1983 Theodore Formula One Car

Theodore "Teddy' Yip was born in Medan, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia in 1907 to Chinese parents. He moved to Hong Kong in the 1940s and set about building a very successful business empire which included travel agencies, hotels, casinos and trading companies. Racing cars was in his blood, and he began racing in the 1950's behind the wheel of a Jaguar XJ120. His first venture into motorsport sponsorship was in 1974 with Vern Schuppan and Alan Jones, who competed in in Formula 5000. In 1976, he formed Theodore Racing and entered Formula One with an Ensign for driver Patrick Tambay. 1977 was not a good year for Theodore Racing, so Yip decided to build his own F1 car. Eddie Cheever discovered it was not an easy car to drive, until, much to everybody's surprise, Keke Rosberg took the car to a shock victory in the wet at the 1978 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone. Even so, Yip decided to abandon the project and support Ensign and Wolf instead and decide what to do next.

Theodore Racing were back for the 1981 season with their own car. Tambay started the season and was then replaced by Marc Surer. The team's best result was 6th in the US Grand Prix, proving that even then it was tough for a small team to succeed in F1. 1982 was not a good year; the team had trouble even qualifying for the races.

This 1983 Theodore N183 Cosworth DFV for sale at our Classic Sale on 21st July, was a combined effort between two teams - Ensign and Theodore. Jonny Cecotto and Roberto Guerrero were contracted to drive the cars. The Team's best result was Jonny Cecotto's 6th in the US Grand Prix. This car was based on the 1982 car, but substantially revised and rebuilt in 1983. It comes today with a very special 3.0 litre Cosworth DFV V8 engine.

The vendor bought the car from Bob Howlings of Theodore Racing as a rolling chassis in 1985. It turned out that Howlings and the vendor both knew Patrick Head, who was Frank Williams business partner and head of engineering with the Williams F1 Team. Head was then happy to sell the vendor the correct long stroke DFV 352 3.0 litre engine that had come out of their ex Keke Rosberg F1 car. It was rebuilt by Geoff Richardson of Richardson Racing Engines who are generally acknowledged to be one of the top Cosworth DFV engine builders in Europe and possibly the World. The last rebuild was only about 140 racing miles ago, so the engine is "fresh' and a well-built Cosworth engine could last for several seasons before a further precautionary rebuild. The car has a flat bottom, a Hewland gearbox and there are some spares as well, plus two sets of wheels and, remarkably, it still has the original, fully functioning starter. This is chassis N/183/16 and the vendor tells us it is ready to race with the correct FIA papers. We are told it is eligible for GP Masters and Historic F1 events. Being dated 1983 it is considered to be a "classic' and would fit well in to the pre-85 class, which in turn means it is much simpler to run and far cheaper to maintain than its younger , highly sophisticated more modern cousins.

With the rare long stroke Cosworth DFV engine, supplied originally from Williams, this promises to be a rapid, and exciting car to race anywhere in Europe, and maybe more importantly, it will be relatively inexpensive to run. This is great opportunity to enter the world of historic F1 racing at relatively modest cost.