled by the response we got from the general public,” says Muir.
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
Ford Escort RS by Boreham Motorworks
‘I remember when the embargo [on the Escort] lifted. I think it was 1:00 PM on the 12th [of December 2024], and we were really humbled by the response we got from the general public.’
But people on the internet are one thing. What about customers?
“For the 150 cars that we had available we had more applications in the first 45 minutes than we have build slots available. Looking at them coming through, it’s literally from all over the globe. We had applications in from Trinidad and Tobago through to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and America.”
Nostalgia is good for business.
The Boreham cars are, for all intents and purposes, actual Fords. Built with the blessing of the company, they’ll only ever appear in limited numbers. DRVN has a plan for them, too. There’ll be different ‘series’ to choose from, a bit like McLarens. The Collector Series cars will be road-legal, period-sympathetic cars, built new with updated styling, modern engineering under the skin, Ford chassis numbers, and, of course, a manual gearbox. They’ll be a sort of final boss of Sunday cars.
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
A step further up the Boreham rung is the track only Race Series. Without having to think about emissions regulations or any real-world consequences, they’ll be let off the leash and designed to make you feel like a hero on a circuit.
Finally, there’s the Ultimate Series cars. Blueprint accurate, built new but to look like the original cars they’re based on, some will be made for the road, some for the track, they’ll come with an FIA passport for historic racing, and will get Ford-certified chassis numbers. They’ll be ‘peak Boreham,’ and will likely come with a price tag to match.
As they’ll be built in limited numbers and sold to like-minded folks, there’ll be a social element to Boreham Motorworks. The firm is planning a Boreham High Performance Club, which’ll connect current owners, VIPs, and such at events all over the world. That’s the plan anyway.
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
That all sounds very smart, but what’s actually clever about DRVN is how it works. Pretty much everything it needs is on site or part of a network of connected businesses in the UK. It’s broadly self-sufficient. And its Coventry location puts DRVN’s relatively small team in close proximity to each other, so if someone needs something, they can just get up and ask. No scheduling meetings, sending hopeful emails, or relying on ‘smart’ modern technology to get things done.
DRVN has an in-house design team to make its projects a reality. Headed up by Aston Martin and Jaguar alum (and legit Rock God) Wayne Burgess, their job is to make your poster cars just that little bit more livable, but also feel just right:
‘The wonderful thing about a Mk I Escort is it’s the purest, simplest, most honest piece of design you can imagine, so we’ve been quite sensitive—we’ve been reverential of it.’
Gentle updates may well be needed to bring the cars up to date, but Burgess and his team aren’t using that as an excuse to go overboard. The Escort, for example, sits on 15-inch wheels here, tiny compared to today’s standards, but two inches bigger than the car would have had in period. The Boreham cars will be full of gentle nods and subtle upgrades that will feel just right.
For now, the Escort Mk 1 RS is the only car any firm information can be given on. But a virtual mock up of Boreham Motorworks’ next car, the rally special RS200, exists and looks to be in fine shape. Considering the original RS200 was basically an engine strapped to a tiny chassis and some switchgear swiped from a parts bin, you can rest assured that the newer car won’t be quite as pared back.
Burgess and team aren’t just designing the future of Ford’s past, but also working with customers on their car’s spec.
“Some customers start to spec the car in their mind before even coming to us,” says Burgess, “A lot of them will come with ideas of what they’re looking for, because of the race and rally heritage of the Mk I Escort a lot of people will have a favourite driver, or a favorite car.”
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
With ideas come opportunities to make dreams come true, and for DRVN that’s the business:
“Any requests we get from a client… we’ll look at, and deliver them if we can,” adds Burgess.
DRVN didn’t just appear from nowhere with a selection of cars in 2024, it’s been going for a few years with the intention to keep going far, far into the future. It appears to run much like an OEM, albeit on a small scale.
Photo by: Boreham Motorworks
The processes and standards are akin to what you’d find in top-tier manufacturers, and while, yes, you know someone is counting the beans, you know that everyone there is doing so for the love of the product. What’s the plan then?
Muir explains: “When we reach peak production, which will be 2028, we’ll be doing 400 vehicles a year. Tiny by comparison to mainstream OEMs, but significant numbers in comparison to the restomod sector.”
There’s fun cooking in Coventry, and it looks like plenty of people want in on it.
