Anniversary Celebration: Chevron B25 - Franschhoek Motor Museum

18 Dec Anniversary Celebration: Chevron B25

Posted at 16:40h in Mercedes Benz, Museum by fmmadmin

One of the most eye-catching cars in FMM’s sports/racing car collection is the Chevron B25 F2 car, still in its distinctive Team Gunston livery. Mike Monk reveals the car’s history along with the two sister cars that formed Team Gunston in 1973…

The Chevron B25 was a dual-purpose design for Formula 2 and Formula Atlantic. It was built around a full monocoque, the firm’s first, and had a full-width nose incorporating a front radiator. The first three chassis produced by the Chevron factory went to Team Gunston in South Africa.

Rhodesian John Love dominated the Formula 2 section of the 1973 SA Drivers Championship, which at that time encompassed Formula 1 and Formula 5000 single-seaters as well. The FMM car is Chassis No.3, which was effectively the ‘spare’ in the three-car Team Gunston line-up, but the trio were identical. Six different drivers were entered in the cars throughout the year, including Chevron works driver Peter Gethin in the first race of the championship, and he was “delighted with the performance” after finishing seventh. Love raced in Chassis No.1 in all except the Republic Day Races at Kyalami on May 26 and the Bulawayo 100 on June 10. He had crashed Chassis No.1 in the previous round, the Mercury 100 at the Roy Hesketh circuit on April 23, and did not start. For the following two races he swopped with Peter de Klerk’s Chassis No.2.

For 1974, Chassis No.3 was raced with Lexington sponsorship for Brian von Hage, and the following year for Ian Scheckter. It was then sold to the Domingo brothers for the inaugural year of the South African Formula Atlantic championship, along with Chassis No.2. The car remained in South Africa with various owners before becoming part of the Heidelberg Museum collection on 16 April 1991. When the Heidelberg collection became the foundation of FMM, Chassis No.3 moved to Franschhoek and has since been restored by HARP Motorsport in Cape Town. The car is said to have raced 21 times in its lifetime.

As for the other two cars, Chassis No.1 was sold to Tony Martin for the 1974 South African season, and retained for 1975, before being sold to Mike Fogg in 1976. It then went to Ivor Raasch in 1977, and he used the back end of the car in a spaceframe Ford Escort Special Saloon. In 1979 the car went to Alan MacDonald and was reconstituted, now with a Cosworth BDG, and MacDonald raced it in this form later that year. The car was then sold to Mike Budd who kept it until 2006 when it was sold to Stuart Thompson, who is currently carrying out a restoration. It has a recorded history of 33 races.

Chassis No.2 was retained by the team until the end of 1975 then sold, with chassis 3, to the Domingo brothers. Run for a variety of members of the Domingo family in that series, with John Nicholson also having a go in one of the cars in 1976. Sold to Mel Lahner in 1980, and converted by Andrew Thompson to a Mazda rotary engine for the new South African Atlantic rules. Raced by various drivers in this form in 1981 and 1982. Sold to Thompson in 1983, and retained until the mid-1990s when it was restored, and sold to Gary Dunkerley in 1998. Sold on again about 2003 to Peter Lindenberg. It was then sold to another SA resident in 2009 who later shipped the car to his son in New Zealand. It has a recorded history of 28 races.

The info given concerning Chassis Nos.1 and 2 courtesy of the oldracingcars.com website.

FMM’s 1973 Chevron B25-3 is currently on display in Hall D.

1973 Team Gunston Chevron B25 racing results

Jan 6 Cape South Easter, Killarney

Chassis 01 #6 John Love DNF

Chassis 02 #7 Ian Scheckter DNF

Chassis 03 #8 Peter Gethin 7th

Jan 27 Highveld 100, Kyalami

Chassis 01 #6 John Love 3rd

Chassis 02 #7 Ian Scheckter DNF

Chassis 03 not entered

Mar 31 Goldfields Autumn Trophy, Welkom

Chassis 01 #6 John Love 4th

Chassis 02 #7 Ian Scheckter 3rd

Chassis 03 #8 Peter de Klerk 7th

Apr 23 Mercury 100, Hesketh

Chassis 01 #6 John Love DNS

Chassis 02 #7 Ian Scheckter 4th

Chassis 03 not entered

May 26 Republic Day Races, Kyalami

Chassis 01 #7 Peter de Klerk 7th

Chassis 02 #6 John Love 5th

Chassis 03 #8 Ian Scheckter 4th

Jun 10 Bulawayo 100, Falls Road, Rhodesia

Chassis 01 #7 Peter de Klerk 6th

Chassis 02 #6 John Love 7th

Chassis 03 #8 Ian Scheckter 2nd

Jul 1 Natal Winter Races, Hesketh

Chassis 01 #6 John Love 5th

Chassis 02 #8 Ian Scheckter 4th

Chassis 03 not entered

For the rest of the 1973 season, unfortunately at present the chassis numbers are unknown. However, Chassis 03 was always considered the ‘spare’ chassis.

Aug 4 Rand Winter Races, Kyalami

Car #6 John Love 6th

Car #7 Andrew Thompson DNF

Car #8 Ian Scheckter 5th

Aug 25 False Bay 100, Killarney

Car #6 John Love 6th

Car #7 Brian von Hage DNS

Car #8 Ian Scheckter 5th

Sep 23 Rhodesian GP, Bulawayo

Car #6 John Love 5th

Car #7 Ian Scheckter 4th

Car #8 not entered