1968 FIA Chevron B8

HTP

To be offered by Silverstone Auctions on Friday 25th August at the Silverstone Festival Sale. 

Guide Price: £175,000 - £200,000

The hugely-successful Chevron B8 first appeared in 1968, usually with BMW 2-litre engines but also with the Ford FVA, FVC and occasionally the Lotus-Climax. It was homologated into FIA Group 4 Sports Cars from 1 March 1968 on the basis that 50 were built (reduced to 25 in 1969). To help Chevron Cars achieve the required number (on paper), every rebuild was listed as a new car - a habit that would continue into the B16, B19 and even the B21 and, no doubt, was a practice common to other builders of limited production racing cars. In the end, 44 of the original cars were completed.

Often described as one of the greatest racing cars of all time, the B8 was fast, forgiving and delightful. In common with the Lotus Elan and the BMW E30 M3, it was one of those cars that would not punish you for a temporary 'loss of talent' and would quietly sort itself out whilst you were considering 'Plan B'. Then, as now, it was capable of humiliating the top GTs in period at short circuits like Crystal Palace or Brands Indy where dicing with GT40s was a regular occurrence.

Offered here is Chassis CH-DBE-53 that’s lead a fascinating life, starting out racing during the late 60s and early 70s there is a full list of period results here: https://www.racingsportscars.com/chassis/results/CH-DBE-53.html.

We pick up the story in more recent times when in 2017, Martin Connell, who runs a very well respected historic race team, rebuilt CH-DBE-53 to his exacting standards around a new chassis. The sheer quality of its preparation and presentation can be appreciated from our images. It's powered by a Lester Owen BMW unit and has current FIA papers. Since its rebuild, it's had several successful outings in Masters Sportscars and was running well at a BRDC track day earlier this year. Having formed part of the Ben Sherman Originals team during 1969, our vendor chose to return the car to its original livery from then as a nod to its continuous history.

Potentially competitive in the right hands, this superb historic racer should be eligible for many prestigious events including Masters, Peter Auto, Guards Trophy and many more, and could be raced most weekends of the season somewhere.