Regal Motorsports expanding; Street legal golf carts
Regal Motorsports crew: From left:Ryan Hanaway, Joanna Deaton, Zach Hall, (Owner) Tim Taylor, Tyler Buckman, Stephen Staack and John Chappell.
Tim Taylor, Owner of Regal Motorsports, LLC in downtown Lewisport, has added a line of all-electric, street legal golf carts, or LSVs (low-speed vehicles) in the last month. The shop is a full-service automotive repair shop for any kind of vehicle. Additionally, they specialize in European models such as Porsche, Audi & VW. They also work on performance vehicles and have an award-winning Porsche racing team.
Regal Motorsports is located at 561 5th Street, and has expanded since the grand opening in spring of 2020. Last year, Taylor purchased the building across the street (the original JJ’s Pizza location) and remodeled it into an office area. The new line of Bintelli LSVs are showcased there. He also recently purchased a Rollback wrecker, and will be adding towing services soon.
Bintelli LSVs
Taylor said they are excited about the new line of Bintelli LSVs. They are assembled in Charleston, SC and Bintelli is the #1 manufacturer in the industry. “Currently we have eight,” he said. “They come in different configurations. There is a 4-person, non-lifted; a 4-person, lifted – which are just bigger tires, wheels and different suspension (raised up higher for more clearance), and then there’s a 6-person, non-lifted and a 6-person, lifted. The lifted ones look better, I think. It gives it more of an off-road kind of look. They come in 10 different colors, and then there are 2 other colors you can order.”
Where can you drive them?
LSVs, by federal law, can only be driven on streets that are 35 mph and less. “They can cross a road that has a greater speed limit as far as traveling,” Tim said. “The cities, towns or subdivisions, etc. – they can set the governing as far as whether they’re aloud or not. In Lewisport they’re aloud, and in Hawesville they’re not aloud on streets. Twenty-five miles an hour is as fast as they’re aloud to run by law, so that’s what they’re set at.
Whitesville is the only town in Daviess County they’re aloud on the streets in. We’re working on trying to get that changed because if you go to Florida or someplace like that, of course they’re everywhere on the streets and in the retirement communities, etc.”
Green Vehicle
“They’re all-electric so they’re a green vehicle which everybody seems to be pushing these days,” he said. “There are different configurations in batteries. You can get lead acid batteries and lithium ion. We only carry the lithium ion. We can order the lead acid but lithium ion lasts a lot longer and is a lot better for longer distance travel.”
Pricing & Features
“They start out at $10,995, and they go up to around $16K for the kind of decked-out version,” Tim said. The 6-seaters start at $11,995. All of the fully electric models include a backup camera, sound system, headlights, brake lights, turn signals, seat belts, mirrors and cup holders. The Bintelli Beyond LSV includes more features such as a Bluetooth sound system and upgraded wheels.
Golf Cart Service & Trades
“The carts we’re selling, we service them and we do trades as well,” he said. “We already service a lot of golf carts here.”
Electric Bicycles
Bintelli also manufactures electric bicycles. “I talked to him the other day about maybe getting a couple of those in here as well just to try out,” he said. “We’re excited. We’re bringing on some other product line too – golf carts, batteries and different things. We plan on continuing to add more carts and have more variety. Right now we have a pretty good selection.”
Performance Vehicle Service
Taylor said their Porsche racing team is separate from the performance side of his business. “The performance side is more street performance – like Mustangs, and about anything anymore. We have an AWD Dyno (Dynojet all-wheel-drive dynamometer), so we do tuning with the dyno. We do all makes and models. We do specialize in European, but we do everything. We take any kind of car. We specialize in those because the equipment is different but we have equipment to work on everything.
When we started, we were specializing in Europeans and we’ve kind of stayed along that line but still probably 60-70 percent of our vehicles are American or import. We do as much of that as anything. We have 7 employees currently – office manager, shop manager, parts guy, and the rest are mechanics.
When I sold my automation company, I moved down here and retired. When my son, Jonathon, got out of college, he decided he wanted to start doing some DE (High Performance Driving Experience) Events. He was doing that and he kept wanting to progress from track days to club racing. He ran his first pro-racing Indie in 2020, I guess. It just all kind of morphed from that.”
Racing
Jonathon (28) has raced a prepped Porsche Cayman S and a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car, and was the national champion in Porsche Club of America’s Club Racing in the GTB3 category in 2019. The team travels nationwide and has raced at many famous tracks.
“We run Porsche GT4 Close Boards and Porsche GT3 Cup Car,” Tim said. “Next year, I think we’ll probably be switching over to the new GT4 RS Club Sport. We run the Porsche Sprint Challenge and also I think next year we’ll run some SRO Motorsports Group as well. It’s part of USAC (U.S. Automotive Club). They set all of the rules and specifications, etc. USAC provides the rules and Porsche provides the cars and the sport. We always have a Porsche parts trailer there that has all of the parts for the cars.
This year we only ran one car. Last year we ran three. We were at the Bartone Bros last year, which was Andy Pilgrim, a very well-known race car driver ran for us, and Anthony Martone. My son Jonathon hasn’t driven the last couple years because we’ve been supporting other drivers. Basically, we keep the car here all of the time. We service it and we get it ready for the next race, and support it at the racetrack. We transport them, and the driver flies in and drives.
We race all over the U.S. The tracks we run are COTA (Circuit of The Americas) in Austin, TX, Road Atlanta, Sebring & Daytona in Florida, Watkins Glen, Indy, Road America and Virginia International Raceway. It’s all road courses. Next year, we’ll be running out in California at Sonoma Raceway. It’ll be a long drive – about a week out and a week back.”
Tim moved to Hancock County from Georgetown, KY. He is the son of the late Russell & Martha Taylor. “Bryan Taylor was my grandfather,” he said. “Hazel & Ida Lambert were my other set of grandparents. Mom and Dad had retired back to here. I live on a farm out on Oak Road. I always wanted to retire back down here and live on the farm.”
Tim’s daughter, Hannah, recently graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in music. “She moved back here a month ago for a short period of time,” he said, “and then she’s moving back to Nashville.”
For more information, please visit the website: regalmotorsportsllc.com. Or, call 270-295-3801. Regal Motorsports, LLC is open week days from 7 a.m.-4 p.m., and on Saturday by appointment only. For more details on Bintelli LSVs, visit www.Bintelli.com.
By Jennifer Wimmer
