Chevron B26

[john ruston]

We are interested in asecond car so any details would be appreciated.To answer the other question I have several cars including pre war cars,60's sport,single seaters.I do not want to do the Orwell series just the odd race and make the Hart competitive.

[driftwood]

its getting diffiicult to get races for these cars other than doing some orwell races
the french have the CER enduro events for pre 74 cars i believe but the cars must run motors correct for that chassis no!!
the britsports 1 hr enduro is another place to run a sports car in uk as well as doing some local sports/gt races at coombe or darlington & district club have a sports gt series at croft and a round at donington
the hscc phased out thundersports due to lack of entries and even the S2000 class didnt boost the grids

[john ruston]

I figure we can do the odd race like Patrick Peter series event or the BRDC500.About three/four races is enough which will give us 14 races a season for all the cars.The idea is Oldtimers ,Dijon,Donnington,Silverstone Spa etc where we can do the different classes over a weekend. My main interest are the pre war sports cars and Duncan Wiltshires series and I did get the second engine.These along with Tour Auto ,Milla Mille,Liege-Rome,Tour Espana fills the year

[rdrcr]

Originally posted by john ruston
We are interested in asecond car so any details would be appreciated.To answer the other question I have several cars including pre war cars,60's sport,single seaters.I do not want to do the Orwell series just the odd race and make the Hart competitive.

John,

Thank you for your interest...

I shall grab the info and forward it on to you.

[Speedy norm]

John, I also have problems with all this technical stuff! We are probably the same age.
But here is an interesting question re the above. In mid 80s there appeared a charachter called John Salisbury racing under the name Fred Cowell racing - based in Birkenhead. He had a skoda supersaloon which later became a Chevron G26/36 with a GA 3.4 in the back - used in thunder sports in 85-86
So which was this one?
Is this car any of the above? Any one else remember this team?

[driftwood]

I think that car become Suggies Ga Skoda?
or Richard Simms car??

[Speedy norm]

Yes I think it was the Simms car given that it had a GA in the back.

[Jeremy Jackson]

Both Sugden's Skodas have been on purpose-built tubs by John Leek. His first was originally the AET Esprit, which went to Pete Edwards, from then I'm not sure. The one he uses now was put together in 1989 on an aborted Thundersports project tub.

The Salisbury Skoda had full 5-litre engine (Usually appeared as "Skoda Lola" in progs, which I guess speedy has explained). So was this the ex MicK Hill one? That definitely used T330 suspension, if nothing else.

[Speedy norm]

Thinking about the Skoda and Chevron, I am now wondering if they were two different cars.
The skoda had bulbous arches similar to the John Turner design rather than the Richard Simms, Jim Evans type ones. It definitly wasn't the Mick Hill one though
Back to the Chevron Fred Cowell first apearence was at British GP Thundersports support race 86, were it propped up the grid. Can't remember who co drove it but I am sure someone will reply.....

[Dan Rear]

The Fred Cowell Skoda rings abell with me as being the ex-Mick Hill 'Phoenix' car. I remember seeing it at Donington T'Sports in mid-83, Minshaw co-drove. it quallie'd last ! By then, 1983, Mick H was in his BMW M1, so the Cowell car could have been his ??

[Speedy norm]

Could it have been the Welly Potter car? It just looked too rough to be the Hill one. I'm glad someone else remembers the Fred Cowell outfit. I thought I had dreamt it. Lola Chevron -Its just not the sort of thing you expect to see in Birkenhead!

[Jeremy Jackson]

Originally posted by Speedy norm

Back to the Chevron Fred Cowell first apearence was at British GP Thundersports support race 86, were it propped up the grid. Can't remember who co drove it but I am sure someone will reply.....

John Salisbury drove a B23/26 - GA in 1984 Thundersports, with a few co-drivers: Barrie Williams, Richard Simms & Alan Rollinson.
At that year's GP support, it was Whizzo, and it wa at the back of the grid. (It didn't actually start the race)

Potter did co-drive the Cowell Skoda in the 1983 Euro GP support Thundersports race..

[allenbrown]

Forge Mill Racing offered "Chevron B26 chassis No 005" for sale in Autosport (10 Oct 1974 p67) plus a choice of B23s. The photo underneath was of the Domecq car and the engines were said to be "as used by John Lepp 1974 season". So the advert implies 005 was Lepp's car without actually saying so.

Allen

[driftwood]

the piper texas car is now for sale i saw the ad earlier today now i cant find it in the mag i was reading
i stood over Burtons B26 at BH yesterday but foolishly didnt look at the plate

[pinguino]

I used to own a B26. I cannot remember the chassis no. but I bought it from Eddie Arundel (now Duke of Norfolk) he raced it to very good effect with James Weaver in Thundersports. It was powered by a Swindon 2 litre BDX. My first event with it was the 1985 European GP Thundersports support race (Mansell's 1st GP victory). I drove in this race with Tom Dodd-Noble. The car was White with Red/Black arrows running along the top body ( I think I was trying to copy a Gulf idea)
I sold the car in 1987 to John Saphir who had the car restored by George Fowles. John died of a heart attack at the wheel of his Williams FW07 and his estate sold the car to Ted Williams. I saw it again when Ted had it and it was painted Yellow. I don't know who Ted sold the car to and I have long since lost touch with it. The only other point of interest was that Stefano Sebastiani ('Stingbrace') told me that he owned the car when it was new or nearly new. I think he said it was painted black. Anway he gave me all its original homologation stuff which I passed on when I sold the car. I am 'fairly' sure that the chassis no. on the homologation stuff was not the same as the car. Nothwithstanding this, Stefano was absolutely convinced that this was his car. Who knows!

[driftwood]

from memory only 9 b26 cars where built
Gareth burnett now has Choclate drop car ran at classic LM event at the weekend

[allenbrown]

Thanks for this Colin.

Stingbrace did share a B26-Ford with one Ranieri Randaccio at the 400 km Vallelunga in June 1977 so that could be the car. Arundell raced a "B36" in Thundersports in 1983 and a scan of Autosport may give us a history on that one. Thanks for the chain of ownership from then on.

Allen

[driftwood]

randacio and stingbrace are best buddies
stingbrace was the manager at the berkley brothers hotel in london

yes yr right Arundel ran with weaver in B36 with scorpion racing then they built up their own Group C2 car the Arundle which i believe became the Bardon??
i stand waiting to be corrected

[Dan Rear]

The Bardon was originally known as the 'Arundel C200', IIRC there was an Anson connection in its construction.

He sold it to John Bartlett I think, who used it with Robin Donovan, hence the name 'Bardon'.

[driftwood]

B26 was 2nd on the 58th targa florio 1975

[pinguino]

This is for you Allen.

Whilst I know that the Arundel car was advertised as a 'B36'.. It was a B26 with some B36 mods and also some extra mods that James Weaver did personally. I expect I have the receipt for the car somewhere

[driftwood]

not uncommon to have early an model chassis with later body added and the title is given for the later body!!
well would u enter a b26 with 36 body as a 36 or 26 ??

often see B31/36 in results
many B21 with 23 bodies lola 290 with 292 body added
i looked at Italian Gp 5/6 race results there where 2x B26 cars running circa 76-78 but no stingbrace running in them at the time

[John Burton]

Originally Posted by driftwood

the piper texas car is now for sale i saw the ad earlier today now i cant find it in the mag i was reading
i stood over Burtons B26 at BH yesterday but foolishly didnt look at the plate

I happened across this thread while searching for some info on B26.
The car I race is chassis 5 which was originally delivered to the Italian Chevron agent Eris Tondelli in 1974. After a succession of Italian drivers it was severely damaged and bought by Vin Malkie of Chevron to restore. The car was rebuilt for me and I bought it in 1974.

You may have noticed that the car is rather quick - witness finishing 2nd overall behind our good friend Richard Piper in his Mclaren M8 8.8 on the Sunday at the above meeting having been forced to start from the back row in the Orwell Supersports race due to a misfire on the Sunday.

Of course todays B26 is rather different to that of 1974. When the chassis was renewed, the opportunity was taken to use a thicker higher aircraft grade of
aluminium. This stiffens the chassis considerably as well as improving the safety and allows the use of stronger springs thereby improving the handling.

We usually manage to beat most of the Can-Am's apart from Richard Piper's M8
We can get frustratingly close to him at times. However, he does have around 880HP and a similar amount of ft lbs of torque!

Sorry if all this is boring you, since I seem to have somewhat got away from the subject of chassis numbers.

[driftwood]

Thanks John fo rthe info
any idea which Italians ran the B26
looking at some website result pages many B26 cars went to Italy a sthey had a domestic Group 6 series and also raced them on the mountains ( we call it hillclimbing!! ) for many years as well as some drivers contesting Interserie and some Group 6 WCM type races
so you have had the car since 74?
would you have been racing thecar in the Euro and Uk 2 litre sports carraces then?
i have seen yr results in the 2 litre B19/21 cars and the french euro sports car racing book has a few fotos of you racing the Canon car
Ed Swart in usa is he the Canon team boss form thoses days and i assume his B19 is the car he had from those days?

regarding chassis# 9 B26 cars where built but probably all 12 exist today!!
i know a few are in USA now

[John Turner]

Warm welcome, John. The information is entirely apposite, since it is deals with both the history and the current state of chassis 5, which is exactly what we are after. Here is a (slightly out of focus!) picture taken at the Silverstone Classic which also appears in the thread covering that meeting in our 'Historic Racing Today' forum:-


Incidentally, whilst noting that the car is indeed rather quick, I think many of us would attribute a substantial element of driver input to that!