Race for Historically Interesting Grand Prix Cars

Donington Park, 24 Apr 1983

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Ensign N177 [MN09] (Mike Littlewood): Mario Deliotti Racing ran Ensign N175 MN04, updated to 1977 specification, in Aurora British F1 in 1978. Towards the end of that season, a new N177 was built for the team, bearing chassis number MN09, although that number would confusingly be used on Ensign's 1979 N179 as well. The N177 was raced by Val Musetti in BF1, then by Geoff Lees in the Australian Rothmans series in 1979. It then remained unraced through four seasons before Ken Moore entered it for Mike Littlewood in the 1983 British Open. When this series was cancelled, Moore ran it in HSCC and libre races for Littlewood in 1983 and 1984. The next two owners did little with it until it returned to HSCC racing in 1992. Five subsequent owners have also used it in TGP and then in Masters F1.
2. Tyrrell 008 [3] (John Brindley): First appearing at the 1978 South African GP, Tyrrell 008-3 was Patrick Depailler's regular car through 1978, and was the car in which he won the 1978 Monaco GP. It was sold to Melchester Racing for 1979, and raced by Desire Wilson in Aurora British F1. It was then acquired by Nick Mason, and raced by John Brindley in the 1982 BF1 series, in HSCC Historic F1 in 1982 and 1983, and in the one-off the MCD British Open race in 1983. Mason sold the car in October 1991, and it returned to historic racing in 1993. It has raced regularly in historic racing ever since, appearing at Monaco in 2002 and in 2008.
3. Surtees TS19 [04] (Willie Green): Alan Jones received a new car, Surtees TS19/04, in time for the 1976 Austrian GP, and raced this for the rest of the season. It was raced by Vittorio Brambilla in the South American races at the start of 1977, before being sold to Olympus Cameras for Divina Galica to race in Shellsport Group 8. It was acquired by Alo Lawler in 1978, but was quickly sold to John Cooper, then to Robin Smith. Smith updated it to "TS20S" specification in 1980, and added sports car bodywork for a couple of Can-Am events in 1981. It was sold to Ken Moore and then Rod Tolhurst, both of whom ran it in HSCC F1 in 1983 for Willie Green and John Narcisi. Its next seven owners did not race it, but it returned to competition in TGP in 1999, then raced regularly until 2012. It returned for Monaco in 2016.
4. Lotus 78 [1 JPS15] (Roger Friend): After being used by Gunnar Nilsson and Mario Andretti in the first few races of 1977, Lotus 78-1 became the spare car and was then retired mid-season. It was sold to Hector Rebaque for 1978, but became his spare car after he acquired 78-4. It was then sold to Emilio De Villota for Aurora British F1 in 1979, where it was a regular race winner. Norman Dickson bought it for 1980, again for Aurora, and it was sold to Lotus collector Bill Friend at the end of 1981. It was raced by Bill's nephew Roger Friend in HSCC racing. It was sold to Switzerland in 1988, then moved to Italy in 1998. In early 2018, it moved again, to a major collector.
5. McLaren M29C [2] (John Foulston): After the McLaren M28s were abondoned, McLaren M29/2 was new at the 1979 German GP for Patrick Tambay. It was updated to M29B then M29C specification for John Watson in 1980, then to M29F spec in 1981 as a spare car. Arnold Glass then bought this and a sister M29C for British F1 in August 1981, retaining it as a spare for 1982. It was then sold to John Foulston, who raced it in HSCC F1 in 1983 and 1984. It was then sold to an Italian owner, and remained in Italy for many years. It returned to competition in Masters F1 with its new owner in early 2018.
6. BRM P207 [02] (John Jordan): Built half way through the 1977 season, BRM P207-02 failed to qualify for any race in F1. Teddy Pilette was the usual driver. The Stanley-BRM team moved into Aurora British F1 for 1978, with Pilette again driving. John Jordan then acquired the whole team, and 207-02 was raced for him by Tony Trimmer and David Williams in British F1 and in HSCC racing. The car was eventually sold to North America where it was restored and racing by 2006. It appeared regularly in US historic racing from 2014 to 2016.
7. Brabham BT6 [FJ-5-63] (John Narcisi): David Prophet (West Bromwich) in Formula Junior 1963. Also appeared at Karlskoga in August and in South Africa in December in F1 specification with a 1500cc Ford engine. To Graham Eden (Coventry, Warwickshire) for Formula 3 in 1964. Eden first raced the car at Snetterton in mid-March 1964 but at Mallory Park two weeks later he crashed the car heavily in practice. When asked in 2013, Eden recalled that the car was "virtually brand new" and that it was "written off" in what he described as "the worst crash I ever had". He was in hospital for several days and did not race seriously again for two years. Duncan Rabagliati has a note that the car went back David Prophet but if it did go back to Prophet, it is likely that it needed to be completely rebuilt. History then unclear until April 1966 when raced by Peter Blankstone in hillclimbs. Raced again early 1967 before Blankstone acquired a Brabham BT18. Subsequent history unknown but believed to be the 1500cc Brabham "BT3/18" driven by Mrs Terry Dunn in sprints and hillclimbs from 1968 to 1974. A car with this chassis number later run in historic racing by John Narcisi (Bromley, Kent) in the 1980s. That car later to Barrie Gillies and wrecked at Phoenix Park in September 1997. Repaired and later owned by David Brown (Ashford, Kent) until sold to Graham Adelman (Free Union, VA) in 2013.

Sources

The identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' original results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 5 May 1983 p56.