Page 1 of 1 At the end of the 1972, McLaren had announced the end of the company's customer car program. One of the big victims of this decision was Trojan, who had built these cars for McLaren since the mid 1960s. In a desperate attempt to convince McLaren to reconsider, a new F5000 car was hastily created by Trojan combining parts of McLaren's existing F2 and F5000 designs. McLaren stood their ground, and instead the new machine was marketed as the Trojan F5000 and raced throughout the 1973 season.
Future world champion Jody Scheckter proved particularly successful behind the wheel of his T101, winning races in both the UK and the USA. To maintain competitiveness, Trojan's Ron Tauranac of Brabham fame promised to further develop the T101 and design the brand new T102 for the 1974 season. However, the lure of a high profile Formula 1 entry proved too big and as the season progressed, Trojan and Tauranac shifted their focus on creating an F1. Known as the T103, it was very closely based on the T102 design.
A wholly conventional design, the T103 consisted of a sheet-aluminium monocoque chassis with the Cosworth DFV and Hewland gearbox used as fully stressed members. Suspension was by double wishbones at the front and a upper and lower links with trailing arms at the rear. Ventilated discs were used all-round, with the rear brakes mounted alongside the gearbox to reduce the unsprung weight. The full-width front wing also housed the radiator, while the engine was fitted with a tall air-box with an oval-shaped intake.
With backing from Suzuki, which was imported into the UK by one of Trojan's sister companies, a single T103 was entered in the F1 World Championship for Tim Schenken. The car debuted with a 14th at the Spanish Grand Prix and would go on to finish 10th twice and retire a further three times before the funds dried up after the Italian Grand Prix. The demise of the Formula 1 program also signalled the end of Trojan's brief spell as an independent racing car manufacturer. Page 1 of 1
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At the end of the 1972, McLaren had announced the end of the company's customer car program. One of the big victims of this decision was Trojan, who had built these cars for McLaren since the mid 1960s. In a desperate attempt to convince McLaren to reconsider, a new F5000 car was hastily created by Trojan combining parts of McLaren's existing F2 and F5000 designs. McLaren stood their ground, and instead the new machine was marketed as the Trojan F5000 and raced throughout the 1973 season.