Congratulations to Raptor Sports Cars for winning Scotland’s Vehicle Manufacturing Awards.
Raptor Sports Cars is located on a Second World War Air Force Base which was part of RAF East Fortune, a former Royal Air Force Station. Situated right next door to the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian makes it an especially attractive place to visit.
Like many car companies Raptor Sports Cars was born through the vision, drive and determination of its owner – Andy Entwistle. He runs the business along with his wife Kirstin Entwistle making this very much a family run business. Andy wanted to develop a sports car with a very strong but lightweight chassis using cutting edge technology from the motorsport industry, such as F1 style pushrod suspension. Andy and his team speak passionately about what they do and are very proud to bring car manufacturing back to Scotland
Andy has been building race car engines since 2002, however it was in 2012 when he was asked to supply and fit one of his engines into a kit car. This started a trend and before long it was clear that there was a desire both from Andy and his customers to build the entire car powered by his bespoke race engines. The first Raptor Sports Car rolled off the production line and was delivered to the customer in 2015
The Raptor Sports Car community is growing with owners all around the country and now they are members of the I7N have the opportunity to share experiences with other seven owners.
“ we never stand still a new model is under development and will be an in-house tuned V8 grand tourer” says Andy.
BRIEF HISTORY
2021. Raptor Sports Cars wins "Vehicle Manufacturing Specialists of the Year 2021/22" and move into larger premises to accommodate the growing demand. The SB5 model (Self Build MX5 based Raptor) as an affordable option is introduced.
2020. The addition of the RR350 (350bhp 1.6 Eco boost ), and
CS380 (380bhp 1.6 Eco Boost) to the production range available.
Raptor Sports Cars becomes a fitting centre for Tracker Devices.
2019. Completion of a new Raptor Chassis sold for motorsport applications only (not road legal) to be known as CS (Club Sport ) and named UHP-3. Production starts on the new V8 Grand Tourer.
2018. The design and manufacture of chassis in-house with a total redesign of the Raptor RR chassis now named UHP-2 (ultra high performance Rev 2).
2017. Development of the Raptor RR235 producing over 400bhp/ton using the new ultra lightweight Ford ST180 Eco boost engine with in-house tuning.
2016. Creation of Ultra High Performance (Rev 1) Raptor chassis to be used in all Raptor cars over 400bhp/ton.
2015. The very first Raptor rolls off the production line. Doncaster based racing driver wins British Army Rally Championship powered by one of Andy’s bespoke engines.
2013. Russ Simpson wins his first British Rally Cross Championship powered by one of Andy’s bespoke engines.
2012. Russ Simpson is runner up in the British Rally Cross Championship powered by one of Andy’s bespoke engines.
2010. The first attempt at tuning Ford's 2.0 16v Zetec unit gaining over 70bhp which is a 50% increase over standard power figures.
2001- 2010. Andy and the team honed their skills gas flowing cylinder heads and building high performance engine for all makes of cars.
