A company that built its entire identity on electrifying classic Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles just announced it’s rebuilding combustion engines instead. That’s not a pivot — that’s a statement about where the whole restomod industry is quietly heading in 2026.
I’ve been watching the EV restomod space closely for a few years now, and I’ll be honest: I didn’t see this one coming. Halcyon Cars launched in 2023 with a clear mission — strip classic British luxury cars to bare metal, drop in an 800-volt electric powertrain, and remaster them for the modern era. The results were genuinely stunning. But now, with the announcement of the Great Eight Series, they’re doing something that feels almost rebellious: reviving the iconic 6.75-liter V8.
Why an EV company chasing combustion engines makes perfect sense
Here’s the real story. Halcyon doesn’t describe itself as a restomod shop or a re-imagination studio. They use the word “remaster” — and that distinction matters more than it sounds. Remastering means preserving the soul of the original while elevating every mechanical and aesthetic element to a standard that didn’t exist when the car was built.
With the Great Eight Series, the company’s co-founder and COO Charlie Metcalfe put it plainly: the goal was applying “the right engineering discipline to refine and elevate it for modern use, improving response, smoothness and overall composure while preserving the very essence that makes it so special.” That’s not a compromise between old and new. That’s the whole point of restomodding done right, and it applies just as well to a rebuilt V8 as it does to an 800-volt battery stack.
The Rose and Scroll Corniche is the car that proves the concept
The first vehicle wearing the Great Eight Series badge is a remastered Rolls-Royce Corniche Fixed Head Coupe, presented under the name Rose and Scroll. Finished in Arboretum Green over Tan with open-pore wood trim, it’s the kind of car that makes you stop scrolling immediately. And under that long, sculpted hood sits a re-engineered 6.75-liter V8 that Halcyon claims delivers more power and sharper throttle response than any original unit ever did — while keeping that unmistakably smooth, effortless power delivery the engine was famous for across six decades of production.
What makes the Corniche such a smart choice for this build is rarity. Rolls-Royce produced plenty of Corniche coupes and convertibles, but only around 1,000 examples of the drop-head configuration introduced in 1966 — where the roof slides back and drops into a well behind the rear seats, keeping the roofline identical to the hardtop when closed. That scarcity gives the finished product genuine collector credibility, not just restomod novelty.
The one catch nobody is talking about in the restomod world
I want to be direct about something the broader conversation around classic car electrification tends to skip over. Many of the original engines in these 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s Rolls-Royce and Bentley models aren’t recoverable. They sat in garages, barns, or auction lots for decades. The blocks are cracked, the internals are seized, and no amount of nostalgia brings them back. The choice isn’t always “electric versus combustion” — sometimes it’s “electric or scrap.”
Halcyon’s move to rebuild and re-engineer the 6.75-liter V8 means that engines which would have ended up as museum pieces or landfill can now live again with modern capability. That’s a meaningful engineering achievement, and it’s one that enthusiasts on both sides of the fuel debate should respect. The company isn’t abandoning its 800-volt electric platform either — both powertrains remain available, giving buyers a genuine choice rather than an ideology forced on them.
| Spec / Detail | Halcyon Great Eight Series | Halcyon EV Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Base vehicle | Classic Rolls-Royce / Bentley | Classic Rolls-Royce / Bentley |
| Powertrain | Rebuilt 6.75-liter V8 (enhanced) | 800V electric system |
| Power output | Improved over factory spec | Modern EV performance levels |
| Restoration method | Bare-metal full remaster | Bare-metal full remaster |
| First model revealed | Corniche Fixed Head Coupe (Rose and Scroll) | Various Rolls-Royce / Bentley models |
| Company founded | 2026 (operational from 2023) | |
| Production rarity | ~1,000 Corniche drop-heads ever built | Varies by donor vehicle |
What Halcyon’s pivot tells us about where restomodding is actually going
The restomod world has spent the last several years drawing battle lines. Electric restomodders versus combustion purists. Preservation versus modification. Heritage versus performance. Halcyon just refused to pick a side, and I think that’s the smarter long-term play. By offering both powertrains under one roof — one remastered, one rebuilt — they’re serving a wider pool of buyers without diluting what makes either option special.
What this also signals is that the best restomod companies in 2026 aren’t ideological. They’re craft-driven. The 6.75-liter V8 is one of the most characterful engines ever fitted to a luxury car, and rebuilding it with modern engineering discipline rather than replacing it shows a kind of respect for automotive history that resonates with serious collectors. If you’ve been on the fence about commissioning a classic British luxury restomod, now is the moment to look seriously at what Halcyon is building — because the Great Eight Series could set the benchmark for combustion restomods the way their EV platform already did for electrics.
