Five to be sold, sixth to start new historic racing team
Vanwall won first-ever Constructors’ Championship that year
Automakers building new versions of their classics isn’t a new thing anymore, thanks to efforts by Jaguar, Aston Martin, and others, but this sextet of Formula One replicas from Vanwall might be the best we’ve seen so far. Giving buyers the same experience that the likes of Sir Stirling Moss would have had way back in 1958.
Vanwall might not be an F1 name that’s well remembered, but the UK-based team started 29 races winning nine and taking home 13 podiums. An impressive record, if a short one, for the team who first competed in the 1954 British Grand Prix.
Though starting with a 2.0L-powered car that was designed for Formula 2, not the top-tier series, and with a chassis that was largely a modified Ferrari car, the team had a sound engine but needed a new car. That car was designed for 1956 by Colin Chapman, who would go on to Lotus fame. In 1958 the team took six race wins and became the first-ever team to win an F1 Constructors’ Championship. It was also their last full season.
Sixty-two years later, Vanwall Group is planning to build six of what it calls continuation cars of the 1958 racer. Built by hand and requiring thousands of hours of work from historic racing specialists Hall and Hall, the cars will be powered by a 270 hp 2.5L Vanwall engine, plenty for what should be an absolute flyweight of a racecar. Everything will be reproduced using the original drawings and blueprints and that means tiny tires and 50’s-style suspension and brakes to contain the power.
Just five of the six will be sold, starting from £1.65 million (CAD 2.8m) with the sixth being kept to start a Vanwall Historic Racing team. They will be historic race eligible, says Vanwall (and former Historic GP Cars Association) chair Andrew Garner, “and in the right hands will be unbeatable, repeating Tony Vandervell’s mission to beat the red cars!”
