The Original Chevron Car Company

Chevron B8 GT CH-DBE-56.

1968 Barrie Smith bought the last Lotus 23b chassis that was made by Lotus plus a 1600cc Vegantune twin cam with the view of making an Alan Fowler Mercury special. Barrie then realised that making a Mercury was way beyond the capabilities of the Avalon team in the time left before the start of the 1968 season, so a B8 rolling chassis and gearbox was ordered from Derek Bennett at Chevron to be fitted with the Vegantune Ford engine.

It was an unusual but excellent combination. B8s were fitted with 2 litre BMW engines as standard but the 1600cc Ford unit seemed just as powerful.

The car, chassis number 56, won first time out at Brands Hatch and broke the lap record.
The Chevron B8 was a great car in which Barrie won 18 races in 1968 and took the Tootle GT Championship for 1600cc cars. The B8 was frequently able to worry cars in the larger capacity classes and he finished in the top three overall on a number of occasions including another overall win at Snetterton in September.

Barrie said "Paul Watson of MRC called me to say there was a really good race in Jyllandsringen The Danish GP."

It was Barrie’s first international race in August 1968. A late entry put in under Jac Nelleman’s accessory firm called Car Plus.

A top field of International GT racers were entered so no one was more surprised than Jac when the practice times were pretty good. At the end of the five heats which made up the “Danish Grand Prix” Barrie had prevailed against all the odds and took the win beating the Porsche 906 of Terry Hunter and the B8-BMW of Trevor Twaites.

(Details of Barrie Smith's ownership from the "Barrie Smith's Racing Times" web site.)

Historical Notes.

Engine: Ford 1600cc

In 1969 Barrie sold B8-DBE56 to David Purley who fitted a BMW engine and raced in the Motoring News GT Championship taking a win at Castle Combe, 2nd at Snetterton, 3rd at Mallory Park and 4th at Thruxton.

DBE-56 was next sold to Roy Seddon and John Raffo, Seddon raced the car in the 1971 RAC Sports Car Championship finishing 8th at the Daily Express Oulton Park round, 12th at the BARC Yellow Pages Sports Car Trophy, Thruxton and had a DNS in the Jock Leith Trophy at Croft. Both Seddon and Raffo drove the car at the Targa Florio qualifying 19th and finishing 3rd in the 2-litre sports car class.

In 1972 the car then went with Dave Brodie to Barbados and was raced there. Dave sold it to Mike Mahon who then sold to Haynes. It was then kept for years in a chicken shed.

B8-DBE56 was then brought back to the UK in the early 80s and stored here since then not having been raced since 1972.

B8-DBE56 has now been acquired by Chris Smith and it is now at his Chevron Cars workshop as the long and careful restoration of this historic car begins. Although needing a total rebuild it is absolutely original, even down to the bodywork.