The Riley & Scott Mk III #001 today. Despite no longer sporting the 1995 colors, this car is significant for having officially opened the Mk III lineage. Photo Courtesy of West Coast Exotic Cars
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Riley & Scott MK III: All Roads Lead to Daytona

The Riley & Scott Mk III is one of the most iconic machines of the generation that dominated motorsports in the 1990s, with its robust design synonymous with competitiveness and performance. Even though the glory days of this legendary vehicle are long gone, we take advantage of the 30th anniversary of its debut to relive the early story of the Mk III, a car that, perhaps like no other, represents the epitome of American motorsports.

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RILEY & SCOTT INC.: PASSIONATE ABOUT SPEED

The history of Riley & Scott begins in the ashes of Protofab Engineering, one of the most interesting names in American motorsports in the late 1980s. Founded in 1983 by a select group of engineers and designers, including Bob and Bill Riley, Gary Pratt, Charlie Selix and Pancho Weaver, Protofab quickly established itself in the Trans-Am racing market as one of the category’s top tuners.

The company’s first official client would be Ford (1983-1985), which commissioned Protofab to create special versions of the Mercury Capri for the category. The success of the partnership caught the attention of Chevrolet, which, in 1986, enlisted Protofab’s services to develop its own Trans-Am project, based on the Corvette C4 platform.

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Lorenzo Baer
Passionate about motorsport from the 60s and 70s, Lorenzo has a special affection for the sub-Formula 1 categories, such as F2, F3 and F. Junior, which are, at the same time, the 'ugly ducklings' of these decades, but are also the categories that better represent the essence of motorsport during this period. He holds a deep appreciation for drivers like Clark or Rindt, who dominated the premier category of motorsport, returning sporadically to their origins in F2, to compete and, simultaneously, teach new generations of what single-seater racing was all about. Lorenzo believes this was a time of innocence in motorsport, without a doubt, where the most important thing was to race.
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