RICHARD BURNS 2001 SUBARU IMPREZA WRC WALTER BRUN’S 1988 EUROBRUN COSWORTH DFZ F1

1959 FORMULA 2 MONOPOSTO

2001 Subaru Impreza WRC Ex-Richard Burns - £380,000 - £420,000

For those car enthusiasts who are all about speed and performance in rallies and racetracks the next Silverstone Auctions sale on August 27th has some gems to offer, cars that have been competitively driven

The first (above), is the ex-Richard Burns/Robert Reid rally car, used in Monte Carlo and Sweden during their Championship-winning 2001 season. On offer from 15-years private ownership and fresh from a sympathetic restoration retaining its original bodyshell and engine.

Harry Fox-Edwardsof Silverstone Auctions, who consigned the car, says: “An unequivocally impressive piece of machinery as a stand-alone car, but to have contributed to the great Richard Burns’ Championship winning year rightfully puts this car into a special place in many people’s hearts, myself especially as I vividly remember having the R/C version of this very car as every rally fanatic kid had at the time. It is a huge privilege to bring such a special car to market, it is a real collector's item with special provenance but retaining the ability to continue to be used for what it was originally designed to do.”

Following the disappointment of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2000 WRC Championship, 2001 was a year of redemption for Richard Burns and Robert Reid who finally achieved their first, and only, championship winning season. It was very tightly contested, and by no means a walkover, especially when their competition was arguably the greatest selection of rally drivers in history, including Colin McRae, Tommi Makinen and defending champion Marcus Gronholm, yet it was Burns in the S7 Impreza that took the drivers championship home that year with Peugeot retaining the Manufacturer's title. When we say this season was close, the top 3 drivers were separated by just 3 points by the end of the season!

For the 2001 World Rally Championship, Subaru nominated Petter Solberg and Richard Burns as their driver lineup, with Marko Martin and Toshi Arai competing in selected events. Their WRC 2001 Car featured an all-new look, based on the new Impreza WRX GD chassis, popularly known as the ‘Bugeye’. Along with the new body, the car featured revised aerodynamics, improved weight distribution and importantly, a lower centre of gravity and naturally mechanical developments continued apace. Synonymous with Rallying success, these World Rally cars were built, prepared and run by British motorsport team, Prodrive.

Held over 14 rounds, the 2001 World Rally Championship effectively covered ever corner of the globe, from the infamous Monte Carlo, to Australia, Argentina, Sweden and the Safari rally in Africa. During the course of the season, the WRC 2001 secured seven podium finishes, with Richard Burns claiming the World Rally Drivers Championship, beating four-time champion Tommi Makinen, double-champion Marcus Gronholm, and 1995 champion Colin McRae!

This Subaru Impreza WRC 2001, PR WRC 01 008 was built during January 2001 and registered as X2 SRT for Richard Burns to drive in the Monte Carlo Rally 2001, Start No 5. It then went on to be driven by Richard again for a second time in Rally Sweden 2001 and the car's final outing that year was Rally Portugal 2001 with Toshi Arai at the wheel.

Swiss, slot-machine magnate, Walter Brun’s 1988 EuroBrun Cosworth DFZ F1 £225,000 - £275,000

Stefano Modena's 1988 EuroBrun F1 car carefully rebuilt with a fresh Richardson DFZ and offering a host of possibilities.

Formula One was fairly flush with funds in the late eighties and this spawned a second coming of the ‘garagista’ mentality making it possible for wealthy individuals that fancied being part of the Formula One scene to put together a chassis and driver package based around the availability of the 3.5-litre Cosworth DFZ V8 engine. Soon thirty-car grids were the norm and it wasn't long before there were more Grand Prix cars than spaces on the grid and teams needed to pre-qualify, frequently resulting in the less well prepared outfits never getting a race, becoming disillusioned and quickly fading away. Nevertheless, they were colourful times with pretty cars and some rather flamboyant characters and, happily, one or two talented racing drivers did find a way into mainstream teams.

Swiss, slot-machine magnate, Walter Brun, had previously proved his ability to field a very professional team running customer Porsche 962Cs in the WEC and justifying his long-held aspirations to create and enter a Formula One team. With reliable and affordable engines in the form of the DFZ becoming available and the expertise of designer Mario Tolentino who had successfully guided the Alfa-Romeo Formula One team from 1982-1985, Brun's dream looked like becoming a reality when his 1988 Grand Prix entry was nearing completion. Throw into the mix the combination of Giampaolo Pavenello’s 'Euoracing' team with proven mechanical expertise and EuroBrun was born.

For the 1988 Grand Prix season, three cars were built and ER188-003, on offer here, was used by Stefano Modena for the majority of the season finishing in five of the seasons Grand Prix. He finished 12th at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal, 14th in the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, 12th at the British Grand Prix and then achieved the car's best result of 11th at the Hungarian Grand Prix. For 1989, the car was updated to EB188B specification and used for the first part of the season with a Judd CV engine till the ER189 was launched.

Superbly presented and sounding fantastic, this is a great opportunity to enter Formula One car ownership with a proper running car that would be welcome at many Blue Riband events and perhaps even Grand Prix support demos. With organisers now looking at the inclusion of 3.5 litre-engined Grand Prix cars into historic festivals and crowds keen to hear the howl of a full-house Cosworth V8 @12,000rpm, this may be one of your more shrewd investments.

1959 Formula 2 Monoposto

This potent Bristol-engined AC Monoposto was reconstructed by TT Workshops for the current owner and has, in recent years, enjoyed invitations to the Goodwood Members Meeting, HGPCA, Chateau Impney and raced with the VSCC in the hands of the late Simon Diffey, James and Crispin Harris, and our own Rob Hubbard. GUIDE PRICE: £80,000 - £120,000

It would be fair to say that the history of this fabulous, AC-based, Monoposto although fascinating, is by no means crystal clear. Its origins lie in a standard 1959 AC Aceca that was shipped to France and sold through AC's Paris agent. At some point later it was severely damaged in an accident and its owner at the time was faced with the choice of trying to find a new Aceca bodyshell and starting an expensive rebuild or perhaps building a single-seater which might be more fun. The racer option obviously won the day and we believe that it was built by Christian Mullaert. Although the little 2-litre Bristol-engined car would have been no match for the big over-square 2.5-litre cars produced by the big contenders in '58-59, Grand prix racing wasn't on the agenda just some club racing in which the little car would probably have been very competitive.

At some point, a few years later the car was chopped in two and that's where it starts to get interesting. The front end, including chassis plate, stayed in France until apparently resurrected, possibly by Rod Jolley. The chassis from the firewall back may have spent some time in the USA and Canada before returning to France, and that's what was purchased by our vendor. We quote from Chris at Bristol Engineering;.

"We were commissioned to rebuild this car by the current owner Nick Upton who bought the remains about 10 years ago. It was incomplete and had the beginnings of an AC Cobra body being built on to the chassis but utilising Triumph suspension uprights. Nick discovered its heritage from the chassis also confirmed from the remains of the original ACECA which were also with the kit of bits. On finding out its history, he decided to return it to its single-seat configuration originally built, as far as I am aware, by Christian Mullaert early on its life. We at Bristol Engineering rebuilt the car from some photos made available to us using as many of the original components we had with the kit of bits. The main missing component was the original bodywork. We know that a sister car has also been rebuilt from the other components that we did not have and re-bodied by Rod Jolley. That car now resides back in France. It would be sensible to surmise that the original single seater was broken up or at least dismantled at some point and components separated hence the existence of two cars, in my belief both with equal title to the original single seat format, Nick however has the identity of the original ACECA both cars were derived from."

This is a very good looking car, gently patinated from a few years of competition and delightfully evocative. A fun and cheap entry into Historic Grand Prix racing.