Dulon LD9B Formula B/Formula Atlantic car-by-car histories
Marty Fidrich in his Dulon LD9B at RMVR High Plains in 2014. Copyright Garey Guzman 2025. Used with permission.
The Dulon LD9B was announced in late 1969 as a variant of the LD9 Formula Ford car intended for Formula B. The first LD9B was built for Tony Broster but a second appeared in 1972 for Robin Strange.
Maxperenco Products Ltd produced a series of cars named Dulons, after the company's founders Andy Duncan and Bill Longley. Their first two products were for 750 Formula and 1172 Formula, followed by a prototype Formula Ford modelled on a Lotus 24. Two Dulon LD4s Formula Ford were built in 1968, followed by eleven more LD4Bs later in the season. Production continued with another eleven LD4Cs in 1969, when Ian Taylor was very successful in his works-supported car. Maxperenco moved from their original workshop in Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, to larger premises in Didcot, Berkshire for 1970, and introduced an ambitious range of cars, including the Dulon LD8 for Formula 5000, Dulon LD9 for Formula Ford, Dulon LD9B for American Formula B, as well as two sports cars and even a road-going GT car. Unlike a lot of teams who relied on Arch Motors, Dulon did all fabrication work in-house. Les Margetts, the team's fibreglass expert, designed the bodywork. Grizzly Engineering (Folsom, CA) was appointed as Dulon's US distributor.
The Dulon LD9B was a highly orthodox car for its day, but made wider and with stronger tubing for the American market, following a theme set by Palliser two years earlier. Its front suspension comprised a lower wishbone with a top trailing arm and outboard spring-damper units. At the rear was a reversed lower wishbone, top trailing link, and twin radius arms. The LD9B was offered by Dulon in late 1970 with 10-inch front and 12-inch rear wheels, and a Hewland FT200 gearbox, although Tony Broster's original LD9B conversion used Brabham 10-inch and 12-inch wheels and a gearbox put together by Mike Endean using VW castings.
The first LD9B was built for Tony Broster, although the chassis was used as a Formula Ford before being repurposed by Bill Longley with a borrowed Ford twin cam engine. Broster recalls that the car "flew" in Formule Libre racing. However, the twin cam had to be returned and the car was a lot less effective with only a 1-litre Cosworth engine. In 1972, a second LD9B appeared for former Monoposto racer Robin Strange.
Built initially as a Dulon LD9, it was converted to Formula B specification in early 1970 for Tony Broster to use in British Formule Libre, powered by a 1600cc Hart twin cam engine borrowed from John Fenning. Fenning took back his engine during the 1971 season, so Broster fitted an old 1-litre Cosworth MAE engine. It was sold to Ken Jones (Swansea, Wales), who raced it in Formula 4 from 1972 to 1974. Subsequent history unknown, but Broster recalls seeing it a few years later having been returned to Formula Ford specification and looking tatty. Its chassis plate was by that time lost, so it may be difficult to identify when it resurfaces.
Driven by: Tony Broster and Ken Jones. First race: Brands Hatch (R6), 7 Jun 1970. Total of 6 recorded races.
Later Dulon LD9Bs
Dulon retrenched after Bill Longley left at the end of 1970 "to get a proper job", and during 1972 only had three staff, Duncan, Margetts and Paul Lovegrove, Dulon's main fabricator who was known as "Bert the Welder". The main project keeping the company going that year was producing chassis frames for a "Mini-Buggy" project, based on the American Beach Buggy idea but with Mini components instead of VW.
Ian Taylor had an excellent season in Formula Ford in 1972, winning the British Oxygen and Daily Express championships as well as the inaugural Formula Ford Festival in his LD9, and was rewarded with the third Grovewood Award for Britain’s most promising young racing driver. Despite his success, demand for new LD9s was limited, with production only reaching nine. One of those was presumably the LD9B built that year for Robin Strange, but with the LD9 being offered in kit form, exact production figures may be understated.
Dulon production bounced back in 1973 with the new Dulon MP15, the first in a new line of Formula Ford and FF2000 cars for the rest of the decade. Production ceased in 1978.
New for Robin Strange to race in 1972. Strange entered three rounds of the Yellow Pages British Formula Atlantic Championship in March and April, but did not arrive. The "brand new" car made its debut in a Formule Libre race at Mallory Park on 14 May 1972, where Strange ran amongst the leaders until lap 5 when the three leading cars went off at Gerards on the remains of an earlier collision between two backmarkers. The Dulon was "bent around the front". At Thruxton on 11 June he qualified on the front row for the Formule Libre race but spun on lap 1. At Mallory it was described as a "Dulon LD9B/C", but at Silverstone for another Formule Libre at the end of July, it was called an "LD9B/A". The engine at Silverstone was given as a BRM 1600, indicating a BRM-tuned Ford twin cam. Strange did not enter any further Formula Atlantic races with the Dulon and no further results have been found for it. However, a "Dulon Formula Atlantic" rolling chassis which was said to be "new 1972" was advertised from Invergordon in northern Scotland in August 1974 for a mere £700.
Driven by: Robin Strange. First race: Mallory Park, 14 May 1972. Total of 3 recorded races.
Dulon LD9Bs in historic racing
One LD9B is currently known, and has raced regularly in US historic racing. Whether it is the Tony Broster car or the Robin Strange car is presently unknown.
Rodney Green had a Formula B Dulon LD9 in about 1993, which is believed to have come out of southern California. Marty Fidrich (Elizabeth, CO) owned it from 1993 until 2023, when it was sold via Art Hebert's Motorsports Market to Garey Guzman (Murfreesboro, TN). There is no SCCA number stamped on the rollhoop, but efforts to identify this car continue. Still owned by Guzman in September 2025.
Acknowledgements
Tony Broster wrote about his Dulon LD9B for the short-lived Dulon Registry and his amusing "rant" on the subject can be read on archive.org. For background on Maxperenco and Dulon, see 'They Make Racing Cars - Maxperenco Products' by Andrew Marriott in Motor Sport, August 1972, page 881.
Thanks also to car owner Garey Guzman.
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