1968 Nerus Silhouette

Designed by Cedric Selzer, Jim Clark's race engineer in 1963/64, who came up with a conventional spaceframe chassis clad with aluminium panels, the Nerus Silhouette was intended to run in the Formula F100 series. Announced in 1969, F100 was a short-lived attempt to do for sports car racing what Formula Ford had done for single-seaters and was conceived along similar lines to Formula Ford, lightly modified production engines and road tyres being mandatory. It was intended to replace the sometimes ill-supported sports-racing and GT events at club meetings, however, Formula F100 only lasted a couple of seasons.

Believed to be one of five cars created, the example offered here is powered by a 2-litre Lotus-Ford twin-cam engine mated to a Hewland Mark 9 gearbox. Running twin 48mm Dellorto carburettors and dry-sump lubrication with fully adjustable suspension (magnesium uprights), the car is running and driving but following some years of inactivity will need careful recommissioning and the safety equipment updating. Raced by David Beckett, it ran in the Spa Six Hours in 2001. 1990 FIA papers and a rolling-road report from that year are also available. A fabulous opportunity to break into historic racing in a truly special car.