issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article may require cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . no cleanup reason has been specified . please help improve this article if you can . april 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message this article is about the manufacturer of racing cars for the chevron promotional cartoon see chevron cars . chevron b8 chevron cars ltd. is an english manufacturer of racing cars founded by derek bennett in 1965 . following bennett s death in 1978 the firm has remained active in various guises . the original company s designs and name continue to be used to build replacement parts and continuation models of earlier chevrons . in 2005 chevron racing cars ltd. founded by vin malkie acquired the trade mark chevron racing cars ltd and in addition to the companies other activities has designed and built new grand tourer racing cars under the chevron name as well as other continuation models of earlier chevrons . contents 1 history 1.1 derek bennett 1.2 chevron cars 2 modern chevrons 3 cars 4 superstition 5 references 6 external links history edit derek bennett edit 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 . 1 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 . citation needed 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 citation needed racing cars . chevron b2 aintree festival of motorsport 2004 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 . 2 chevron cars edit 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 coup 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 . 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 . 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 . all the assets including all copyright in drawings components and car body moulds were bought by a consortium of scottish racing drivers enthusiasts who formed chevron racing cars scotland ltd. this company produced spare parts for the range of chevron cars as well as designing and building a few new sports 2000 and formula atlantic models up until 1983 when the company liquidated . roger andreason whose andreason racing and tuning business was at that time running several chevron cars for customers purchased all the assets including copyright in drawings and materials required to manufacture chevron racing cars for chevron cars ltd. under control of roger andreason chevron cars ltd. produced over 50 cars for formula ford formula ford 2000 sports 2000 and group c categories as well as maintaining the spare part service for existing chevron owners . in 2005 vin malkie one of the original chevron employees and owner of the first chevron produced along with his wife and successful racing driver helen bashford malkie acquired the chevron trade mark . they continued their existing business as chevron restorers and race preparers . they have since produced technically correct continuation models using largely original jigs and drawings vin and helen still consulted with many of the original chevron employees on a regular basis not least paul owens as part of their restoration process . in 2011 in partnership with an investor they produced the chevron gr8 and later the gr8 gt camapining successfully with barc and the later gt car in british gt . in 2006 chris smith purchased a majority share holding in chevron cars ltd. from the owners roger andreason and tim colman . both roger and tim remained minority shareholders with tim remaining as a director a position he has held since 1983 . the following five years saw chris smith invest substantially in chevron . during this time he oversaw the construction of around 10 continuation b8 and b16 models which were assembled by kelvin jones of kelvin jones motorsport based in liverpool . in july 2011 roger andreason and tim colman bought back chris smith s shareholding and roger was re appointed as the managing director of chevron cars limited . modern chevrons edit chevrons are popular cars in historic racing and various businesses still refettle and supply spares for the cars . continuation models of the 1970s chevron b16 are built by both chevron cars and chevron racing and are eligible for historic racing with fia approval . as oulton park had been bennett s home circuit the gold cup meeting features races dedicated solely to chevron s sportcars . chevron racing has developed a gr8 model which competes in the british gt championship as well as in a one make series . cars edit this section is incomplete . april 2011 the following models were built by chevron . model category year notes b1 clubmans formula 1965 b2 clubmans formula 1966 chevron b2 b3 ford gt 1966 b3 b6 b8 and b12 all basically similar b4 bmw gt 1966 for a detailed history of this model including photographs and race results see the current owner s website http www.chevronb4.co.uk b5 brm gt 1967 b6 ford bmw gt 1967 b7 formula 3 1967 b8 gt group 4 1968 b9 b9b formula 3 1968 b10 formula 2 1968 b12 repco gt 1968 lengthened b8 for john woolf s le mans entry b14 formula b 1968 b15 b15b b15c formula 3 fb 1969 b16 coupe g5 g6 1969 chevron b16 coupe b16 spyder g6 1969 effectively the prototype for b19 porsche 908 like spyder body on b16 chassis b17 b c f2 f3 fb 1970 b18 f2 atlantic b 1970 b19 g6 1971 progenitor of the b19 b21 b23 b26 b31 line of open sports cars . b20 f2 atlantic 1971 b21 g6 1972 b23 g6 1973 b24 f5000 1972 beat mixed f1 f5000 field in peter gethin s hands . b25 f2 atlantic 1973 b26 g6 1973 b27 f2 atlantic 1974 b28 f5000 1974 b29 f2 atlantic 1975 b30 f5000 1975 3.5 l cosworth v6 not 5.0 l ford v8 . f5000 champion with david purley . b31 g6 1975 in 1975 chevron b31s driven by several drivers won the under 2 litre class of several rounds of the world championship for sportscars . the over 2 litre class was won by alfa romeo s flat 12s . a total of 6 b31s were constructed and at least two continue to contest vintage race events in the u.s. b32 special 1975 one off hillclimb special owing much to f5000 practice for john cussins with 5.7 chevy . ran in match race against a motorbike on part of the isle of man tt course . b34 f3 atlantic 1976 b35 f2 atlantic 1976 b36 g6 1976 b37 f5000 1976 only one ever b37 built chassis number b37 001 . built for peter gethin and run by the vds team equipped with a chevrolet v8 5 litre engine . car was sold to australian bruce allison and competed in the 1978 rothmans international series . was sold again in 1980 to australian engineer ivan tighe . tighe competed in numerous circuit races including the 1980 australian grand prix in the 5000 . the 5000 slowly retired from circuit racing to become a hillclimb car culminating in an outright win in the 1985 australian hillclimb championship for ivan tighe at the age of 55 another win came shortly after his 60th birthday in 1991 ; the car was retired until 1995 when ivan s son dean restored the car and continued to hillclimb the vehicle as well as do demonstrations at historic events . dean s best result was equal second outright at the 1997 australian hillclimb championship in the rain on slick tires . the