To celebrate its six Formula One victories in 1958, the Vanwall Group has announced it will build six 1958 Vanwall Formula One continuation cars.
Vanwall isn’t a name many motorsport fans would remember but it’s six victories in 1958 saw it become the first ever winner of the Formula One World Constructors Trophy. And, a year before that it became the first ever British-built car to win the British Grand Prix with a British driver, with Sir Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks sharing the honours in 1957.
The Vanwall Group is the modern custodian of the original brand and has announced it will build six continuation cars for the six wins but only five will be offered for private sale. The sixth will form the core of the Vanwall Historic Racing Team.
The continuation cars will be built by Hall and Hall in Lincolnshire, England with the builds taking thousands of hours. The cars will all run handbuilt engines built to original spec from drawings and blueprints. “Each hand-built continuation car will be sold for £1.65 million ex VAT,” Vanwall Group said in a statement.
Announcing the continuation cars, Managing Director of Vanwall Group, Iain Sanderson, said; “The Vanwall name is too important to consign to history. The Vanwall story is untold to many, but it is a great British tale of innovation and achievement and shows what happens when the right team come together and push themselves fearlessly to reach a clearly defined goal. On this anniversary, we think the time is right to celebrate this great British story of success. Faithfully recreating the iconic 1958 championship winning car with six 100% accurate and authentic continuation cars is a fitting tribute to their historic success. The DNA that made those cars so successful also serves as an inspiring foundation for the future of the Vanwall marque, which I look forward to sharing in due course.”
Andrew Garner, Chairman of Vanwall Group and a former Chairman of the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association, concluded, “I can still remember watching the Vanwalls at Aintree in ’57 when I was a boy and had the pleasure of sitting in one at Goodwood. I drove at all the major circuits in a Cooper T51 for many wonderful years but the Vanwall is the car I coveted. These cars will be fully race eligible and in the right hands will be unbeatable, repeating Tony Vandervell’s mission to beat the red cars.”
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