Harrier 001 history
Terry Sanger in the F5000 Harrier at Snetterton in August 1971. Copyright Ted Walker 2011. Used with permission.
Designed by Tony Hilder, the Harrier 001 Formula 5000 car was striking but overweight and underpowered. Builder/driver Terry Sanger persevered with it to the end of the 1971 season, but then returned to saloon car racing.
The Harrier F5000 started out as a project at Piper Cams in 1970, under the direction of technical director Bob Gayler. Tony Hilder, Piper’s resident designer, had earlier been responsible for Piper's F3 car in 1966 and for the innovative Piper GT kit-car in 1967. He also produced the bodywork for the McLaren M1A in 1965 and for the Elden Mk 7 Formula F-100 sports racing car, and designed a Puma F3 car for Alan McKechnie in 1969 with a Mallite chassis. Hilder was an artist before he was a designer, and the Harrier was characteristically attractive, with a wedge-shaped body and its main radiators in pods on the side.
Terry Sanger had been looking for a competitive Formula 5000 car, having driven a converted ex-F1 BRM P83 in 1969, and he invested time and money into the Harrier project. His team of mechanics, Dave Olpin, Vernon Fell, Chris Crawford and Ian Middleton, conducted a great deal of the construction work on the car after the main engineering had been done by David Allen in Bath. Sanger worked for Herbert Ochs, a German-born inventor in the paint and ink fields, and had been appointed a director of Ochs' Research Consultants company. Ochs also came on board, buying 50% of the Harrier project, and ensuring that Sanger would drive the car, sponsored by Research Consultants.
Piper, who were highly regarded as a tuning company, provided a Ford Boss engine, but this proved over-ported with too little torque to be effective. After a disappointing opening race, which left the Harrier badly damaged, the car was rebuilt with a Chevrolet engine. It returned to competition in August, but it soon became clear that it was too heavy to compete with the leading McLarens. Sanger and Ochs abandoned the project and Ochs bought the ex-Brian Muir Chevrolet Camaro Z28 for Sanger to drive in the 1972 RAC British Saloon Car Championship.
If you can add to our understanding of this car, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.
New for Terry Sanger to drive in the 1971 Rothmans F5000 Championship, and fitted with a Ford Boss 302 V8 engine prepared by Piper Cars. At the opening race, he qualified 13th out of 15, then retired early from Heat 1 when the gear-lever broke. After welding a screwdriver to the stump, he started Heat 2 but was hit by Keith Holland's McLaren while being lapped, and the Harrier was badly damaged. The car was then rebuilt with a longer wheelbase and a Chevrolet engine. On Sanger's return to the series in August, he qualified tenth out of 14 runners at Snetterton and went particularly well in Heat 2, where he finished sixth. He was classified seventh overall. At Hockenheim, he qualified 14th out of 23, sandwiched between Fred Saunders' Crosslé and Bob Miller's Dulon, but retired early in Heat 1 and was not classified overall. After qualifying and finishing last-but-one at Oulton Park, he was slowest qualifier at Brands Hatch and the final finisher. A week later, he ran the car at the Weston-super-Mare Speed Trials, finishing fifth in the large single-seater class. Sanger could not find a buyer for the car. He advertised it as a rolling chassis in May 1975, saying that it was "unused since 1974 rebuild" and again in February 1976. The car was next seen in 1983, when John Fossey (Jersey) started racing it in Channel Island hillclimbs, fitted with a 3.5-litre Rover V8 engine. Records of Channel Island speed events are hard to find, but Fossey still had the car in May 2003. In June 2009, Barry 'Noddy' Le Prevost raced it in a Channel Island hillclimb. It was still with Le Prevost in July 2014, when he almost ran over an event director when demonstrating the car round the streets of Ringwood. Le Prevost later mentioned that he owned it for a total of 12 years. By July 2018, the car was owned by Ewan Cameron (Malvern, Worcestershire). By December 2020, Cameron had rebuilt the car's 4.5-litre Rover engine, but decided to change to a Ford engine, choosing a 'Cobra' 289 ci unit mated to a Hewland FGB gearbox. After an extensive rebuild, it was run for the first time in four years at a MAC Curborough Sprint in April 2022. It was then in Cameron's preferred red-and-black colours. In January 2025, Cameron was working on the Ford engine installation.
Driven by: Terry Sanger. First race: Mallory Park (UK R1), 28 Mar 1971. Total of 6 recorded races.
Acknowledgements
Ken Davies' entertaining book '"And you'll love this one": The Story of Terry Sanger' was very useful for background to this project. My thanks also to Ian Hebblethwaite who has worked hard to understand the Jersey and Guernsey hillclimb scene, and to Steve Wilkinson.
If you can add to our understanding of this car, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.
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