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Chassis:
Sold new to Chevron's Italian agent Eris Tondelli, this B23 was intended to be powered by Tecno's new two-litre, flat eight engine. Literally a flat-twelve with four cylinders cut off, the engine refused to run properly even after extensive development work. Tondelli gave up on the flat eight and had Tecno remove the problematic engine. The car was returned to Chevron where it was fitted with a Cosworth DFV V8. Unfortunately, it arrived too late to compete in the 1974 Monza 1000 km, where it had been entered for Tondelli himself and Peter Gethin.
When chassis B23-73-21 did eventually return in Italy, it was driven to a debut victory in the Garessio-San Bernardo hill-climb by Tondelli. It was then raced in various events in Italy with Tondelli most notably winning his class at Varano in 1975. Ahead of the following season, it was acquired by highly successful hill-climb racer Mauro Nesti. He used it sparingly as he preferred his Lola T292. Nesti did run it in the 1977 Targa Florio together with Enrico Grimaldi, and won his class by finishing fourth overall.
In 1982, the car was sold to South Africa, where it was fitted with a B36 styled bodywork and fitted with a Mazda rotary engine. In this guise it was raced to 13th in the Kyalami 9 Hours. The following year, it was acquired by Fred Goddard, who raced the car extensively until the end of the decade. It was then placed in dry storage before it was restored to its DFV configuration with the help of Vin Malkie in 2005. In 2013, the car changed hands again and it was briefly seen in action during the 2015 Spa Classic.
Ahead of the 2016 season, it has been re-restored to its original livery and in this guise it was raced at the Jarama Classic. Martin O'Connell qualified the car on pole but struggled with reliability issues during the race.
Chassis details |
Manufactured in |
1973 |
First owner |
Eris Tondelli |
Appearances |
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