Eric Minoff
Vice President, Head of Department - US
LOT 89
1971 Surtees-Chevrolet TS8 Formula A/5000 Racing Single-Seater Chassis no. TS8/008
Sold for US$140,000 inc. premium
Lot 89
The Ex-Champ Carr team, Sam Posey/Rocky Moran
1971 Surtees-Chevrolet TS8 Formula A/5000 Racing Single-Seater
1971 Surtees-Chevrolet TS8 Formula A/5000 Racing Single-Seater
1971 Surtees-Chevrolet TS8 Formula A/5000 Racing Single-Seater
Chassis no. TS8/008
Chassis no. TS8/008
4,950cc OHV Chevrolet V8 Engine
4 Weber Carburetors
465bhp
5-Speed Hewland DG300 Manual Transmission
4-Wheel Independent Suspension
4-Wheel Disc Brakes
*Delivered new the Champ Carr team
*Raced in period by Sam Posey and Rocky Moran
*A highly competitive vintage racer
*A legend from the Formula 5000 era
THE SURTEES TS8
The late, truly great John Surtees was the only Formula 1 World Champion Driver ever to have achieved matching World Champion status on two wheels, racing motor- cycles. In fact he won no fewer than seven motor-cycle World Champion titles before in 1964 achieving his four-wheeler crown as works Ferrari number one racing driver.
After leaving Ferrari he continued to win at Formula 1 Grand Prix level for Cooper-Maserati and Honda, while also building up his own Team Surtees organization to run Lola sports-racing cars and then Formula A/5000 single-seaters in part for customer sale. 'John the Great' as he had been nicknamed by Italian fans of his MV-Agusta and Ferrari racing exploits, was a good engineer and he insisted upon very high standards of design, construction and preparation which came to typify his cars. They were beautifully built.
His Surtees-Cosworth TS7 design emerged as his own first Formula 1 car in 1970 and the Surtees TS8 as offered here derived from it. The model sold well and won races driven by John Surtees's fellow British former motor-cycle World Champion, Mike Hailwood.
The TS8 monocoque chassis were built on the same jigs as the TS7, carried identical suspension, wheels and brakes but used a Hewland DG300 gearbox which lengthened the assembled machine's wheelbase by 3 inches due to that unit's longer bellhousing. The Chevrolet V8 engine accepted suspension and torsional loads at the rear.
The European Formula 5000 series started well for the TS8 with Mike Hailwood taking three pole positions and winning twice in his first four races. But after two more victories the works TS8 suffered repeated engine trouble, allowing the new Lola T300 to dominate the last six races.
THE CAR OFFERED
Meanwhile 'TS8/008' now offered here had been bought by the California-based Champ Carr team. Their driver Sam Posey won at Mid-Ohio and took two further second places in combat with David Hobbs's Hogan-entered McLaren M10B. Both Posey and Hailwood finished second in their respective championships.
Champ Carr racing had two TS8s for drivers Posey and Rocky Moran. It is unclear which driver drove which car more times, but 'TS8/008's history is set out in specialist historian Allen Brown's wonderful oldracingcars.com website. Briefly, there is evidence that '008' was driven by Sam Posey, Rocky Moran, Phil Palm and Stuart Forbes-Robinson in at least 15 races, following its debut in the opening round of the US Championship series, at Riverside, California, on April 25,1971.
A TS8 was advertised by Champ Carr in the Autoweek magazine issue of October 21, 1972. Two "ex-Posey" TS8s appeared in the US during 1973: Phil Palm's TS8/08 and Len Guneau's - thought to be TS8/06. Chassis '8' was run by Bonphil Racing and its principals, Phil Palm and Ron Pohl, also bought a Surtees TS8 chassis from Fred Carrillo of Champ Carr as being "the crashed Posey chassis". After a time-consuming rebuild, Palm drove the car in a regional race at Riverside before selling it to Stuart Forbes-Robinson of Huntington Beach, California, who campaigned it at Riverside, 1974. Mike Cherry of Vacaville, California, later acquired it from a Glendale, California, workshop in 1977, intending to use it as the basis of a Can-Am car conversion project, but when otherwise committed he eventually sold the car and its spare tub to Al Moore who had also raced Cherry's Formula Vee.
It passed to Moore with an original No 34 Posey nose but also with a TS11 tub and No 88 (Ron Grable) sidepods. Moore believed it to be the ex-Posey car and had it restored in Posey's livery. Traded by Moore to dealer Chuck Haines of St Louis, Missouri in 2013 it was then sold to its current owner/vendor in January 2015. Since then he has raced in it multiple times at Road America, and also at Mosport Park.
This historic Formula A/5000 single-seater racing car is a fine example of multiple- World Champion rider and driver John Surtees's much admired and well-respected marque - beautifully built, then and now - and when well-prepared, of course, offering a driving experience to remember.
4 Weber Carburetors
465bhp
5-Speed Hewland DG300 Manual Transmission
4-Wheel Independent Suspension
4-Wheel Disc Brakes
*Delivered new the Champ Carr team
*Raced in period by Sam Posey and Rocky Moran
*A highly competitive vintage racer
*A legend from the Formula 5000 era
THE SURTEES TS8
The late, truly great John Surtees was the only Formula 1 World Champion Driver ever to have achieved matching World Champion status on two wheels, racing motor- cycles. In fact he won no fewer than seven motor-cycle World Champion titles before in 1964 achieving his four-wheeler crown as works Ferrari number one racing driver.
After leaving Ferrari he continued to win at Formula 1 Grand Prix level for Cooper-Maserati and Honda, while also building up his own Team Surtees organization to run Lola sports-racing cars and then Formula A/5000 single-seaters in part for customer sale. 'John the Great' as he had been nicknamed by Italian fans of his MV-Agusta and Ferrari racing exploits, was a good engineer and he insisted upon very high standards of design, construction and preparation which came to typify his cars. They were beautifully built.
His Surtees-Cosworth TS7 design emerged as his own first Formula 1 car in 1970 and the Surtees TS8 as offered here derived from it. The model sold well and won races driven by John Surtees's fellow British former motor-cycle World Champion, Mike Hailwood.
The TS8 monocoque chassis were built on the same jigs as the TS7, carried identical suspension, wheels and brakes but used a Hewland DG300 gearbox which lengthened the assembled machine's wheelbase by 3 inches due to that unit's longer bellhousing. The Chevrolet V8 engine accepted suspension and torsional loads at the rear.
The European Formula 5000 series started well for the TS8 with Mike Hailwood taking three pole positions and winning twice in his first four races. But after two more victories the works TS8 suffered repeated engine trouble, allowing the new Lola T300 to dominate the last six races.
THE CAR OFFERED
Meanwhile 'TS8/008' now offered here had been bought by the California-based Champ Carr team. Their driver Sam Posey won at Mid-Ohio and took two further second places in combat with David Hobbs's Hogan-entered McLaren M10B. Both Posey and Hailwood finished second in their respective championships.
Champ Carr racing had two TS8s for drivers Posey and Rocky Moran. It is unclear which driver drove which car more times, but 'TS8/008's history is set out in specialist historian Allen Brown's wonderful oldracingcars.com website. Briefly, there is evidence that '008' was driven by Sam Posey, Rocky Moran, Phil Palm and Stuart Forbes-Robinson in at least 15 races, following its debut in the opening round of the US Championship series, at Riverside, California, on April 25,1971.
A TS8 was advertised by Champ Carr in the Autoweek magazine issue of October 21, 1972. Two "ex-Posey" TS8s appeared in the US during 1973: Phil Palm's TS8/08 and Len Guneau's - thought to be TS8/06. Chassis '8' was run by Bonphil Racing and its principals, Phil Palm and Ron Pohl, also bought a Surtees TS8 chassis from Fred Carrillo of Champ Carr as being "the crashed Posey chassis". After a time-consuming rebuild, Palm drove the car in a regional race at Riverside before selling it to Stuart Forbes-Robinson of Huntington Beach, California, who campaigned it at Riverside, 1974. Mike Cherry of Vacaville, California, later acquired it from a Glendale, California, workshop in 1977, intending to use it as the basis of a Can-Am car conversion project, but when otherwise committed he eventually sold the car and its spare tub to Al Moore who had also raced Cherry's Formula Vee.
It passed to Moore with an original No 34 Posey nose but also with a TS11 tub and No 88 (Ron Grable) sidepods. Moore believed it to be the ex-Posey car and had it restored in Posey's livery. Traded by Moore to dealer Chuck Haines of St Louis, Missouri in 2013 it was then sold to its current owner/vendor in January 2015. Since then he has raced in it multiple times at Road America, and also at Mosport Park.
This historic Formula A/5000 single-seater racing car is a fine example of multiple- World Champion rider and driver John Surtees's much admired and well-respected marque - beautifully built, then and now - and when well-prepared, of course, offering a driving experience to remember.
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Title in transit.
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