Cosworth power – and 400-plus bhp per tonne
Chevron Racing Cars is launching a new Cosworth engined sports coupe, the GR8, together with a race series for owners. A trackday version will follow once the on-make race series it is designed for – the GR8 Challenge Series – is under way. Organised by the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC), the opening event is planned for April 2010.
Cheshire-based Chevron describes the mid-engined GR8 as a supercar for the belt-tightening era. With a weight of around 600 kg and power provided by a Cosworth 2.0L YD inline four cylinder race engine developing 255 bhp at 8200 rpm, the GR8 will have a power to weight ratio in excess of 400 bhp per tonne. That puts it firmly in supercar territory.
States Chevron Racing Cars director Helen Bashford-Malkie:
“The GR8 is engineered to be some 60 percent lighter than a typical Italian exotic, enabling it to deliver comparable performance with a smaller engine. The result is a correspondingly lower price – £49,500 plus VAT.
“In a sense, we have turned the idea of a supercar on its head. Unleash their performance potential on the road and within very few seconds you could be on the wrong side of the law. However, for racing or serious trackday use they require modification – and are extremely expensive to repair should they suffer damage.
“The GR8 is a sporting car in the purest sense. Its lightness contributes to the handling agility and responsiveness consistent with being designed as an out-and-out racer from the tyre contact patches upwards. Although the GR8’s structure is appropriately strong and robust, full consideration has been given to ensuring relative ease of repair.
“Race preparation expenditure for competing in the eight-round GR8 Challenge Series should be very substantially less than the budget required for campaigning a high performance road car over an equivalent racing mileage.
“We have already had enquiries about building a road legal version. Although Low Volume Type Approval makes this feasible for one-offs, there would inevitably be a cost premium. Higher production volumes are not in our plans – it would entail extensive re-engineering. We are already attracting export enquires for GR8 racers and trackday versions. These will take priority over any possible road-going development.
The design of the new car has a deliberate affinity with the Chevron B8 racing coupe, over 70 of which were built following its introduction in 1968. Priced £3,380 new, Chevron B8s now change hands for £300,000.
The B8 was first Chevron type to use a Cosworth engine. Internationally successful in 1960s-70s era 2.0 litre class sports and GT racing, many continue to be actively raced in championships for historic sports cars, one of today’s most flourishing branches of motorsport.
The Cosworth YD that will power the GR8 includes a PiRQ4 engine control unit incorporating technologies derived from ECUs used by winners of the FIA GT and World Rally Championship titles. The Cosworth electronics package is completed by a Pi Omega LCD panel display, providing crystal-clear readouts for the driver and seamless integration with the engine control unit data.
Although never a manufacturer of road cars, Chevron was among Britain’s most prolific racing car constructors. During the dozen or so years following its foundation in 1965, Chevron produced more than 500 two-seat open sports racers, single-seat formula cars and competition coupes.
The original Chevron racing car business was famously based in Bolton, Lancashire. Like the head of the Chevron Racing Cars group Vin Malkie, a nucleus of its staff members were formerly with Chevron in Bolton. As well as components supply, repairs and rebuild services, Chevron actually manufactures a trickle of original-specification B8s conforming to FIA Historic Technical Passport regulations. They are mainly for export to continental European customers.
The GR8 is scheduled for formal launch during January 2010. Further information will be released as the GR8 engineering and development programme progresses.
Two rounds of the GR8 Series will be run at each of eight BARC meetings. Races will feature rolling starts. Entries are open to either one or two drivers. With a team of two, the idea is for each to contest one round. Accepting entries for two drivers creates obvious opportunities for sharing costs. As part of a comprehensive entrant support package, Chevron plans to have a pool car on hand as a spare should a competitor’s own GR8 be unable to start a race for whatever reason.
Chevron Racing Cars provides spares and technical support services for over 130 Chevron competition coupes, sports-racers and formula cars to owners in the UK, continental Europe and North America.
In recent years the company has manufactured a number of new official Chevron works chassis plate B8 and B16 coupes conforming to FIA HTP regulations, mainly for export to continental European customers.Vin Malkie Racing is a long established race preparation, restoration and racing car management business serving UK, continental European and US owners. Vin Malkie Racing prepared Chevrons – and Lola and McLaren CanAm cars – have a record of being habitual winners and front runners in a variety of national and international championships for historic racing cars.
