Chevron B61

[John Turner]

Seen at Snetterton yesterday, 7th October, this B61:-



The car was recently purchased from Richard Borthwick, by Richard Wos and John Leslie. John, who I've known for nearly 20 years, told me that he had been advised that only 2 were built but that so far he had been unable to locate the chassis plate. He also said that the car which currently doesn't carry the original engine (currently a Zetec, I think) had apparently been driven by Roger Andreason, Andy Priaulx and Marcus Pye.

So, can anyone shed any further light on this? Any further info. would be gratefully received.

[Dan Rear]

Car dates from 1983-84, and was built around a 'beefed-up' B60 S2000 tub I think. It was intended from outset as a Thundersports car, and raced with a BDG/BDX from memory. I can't recall drivers off-hand.

[jamesl]

I think this may have been a "Scotish" Chevron made Simpson. It was driven by Pye / Andreason in a 2 driver race in period where they were doing well until they retired.The engine for this race was a 1600cc BDA. The B60 was also a pukka Thundersports car running B25 suspension, and my B60 ran with a Hart.

[Dan Rear]

James, I'm pretty sure the B60 was originally a 'true' S2000 car, introduced in 1983, and as you say by the Scottish Chevron lot. The Plygrange team had 2 in S2000 that year, Richard Morgan and Ken Gough IIRC.

I presume Andreason inherited the B61 when he bought the company from Robin Smith.

[John Turner]

Gentlemen, I know that I am displaying my ignorance but would you kindly clarify your reference to 'Scottish' Chevron.

[jamesl]

My B60 is chassis no.1 and has a 1982 chassis plate.As ther first car made it had lots of problems with poorly fitting bodywork. The original owner took the badly fitting B60 body off and replaced it with B36 body work. Maybe some of the later cars (I think at least 5 were built) came out in early 1983 and were built into Sports 2000's - but I dont know for sure.This would have been typical of the period with "platform" cars.

The Scottish link is when Chevron was bought out in the early 1980's and production was in Scotland - my car is one of the Scottish cars. This only lasted a few years until Andreason took control of the company.

[John Turner]

Thank you, James!

[bruceb61]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Seen at Snetterton yesterday, 7th October, this B61:-



The car was recently purchased from Richard Borthwick, by Richard Wos and John Leslie. John, who I've known for nearly 20 years, told me that he had been advised that only 2 were built but that so far he had been unable to locate the chassis plate. He also said that the car which currently doesn't carry the original engine (currently a Zetec, I think) had apparently been driven by Roger Andreason, Andy Priaulx and Marcus Pye.

So, can anyone shed any further light on this? Any further info. would be gratefully received.

I can add a bit more to this old threasd as I have recently acquired a Chevron B61, bring the total known on here to three!

Originally mine was a B60a S2000 spec car, one of the first manufactured in Winchester by the new owner Roger Andreason.

In the late 1980's it was converted to B61 thundersport specification by chevron and was allocated a B61 chassis number.

It has been in storage ever since conversion and is due to be recomissioned sometime later this year.

[John Turner]

Welcome, Bruce.

[Andreason]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Seen at Snetterton yesterday, 7th October, this B61:-



The car was recently purchased from Richard Borthwick, by Richard Wos and John Leslie. John, who I've known for nearly 20 years, told me that he had been advised that only 2 were built but that so far he had been unable to locate the chassis plate. He also said that the car which currently doesn't carry the original engine (currently a Zetec, I think) had apparently been driven by Roger Andreason, Andy Priaulx and Marcus Pye.

So, can anyone shed any further light on this? Any further info. would be gratefully received.

Hi, as the person who built the B61's I can probably shed some light on your deliberations. As I recall we built 2 B61's from scratch and converted at least two previous S2000 cars to be B61's. I also supplied parts to some others, one being Laurence Jacobson. I cannot tell from that picture which car it is - in fact it looks more like a later conversion of a B63 S2000. I dont have the chassis register here but i can access it if anyone needs original information. Roger Andreason

[John Turner]

Roger, welcome, and thank you!

[bruceb61]

Originally Posted by Andreason

Hi, as the person who built the B61's I can probably shed some light on your deliberations. As I recall we built 2 B61's from scratch and converted at least two previous S2000 cars to be B61's. I also supplied parts to some others, one being Laurence Jacobson. I cannot tell from that picture which car it is - in fact it looks more like a later conversion of a B63 S2000. I dont have the chassis register here but i can access it if anyone needs original information. Roger Andreason

My car is finally recomissioned after 20 odd years in storge. Its pictured here testing at combe yesterday



Roger, if you have any info or recollections on my car that would be great, chassis number is b60a 02 and after conversion it now has b60/61 89 01.

thanks
Bruce Balchin

[smudger66(scrotum)]

hi, i am very new on here,actually i stumbled on this site,after looking at pics of cars i helped build and run when i was alot younger..
i started my motor racing aprenticeship with andreason racing then to be chevron cars. before moving onto the late john foulstons team .then moving on to being free-lance mech working for many teams and in nuerous formulas..
regarding the b61,which i worked on the new build , the tub was based on the sports 2000 chassis..if i can recollect,we took the brand new car straight too donnington,for a thundersports race,i can clearly remember we had worked long hours too get it there,and without any testing,roger launched the car with marcus pye and himself driving..the car was all-black in colour.
i know we had problems with cooling etc,and added many newair ducts on the qualifying saturday.i think we were half-way up the grid. on race day, i do know in my diary,that i think we started ok,and as the race panned out, there was lots of front runners falling by the way-side and the B61 ended leading the race for a few laps,before disaster struck with marcus driving ,when the gear lever mounting bracket inside the tub broke, i think we may have tried too fix it but too no avail, i still have the autosport report which marcus had written..so yes, the B61 did lead a thundersports race straight out of the box...