1970 Royale RP4

Royale Racing Cars were established in 1967 by Bob King with the intention of creating racers for competition in Sports 2000, Formula Super Vee, Formula 3, and Formula Atlantic competition. Today, Royale is best known for its Formula Fords.

During its twenty-year history, Royale created over 800 cars with many of them providing podium finishes for their drivers and ultimately winning many championships. In 1975, Geoff Lees won all three UK Formula Ford titles and the Formula Ford Festival in his RP21.

In 1990, the company produced almost 90 examples of its Formula Ford RP24 racer.

There were 11 examples of the RP4 created, with most being built for the F100 Series and SCCA B-Sport category. Three were sent to Brazil. The following year, in 1971, there were four examples of the RP4A created, which was basically the RP4 with improvements based on years worth of racing. Just as all other Royale vehicles built to this point in history, the RP4 was designed by Bob Marston.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jul 2007

The English racing car company Royale built a reputation for building fast and competitive Formula Fords. Their first sports car design was the RP4, which wore a design by Bob Marston and used to compete in the Firestone-sponsored F100 championship in 1970. Like other vehicles competing in the series, the RP4 was a 2 seater sports racer that had a large open cockpit. With such a large opening in the center of the vehicle, the challenge was creating a design that was stiff and strong enough. Marton's solution was to build a light tubular spaceframe and wrap the center section with stressed aluminum panels to produce a semi-monocoque frame. This kept the center of the car from flexing. The tried-and-true suspension from the RP-3 formula Ford was used and the whole package was wrapped in fiberglass bodywork. Power was supplied from a 1300cc pushrod Ford 4-cylinder engine mated to a Hewland 4-speed gearbox. Over the years, the car was given an upgraded 1600cc unit and 5-speed gearboxes, with the final version being the RP-6, which had wider wheels and tires, a lower profile nose, and fender flares.

Ray Allen drove a Royale in 1970 in the F100 championship, winning nearly every race.

This particular example was owned and campaigned by Hugh Kleinpeter, former owner of Royale USA. Since 1999, the car has been in the care of Andy Greene Sports & Vintage Race Cars, LLC, which upgraded, sorted, and campaigned the car for several owners. It has 14 first-place finishes, and one championship to its credit in HSR.

Elliot Forbes Robinson drove the car in 2016 at the Mitty at Road Atlanta where it won in Group 3 competition.

By Daniel Vaughan | Mar 2017