<< Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >> Fitted with a FVA engine, the B16 made its debut early in September at the prestigious Nürburgring 500 km race in the hands of works driver Brian Redman. The new Chevron was immediately competitive but did appear to have some understeer. Overnight some small winglets were created and Redman clinched pole, well ahead of the previously dominant Abarths, who had skipped the final session. Redman immediately grabbed the lead and dominated the race to take a debut victory, which would become something of a Chevron speciality.
Redman's fabulous win ironically slowed down the B16 development as his driving skills hid the fact that the handling was far from sorted. Eventually the problem was tracked down to a lack of rear downforce, which actually produced so much oversteer that the drivers were fearful of turning in. Ironically that led them to believe the car understeered. Bennett fixed the issue by adding two big spoilers on the corners of the engine cover. Having learned his lessons, he did not call in the help of 'experts' again for the design of future models.
With the problems sorted, the B16 soon became a regular winner and orders flooded in. In addition to the FVC engined models, customers also raced the cars with the BMW four and a Mazda rotary engine. Three examples were used in the legendary Steve McQueen movie Le Mans. Although official figures suggest only 23 examples were produced, the car was fully homologated as a 'Group 5' GT, for which a production run of 25 was the minimum.
For the Chevron works team the European 2-Litre Championship was the priority in 1970. The team were unpleasantly surprised by the arrival of the all-new, open Lola T210 at the season opener. Lighter by a hefty 70 kg than the coupe bodied B16, it would be the team's main challenger in the hands of Jo Bonnier and others. Redman drove the works Chevron along with John Burton. After a very close fight, Redman did manage to win the first round at Paul Ricard and the championship was not decided until the final round, with Abarth also still in contention. << Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >>
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Fitted with a FVA engine, the B16 made its debut early in September at the prestigious Nürburgring 500 km race in the hands of works driver Brian Redman. The new Chevron was immediately competitive but did appear to have some understeer. Overnight some small winglets were created and Redman clinched pole, well ahead of the previously dominant Abarths, who had skipped the final session. Redman immediately grabbed the lead and dominated the race to take a debut victory, which would become something of a Chevron speciality.