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Derek
Daly on his way to setting a lap record
at Brands Hatch in his Chevron B38. |
Following on from the success of the B1 a number of replicas were ordered by fellow racing drivers and Bennett set up premises in an old cotton mill in Bolton. A number of GT models followed until the beautiful B8 which gave Chevron a world-wide reputation.
Chevron's first single-seater would be the 1967 B7 a F3 car, although it would be several years before the Chevron name became as important in single-seaters as it was in Sports Cars.
Over the next several years many classic race winning cars would emerge from Bolton, the B16 and B36 in Sports Cars, the B24 in Formula 5000 as well as a string of highly competitive and very attractive F3 cars.
Tragically in 1978 Derek Bennett perished as the result of a hang-gliding accident and with his death the life seemed to ebb away from Chevron. Sports Car racing was in decline and a number of ground-effect single-seaters as well as a disappointing flirtation with Can-Am racing, the B51, meant financial problems and the company went into liquidation in 1980. Although taken over and to some extent revived, the golden days of Chevron were over.
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The B7 would be the first single seater Chevron (ignoring Clubmens cars) and was built at the request of Rodney Bloor. It was a surprise as Chevron's reputation was being forged with a succession of attractive and competitive sports cars but Derek Bennett was quite happy to provide what customers wanted. Bennett was determined to keep the one-off car simple, small and light and he produced a straight forward wishbone suspended spaceframe chassis. The front suspension fwas double pivot and unusually for the time the front uprights were magnesium. Peter Gethin raced the car at Brands Hatch finishing second (but dropping back after a one minute penalty for a jumped start) and setting a new lap record, Chevron had arrived in F3. |
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The B9 was the productionised version of the B7 and 8 cars were built during the year. Initially the car proved competitive if not quite on a par with the top Brabhams and Tecnos. Towards the end of the season the B9B was introduced which featured stressed panels added to the frame to greatly increase the rigidity and the pickup points for the rear top links were moved further inboard and the top links were lengthened. These mods seemed to make the difference with both Peter Gethin and Tim Schenken winning International events at the end of the year. |
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For 1969 the B15 was introduced, it was a further development of the B9B, using the same layout a sheet-stressed fuel tank centre section was added (fitted with bag tanks) which gave the car the extra rigidity it needed. Double wishbone suspension was attached front and rear with outboard springs and dampers. Once some early season problems had been sorted out, such as incorrect dampers, the B15 was soon flying. The car required a certain driving style as it had inherent understeer but for drivers like Reine Wisell who mastered it, it was arguably the fastest car of the season, drivers were particularly pleased with its braking performance. It was popular with customers and 14 cars were built during the season. A one-off B15C was constructed from the last B15 built, it had modified suspension pick-up points and Lockheed brakes. Wheelbase: 7ft
8in |
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The B17 continued the progression from the earlier models, further stiffening was employed by making the centre section of the car closer to a monocoque and modifications were made to the suspension with new uprights, steering arms and lighter wheels whilst a smaller, neater engine cover was fitted. With the advent of aerodynamic aids wings could be fitted front and rear. 9 cars were built and results were reasonable but most people felt that Bennett was spending most of his time on developing the B16 sports car. |
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The B18 was intended for use in F2, F3 and formula Atlantic and was characterised by the large square nose, surprisingly perhaps despite appearance it was very quick in a straight line. It consisted of a semi-monocoque with bottom square tubes to keep repairs simple, a bolt-on engine sub frame made engine changes between formulae easier to deal with. Suspension was conventional with inboard coils and springs at the front. Too little development was carried out on what was a very promising effort. |
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The B20 was like its predecessor, the B18, meant for F2, F3 and F Atlantic and was basically a B18 with a full-width nose. During the season the full-width nose was replaced with a narrow nose that matched the width of the rest of the bodywork. As far as priorities were concerned the F3 car seemed last on the list behind Sports Cars and the F2 variant. Despite the best efforts of Chris Skeaping success was not forthcoming and Chevron pulled out of F3 until 1976. |
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Originally shown in late 1975 as a Formula Atlantic chassis the test car was converted to F3 spec with the addition of a Novamotor Toyota engine. Derek Bennett and Paul Owens carried out a systematic development programme on this wide tracked car. All this work paid off and the works backed Trivellato run team soon showed the car was a winner with their new star Riccardo Patrese. As soon as the car started winning other orders followed and Geoff Lees in a semi-works car as well as Rupert Keegan soon showed the B34's pace in UK races. |
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The B38 was a refinement of the B34 and was to prove very successful indeed with some 20 race wins, only Ralt would win more. Due to the success of the 1976 car a lot of top drivers were tempted over to the B34 and they were to be successful all over Europe. Derek Daly won one of the British titles and de Angelis took the Italian championship. The chassis was a bathtub style monocoque with detachable sub frames, the front suspension was via double wishbones with transverse links, wishbones and radius rods at the rear. It had excellent braking capabilities and its wide track inspired driver confidence especially in the rain. 28 B38s were built in total. |
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The B43 was surprisingly unpopular, it had a reputation for being difficult to set up and only two cars were seen regularly in the UK, Jim Crawford and Barry Green were the drivers. The works effort was based on European drivers and Patrick Gaillard had some wins in Germany and Italy and nearly won at Monaco. Rear suspension changes were introduced during the course of the year but the car only seemed to perform well on fresh rubber or after painstaking dialling into the track. |
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Following
Derek Bennett's death Paul Owens took over some of the design responsibilities
and the B47 was Chevron's entry into the wing car market. Tony Southgate
was employed as a freelance design consultant but he was forced to
base his design on the previous year's chassis due to budgetary considerations.
Inboard front suspension was added and side pods, however the chassis
was too wide for the side pods to work effectively as ground effect
devices. Bernard Devaney struggled manfully with his recalcitrant
chassis and managed to produce some good results including some wins. During the season a redesign was introduced, the most notable feature of which was a full width nose cone and sidepods with raised sides, it was renamed the B47B but seemed no great improvement. |
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| Drivers | |
| 1967 | Peter Gethin. |
| 1968 | B9 B9B |
| 1969 | B15C B15 B9 |
| 1970 | B17 B15 |
| 1971 | B18 B17 B15 ? |
| 1972 | B20 B17 B15 |
| 1973 | B17 Maximilian Plass. |
| 1974 | B17 Horst Floth. |
| 1976 | B34 Rudolf Dötsch, Rupert Keegan, Geoff Lees, Riccardo Patrese, Fernando Spreafico, Marc Surer. |
| 1977 |
B38 B34 |
| 1978 |
B43 B38 B34 ? |
| 1979 |
B47 B47B B43 B38 B34 ? |
| 1980 | B47B B47 B43 B38 B34 ? |
| 1981 | B47 B43 B38 ? |
| 1982 | B47 B43 B38 ? |
| 1983 | B47 B38 ? |
| 1984 | B47 B38 ? |
| 1985 | B38 Placido-Daniel Pardo. |
| 1986 | B38 Placido-Daniel Pardo. |
