1974 Surtees TS16 Formula One Race Car

Lot details
Registration No: UN-REG
Chassis No: 04-4
Mot Expiry: None

John Surtees, already a World Champion on two wheels and four, and having already built JS-prefixed racing motorcycles, became a racing car constructor via being an agent for the Leda F5000 car. For when the Len Terry designed project floundered, it was redesigned and became the Surtees TS5. Having outgrown his own workshop space, the Surtees Racing Organisation, which was made up of Team Surtees and TS Research and Developments, relocated to a factory in Edenbridge, Kent, where subsequent Surtees race cars were built for his own team's use as well as racing customers.
John Surtees himself scored the marque's first World Championship points driving one of his own cars, the TS7 F1, during the 1970 season. Surtees single seaters were more successful in F2, where Mike Hailwood became 1972 European F2 Champion driving a Hart-BDA powered TS10, and in F5000, where Gijs van Lennep won the European title at the wheel of Jackie Epstein's Smith-Chevrolet powered TS11. The 1978 TS20, the first ground-effects Surtees, was also the last F1 Surtees, for Surtees pulled out of the premier series before the season was out.
Due to sponsorship monies not being forthcoming, Surtees could only afford to run a single car during the 1974 F1 season, during which South American Carlos Pace managed to drive a TS16 04 into the points on one occasion. It was Northern Ireland's John Watson who drove TS16 04-4, the chassis being auctioned here today, retiring in the 1975 South African GP, but finishing second in the non-F1 Championship Race of Champions at Brands and fourth in the International Trophy at Silverstone as well as eighth in the Spanish GP. Frenchman Henri Pescaralo also drove this historically important car at Monaco in 1975.
Following an extensive rebuild, and presented in the yellow and black livery of period sponsors Matchbox toys, it has been fitted with a rebuilt Langford 3-litre Ford Cosworth DFV on mechanical fuel injection and has a rebuilt FG400 gearbox, both of which have only been raced once since those rebuilds, finishing third during the high profile Monaco Historic race weekend.
The car has been extremely successful in the very competitive TGP series, securing several class wins and class poles on the grid, finally finishing second in class and fifth overall in the championship - and all achieved on a sensible budget too. Throughout this latest race career it has been meticulously maintained and is currently fitted with virtually all new joints, wheel bearings, hubs, steering rack and shock absorbers, all of which have been recently rebuilt. Indeed, you name it and it will have had it done!
It comes complete with a spare set of wheels, all of which have been newly made during the last two seasons, the majority of jigs and body panel moulds, along with all set-up and running info. The team who has looked after the car tells us that they would be able to run any purchaser in the FORCE, TGP or Derek Bell series, or any events as required, at a very sensible rate. The car is in receipt of a valid crack test certificate and that vital set of FIA papers. Whilst numerous spares, suspension components, uprights and bodywork parts, along with all jigs for suspension and uprights as well as patterns for wheels would be made available to the purchaser.
This sale provides you with a rare opportunity to acquire a unique piece of motor racing history with some excellent provenance, the car having been bought directly from the great double World Champ John Surtees himself four years ago. If you want one of the most competitive F1s in historic racing, this is it. On the button and action ready.