Trojan T101
Bill Wood in his well-used Trojan in a club event at Aintree. Copyright Alan Cox 2007. Used with permission.
Trojan had been building McLaren's production cars since the very beginning of the McLaren marque, signing their first deal to produce the McLaren M1A in November 1964. All the McLaren F5000s came from Trojan, the all-conquering M10A and M10B, the disappointing M18 and the uncompetitive M22.
With McLaren pulling out of the production market, Trojan pressed on alone and produced the Trojan T101 design for 1973. Ex-Brabham designer Ron Tauranac produced a reworked version of another of Trojan's production McLaren designs, the F2 M21 designed by Ralph Bellamy.
Five T101s were sold, with Jody Scheckter dominating the US series until a late-season swap to a Lola T330 and the four UK-based cars winning five times. Sid Taylor and Jerry Entin, who owned Scheckter's car, had assumed that Tauranac would be working to improve the T101 through the season but he was absorbed in Trojan's F1 program and Taylor and Entin were given little help with the Formula 5000 car. Although Scheckter bought a Lola with his winnings, Entin remembers being treated very nicely by Trojan and neither he nor Taylor wanted to go back on their deal to run a car for Brett Lunger in Europe and one for Scheckter in the US.
Earlier versions of this page attributed the chassis number 106 to a replacement chassis used by Jody Scheckter after his crash at Watkins Glen in 1973. Since then, categorical evidence has emerged that chassis 103 was repaired and continued in use until the end of the season. So 106, reputedly the car used by Bobbie Bell in 1974, must have been new for 1974, as Bell's adverts always implied. So the histories have been adjusted accordingly and 103 now vanishes in late 1974. It has also been claimed that 102, not 103, was Scheckter's car and this claim is also being investigated. The Trojan T101s are not as simple as had been thought.
All and any help would be gratefully received. Please e-mail Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can add anything. Thanks to Marcus Pye for providing the initial histories on the cars in existence today, to Jerry Entin and Patrick Sumner for their recollections and to Pete Stowe and Jeremy Jackson for information on the two mystery cars. Thanks also to Rob Ryder for the photographs.
| Car | History | Current owner |
|---|---|---|
| Trojan
T101 101 |
Keith Holland in the Ian Ward Racing T101 101 at the 1973 International Trophy. Copyright Rob Ryder 2001. Used with permisison. |
Jim Moore (UK) 2003 |
| Trojan T101 102 |
Built for 1973 season. Sid Taylor for Brett Lunger UK 1973 (won on his debut in the car, at Snetterton, and later in the year at Mallory Park); UK 1974 for Vern Schuppan (first four races) and later Leen Verhoeven (last seven races of season) - Damien Magee UK 1975 (6 races only) - Jim Kelly: for Magee UK 1975 (last four races of season); driven by Magee in libre races in 1976; driven by Kelly libre 1976 and 1977; retained 1978 for minor racing - Robin Hamilton 1979 - Jon Bradburn about 1979/80 - Anthony Taylor 1982 - Otmar von Diemar (Cologne, Germany) about 1997: restored by Peter Denty and retained 2001. Due to be put into Jody Scheckter colours over the winter for the 2002 season. | Otmar von Diemar (Germany) 2001 |
| Trojan T101 103 |
Jody Scheckter in the Trojan T101 in 1973. Copyright Jerry Entin 2002. Used with permission. |
Unknown |
| Trojan T101 104 |
 Built for 1973 season. Alan McKechnie
for Bob Evans UK 1973 (won penultimate race,
at Snetterton, but had no other result higher than fourth) - Patrick Sumner
(Birdham,
Sussex) UK 1974 (best position sixth at Zolder); also driven by David Purley
to win
1974 Brighton Speed Trials with Sumner second; UK 1975 (two races only:
engine problems at Thruxton in May and again at Snetterton in July). Sumner
sold the car to a Belgian owner and it was believed to still be in Belgium
in 2000. |
Unknown owner |
| Trojan T101 105 |
Built for 1973 season.
Hexagon of Highgate for Willie Green UK
1973 (appeared mid-season; five races and only two starts), John Watson
(took third place in the final race, at Brands Hatch) and Damien Magee
- Brian McGuire UK 1974 - John Kejho
UK 1974.
With Bobby Bell by June 1975 and used in a Silverstone libre where it was said to be ex-McGuire. Bell recalls
buying this car from McGuire and selling it to Feltham Glass Works
for Chris Choat and John Hardesty. Driven by Hardesty in libre at Silverstone late August 1975. For Choat UK 1976 (ran at Silverstone
Mar 1976, Castle Combe Apr 1976)
-
Stephen Cuff (Frome, Somerset) 1978: advertised, incorrectly it would appear,
as "ex-Evans"
from Frome Sep 1978. Entered by Cuff (Morand Chev) at Donington BRSCC libre event
1 Oct 1978. Subsequent history unknown but Cuff recalls selling to
someone who used it in
sprints
in the south.
Likely
to be the
Mike Hall car. Next seen with John Piper
(London) at 1982 Brighton Speed Trials; entered
for Keith Norris's 1983 F5000 revival races by Piper; ran it in Red/White,
latterly with March 782 nose after damaging the original nose in a
speed
event - John Saphir (North London): still
Red/White - via Tony Hildebrand to Jean-Marie
Reisser (Belgium) 1990 - Serge Power
(Hasselt,
Belgium) 1990: as rolling chassis - John Narcisi
(Bromley) 1994: still Red/White and still with 782 nose - Simon Hadfield
(Shepshed) 2000: restored to Hexagon tobacco brown livery. Retained
2002. |
Simon Hadfield (UK) 2001 |
| Trojan T101 106 |
Built for 1974 season. Sold new to Bobby Bell (painted Alfa Romeo Beech dark maroon) in 1974. However, in Sep 1974, Bell advertised this car as "1974 Trojan T101 ... 6 club races from new". Advertised again May 1975. Later sold via Simon de Lautour (France) to Switzerland. Subsequently bought from Switzerland by John Narcisi and sold to Jody Scheckter's collection. | Jody Scheckter's collection |
The unknown cars
Just two in this case but a handful of unexplained tubs may be a problem for historians in the future.
As well as the spare tub accompanying 106 (which may be 103), John Narcisi also had a spare tub with 105 when he sold it to Simon Hadfield. Narcisi later sold the tub to Roger Hurst who sold it on to Peter Denty. It is believed to have passed to Kerry Adams by 2002. Another tub, possibly the same one, was with 102 when it was owned by Jon Bradburn in 1979.
One unexplained advert was for a T101 in Autosport 24 Jul 1980.
Mick Hill's fabulous 1976 'VW Beetle' Super Saloon, which is sometimes said to have been based on a Trojan T101, was actually built from the front suspension and the whole rear end of a T102 but not using the chassis itself.
These histories last updated on 15 April, 2007 .