A Unique Chevron
Fred Goddard would still like to get his Reynards out racing his year, but in the meantime he’s as busy as ever with other projects. One of these is the rebuild of a unique Chevron B23 – chassis #21.

“It’s the only B23 Chevron ever built by Derek Bennett with a DFV.... but it was raced in the last Kyalami 9 Hours by Bernard Titanus, Ian Harrower and Graham Duxbury with a rotary Mazda engine.”

So far, we can’t puzzle out what year that was. This image was taken in 1987, at a club race at Zwartkoppes, in South Africa.

This car has an unusual history: it was built in 1973, to race at Le Mans – with a Tecno engine, commissioned by an Italian called Tondelli. The Tecno was unsatisfactory, and the car didn’t appear at Le Mans.

Two readers have already added further information: Eris Tondelli was the Italian Chevron importer - but he chose instead to run a McLaren M8F in the Interseries. A.M.S. of Bologna then ran a Lola fitted with the Tecno engine, which apparently sounded very pleasant - driven by Francesco Cerulli Irelli and Manfred Mohr.

“Derek then decided it had to have a DFV in it, but I think there was a financial problem – so it ended up with the Mazda engine in it, racing in South Africa,” continues Fred Goddard. “The Mazda was installed using the original DFV engine mountings, so the car was still very original.

“Vin Malkey has been pushing me to rebuild it for years – and with the fortieth anniversary meeting of Chevron being held at Oulton Park in August this year, that was the signal to get the job done. John Nicholson has supplied the DFV, so at last it will be as Derek Bennett intended it.

“The plan is that Earl and I will race it at the Silverstone LMES meeting in August, but Earl reckons I’m too old: he says we’ll just give me a push round the paddock!

“It’s going to be tough to get it ready in time, but we’re doing our best.”