2010 Chevron GR8 chassis

Chevron Cars Ltd. was a manufacturer of racing cars, founded by Derek Bennett who remained in charge from 1965 to his death in 1978. The firm has remained active in various guises since his death. Chevron has been owned since 1982 by Roger Andreason and Tim Colman. As of late 2006, controlling ownership of Chevron belongs to Chris Smith, founder of Westfield

Chevron was notable for its proud Lancastrian nature - unlike the rest of the British racing car industry which tended to be based in an arc running from South West London, the old Brooklands circuit and Heathrow Airport round to Silverstone, Chevron remained based in a mill in Bolton, and many of its most celebrated drivers including Brian Redman and Jim Crawford were also Lancastrians. Many of Chevron's notable customers were also from the North of England including John Bridges (the "B" in the Chevron type numbers marks not Bennett's name but Bridges' financial contribution to the company), Digby Martland, and John Lepp.

Derek Bennett

Derek Bennett was born in 1933 in Manchester; he was brought up in Prestwich. He was a largely self-taught, intuitive engineer and a talented amateur racing driver.

In his early years Bennett took a keen interest in model aircraft. He took an apprenticeship in mechanical and electrical engineering before becoming a mechanic, but he soon fell in with motor racing scene in the North of England, initially in local stock-car racing events.

Bennett soon graduated to building, maintaining and also driving racing cars for himself and other local enthusiasts, and established himself as a competitive driver at club level, particularly in the Bennett Special, running in a series for 1172cc Ford powered cars; he later moved into the Clubmans category. Bennett also built a one-off Formula Junior car which was only a modest success - rear-engined competition from Lotus and Cooper was more than a match for it, and the era of the special-builder in FJ was over.

By 1965 there were sufficient requests for replicas of his Clubmans car, Bennett seemed able to establish himself as a constructor. Aided by a small staff of like-minded enthusiasts (particularly friend and assistant Paul Owens), for a decade and a half Chevron produced successful, beautiful racing cars.

Bennett never proceeded beyond Formula Three in his own driving but remained quick enough to test and develop many of his cars, especially at the nearby Oulton Park and Aintree.

He was working on a Formula One Chevron when he was killed in a hang gliding accident in 1978.

Chevron cars

Chevron was particularly noted for its small-capacity sports cars and its Formula Two, Formula Three and Formula 5000 single seaters. Although a Chevron F5000 did beat a representative Formula One field once in a race open to both categories (Peter Gethin at the Race of Champions in 1973), the marque never seriously addressed F1; one F1 car was built but not finished in Bennett's lifetime and when complete was run only in the national-level Aurora F1 championship in Britain.

Although the first Chevrons were developments of Derek Bennett's Clubmans special (Clubmans was a British national formula for front-engined open-top sports cars with Ford engines) the firm's customers soon started looking to more ambitious racing, and a line of Gran Turismo cars was soon established with the B3 (early type numbers were applied retrospectively when the cars were homologated for Group 4/5 racing) which developed into a line of successful BMW and Ford-powered cars capable of competing internationally in the two-litre sports car class. The replacement for these cars was the beautiful B16, but driver Brian Redman pointed out that with heavy coupé bodywork it would be beaten on most circuits by lighter open-topped 'spyders' from marques like Abarth. The B16 Spyder was introduced, with a body inspired by Porsche 908 Spyder (which Redman also drove!) and this started a long line of successful two-litre sports racers (B19, B21, B23, B26, B31...).

Chevron was active in single seater formulae during this period, concentrating mostly upon Formula Two and Formula Atlantic (aka SCCA Formula B) with minor variants of the same basic design, and with occasional forays into Formula Three.

The heyday of the marque ran through to the late 1970s and ended with Derek Bennett's death after a hang-gliding accident in 1978; Chevron continued in its original form owned by Derek's sisters for a couple of years with Tony Southgate as 'consultant designer' then passed into other hands - some new cars were manufactured. Several key Chevron employees, including designer Paul Brown and chief mechanic Paul Owens, also worked on the short-lived Maurer Formula Two cars, and later at Reynard Racing Cars.

Chevrons in historic racing

Chevrons are popular cars in historic racing and various businesses still refettle and supply spares for the cars. A roadgoing replica of the B1 Clubmans car has just been launched, built by Chevron Racing Limited. The original company archives which includes all the drawings, jigs, moulds,etc are owned by Chevron Cars Ltd.

As Oulton Park had been Bennett's home circuit, nowadays, during the annual Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting, there is a race that consists entirely of Chevrons sportcar racers.

Developed by Derek Bennett as a Clubmans special (Clubmans was a British national formula for front-engined open-top sports cars with Ford engines)

Attached is the latest on the Chevron GR8 mid-engined competition coupe with Cosworth 2.0L YD power, built for the BARC’s 2010 Chevron GR8 Challenge Series.

Included are recent shots of the completed car testing at Anglesey Circuit.

As well as the Chevron GR8 one-make series, the organisers of the British GT, Britcar, GT Cup and V de V championships have invited entries from Chevron GR8 drivers/teams.