<< Prev Page 3 of 3 In order to keep up with the Lolas, Redman urged Bennett to build an open B16. He finally complied and he also followed Redman's advice to simply copy the shape of the Porsche 908/3 that he had driven to a dominant victory in the Targa Florio that year. The resulting B16 Spyder was mechanically identical to the 'standard' car but it looked like a new car. The new car had an uncharacteristically difficult debut at the Nürburgring 500 km but Redman bounced back, taking an epic victory Spa, securing the championship for Chevron.
For the 1971 season Chevron launched the B19, the production version of the successful B16 Spyder. Although really competitive for a few months, the B16 did dominate during that period and is still considered the finest of all Chevrons. So much so, that within a decade after original production had ceased, 'continuation' models began to appear. The first ones 'replaced' cars that had been destroyed or lost but soon after B16s appeared with chassis numbers that were never issued in period.
Brand new B16s can still be ordered from Chevron and as a result a multitude of the original 23-25 examples produced exist today. Current continuation cars are clearly identified as such but many of the cars (re)built in the 1980s sport the number and identity of one of the originals. It is even possible to catch two B16s side by side claiming to be the same car. A real historian's nightmare, all of these B16s are allowed to race and they do generally provide a great spectacle on track, usually hounding much bigger engined competitors. Fortunately a handful of truly 'genuine' cars do still exist and several of those are also raced. << Prev Page 3 of 3
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In order to keep up with the Lolas, Redman urged Bennett to build an open B16. He finally complied and he also followed Redman's advice to simply copy the shape of the Porsche 908/3 that he had driven to a dominant victory in the Targa Florio that year. The resulting B16 Spyder was mechanically identical to the 'standard' car but it looked like a new car. The new car had an uncharacteristically difficult debut at the Nürburgring 500 km but Redman bounced back, taking an epic victory Spa, securing the championship for Chevron.