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Old 14 May 2018, 09:02 (Ref:3822286)   #1
JonT75
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Help on Formula Forward history

Hi all,

Does anyone have any information on the Formula Forward cars from the late 80's / early 90's? History, what they are based on, any known weaknesses, etc.

I found this website (http://sprints.tripod.com/my_van_diemen.htm) but there doesn't seem to be much more information available for them online.

Thanks in advance

Cheers,

Jon.
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Old 14 May 2018, 21:41 (Ref:3822441)   #2
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I think they were Van Diemen built and supposedly a low cost step up from Formula First and cheaper alternative to FVL and FR

It had pretty good grids for a time.

Was it organised by 'Brands Hatch Leisure' and the BRSCC?
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Old 15 May 2018, 06:02 (Ref:3822522)   #3
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Certainly on looks they seem to have shared the Formula Vauxhall Junior chassis , albeit with wings and a 2 litre Ford engine . In the mid nineties the series became the Formula 2000 championship , as Chunterer says , a stepping stone up from the BRSCC Formula First championship . Under the stewardship of Ray Bacon the series attracted sponsorship from Alliance and Leicester and having struggled as Formula Forward , Formula 2000 attracted a higher class of driver and larger fields .

According to British Motorsport Year , the champions in 1995 and 1996 were Stuart Saggers and Graham Fennymore respectively . Saggers went on to do well in Formula Vauxhall Lotus while Fennymore , having been a contemporary of David Coulthard in Formula Ford , became a leading light in Caterham racing .

Regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the car , I don't recall any major reliability issues , but British Motorsport Year in their review of the 1996 season mention ' another positive point was Martin Sismey's recovery from a horrendous violent accident at Brands Hatch , proving the strength of the Van Diemen ' . The series isn't mentioned in the 1997 British Motorsport Yearbook , so I presume Formula Forward / 2000 disappeared from the motor racing scene around this time .
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Old 15 May 2018, 07:05 (Ref:3822527)   #4
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Nice additional info GCCheddaris!!

Tommy Erdos was on of the better drivers to come through the early seasons of the series.

Definitely a driver who deserved to go futher up the ladder than he did.
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Old 16 May 2018, 18:12 (Ref:3822887)   #5
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Thx for the info, guys, always interesting to see where these sorts of cars come from. I've got my eye on one of these with a late RS2000 engine installed, which has also been done with the car in the link I listed. This seems too much of a co-incidence so I get the inkling there was some later conversion done at some point from the earlier Scorpio engines to give a bit more wow factor.

It's indeed built by Van Diemen and they've also been used as 'experience' cars by race schools, so it's a fair assumption that they should be fairly robust.
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Old 16 May 2018, 18:34 (Ref:3822893)   #6
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Spaceframe semi-monocoque cars. Is indeed the same chassis as Formula Vauxhall Junior. Rocker suspension all round. LD gearbox I think. 2 litre Ford DOHC engines as I recall.

Not the worst car in the world but not really anywhere to race it and wouldn’t be competitive in any Libre-type class.
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Old 16 May 2018, 19:50 (Ref:3822908)   #7
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You don't say if you live in the UK or not , but I would say the only place to race this car in the UK would be the Monoposto championship . A broad spectrum of single seaters race in this championship from Formula 3 cars through motorcycle engined cars to Zetec and Kent engined Formula Fords . Formula Ford 2000s ( a multi chassis formula which just preceded Formula Forward ) race in Mono 1800 . If you are interested I think their website is www.monoposto.co.uk .
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Old 18 May 2018, 07:37 (Ref:3823174)   #8
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Thanks, Gents.

It indeed has an LD200 gearbox...which is far more preferable to something with a mk9 as the current prices of those are just shocking.

I'm an ex-pat living in Holland (yes, I moved away from motorsport mecca ), where there is also an open class that will suit. To be honest, due to the increasingly rising costs of club motorsport, I'm happy to just take part in a few events and do some trackdays, so I can trade competitiveness for something that doesn't empty my wallet too quickly

Thanks for the tip, I've wanted to bring a car (I've had a few) over and do some UK events for years...thing is, with tracks like Zandvoort and Spa within arms reach, there's always something easier!
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Old 19 May 2018, 06:07 (Ref:3823342)   #9
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Hi,

There isn’t much information out there, but I did have a really good chat with Dermot Healy from uphill racers about the history of the series.
The downside about this car and I guess just about any other Van Diemen, is that parts especially body work can be hard to come by.
Fortunately there are people out there that can help you.

I have the car that was driven by Graham Fennymore in the Tecton Racing team. It also has an RS2000 2.0 16v Engine and is very similar to the Vauxhall Junior formula. In fact the ROPS cert I have is of the VJ formula.
The gearbox is an LD200 4 speed.

I’ve only driven the car once so far and found it to be solid. It wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be but then the gearing was a bit long for the circuit. It does handle well with the right tyres on, although I cooked the front left and had a bit of understeer on right handers.

You can also enter sprints with this car but will be in the C6 class. I think it is a good first time single seater car if you want to get into slicks and wings.

Croft run an F2000 car in their driving experience days and from the photo’s it looks identical to the Van Diemen. I did make enquiries with them about the car and how they maintain/parts etc but they were less than helpful.


Graeme

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Old 25 May 2018, 08:41 (Ref:3824513)   #10
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If you contact Monoposto they will advise which class it is likely to sit in.

FVJ's with the 8v engine race in the Mono 1600 class
FVJ's with the 16v engine race in the Mono 1800 class

In its current state, it would probably race in Mono 2000 Classic.
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Old 5 Jun 2018, 09:14 (Ref:3826913)   #11
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Thanks, guys, all interesting information. I'm currently in the process of rebuilding the engine and checking a few things on the chassis. It indeed seems to be quite a sturdy car, with the RS2000 lump not exactly helping in weight!

@crazy turbo beast: the model I have listed on the log book is "F2000", which would be the later name for the series.
Interesting to hear your experiences with Croft. I was planning on contacting them at some point regarding the cars and specifically any parts they may have available, but need to get the engine rebuild done first!
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Old 6 Jun 2018, 07:38 (Ref:3827085)   #12
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Dermot Healy (07703 162409) would also be worth trying for spares.
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Old 7 Jun 2018, 06:23 (Ref:3827308)   #13
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Yeah, I thought of trying Dermot at some point...thanks for the tip, Alan
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Old 12 Jun 2018, 19:59 (Ref:3828725)   #14
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Not any information, but found this picture on Facebook taken by Chris Higginbotham, Oulton Park 1989.
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Old 14 Jun 2018, 10:50 (Ref:3829243)   #15
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Wasn't it a kind of FF2000 replacement using a newer engine type? Or were they still Pinto powered?
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Old 14 Jun 2018, 15:50 (Ref:3829310)   #16
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Wasn't it a kind of FF2000 replacement using a newer engine type? Or were they still Pinto powered?
Seem to recall it was some years after FF2000 finnished? Was sort of super FFirst.Must dig out my old photos-went to quite a few rounds at Brands when Heather Baillie was doing it
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Old 14 Jun 2018, 16:16 (Ref:3829313)   #17
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They ran the 8V Dohc Ford engine that was used in the Sierra etc late 80s. I have the original design of the car rolled up in my loft somewhere!
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Old 18 Jul 2018, 13:21 (Ref:3837316)   #18
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Oh yes, FForward, I remember one of its Champions was Eugene O'Brien in 1992.
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