British firm Vanwall returns with 1958 F1 continuation car

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 23.10.2020

Historic F1 Constructor’s Champions return with extremely limited recreations of its racer

Younger readers may not be familiar with the Vanwall name however, back in the 50s, it was the brand that put British car makers on the F1 map after decades of dominance by Alfa Romeo and Maserati, before Mercedes came along in the early 50s.

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By 1958, after a number of troubled years refining the team and its cars, Vanwall claimed the illustrious Formula One Constructor’s Championship with a star-studded lineup including Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans as drivers and Colin Chapman as the car designer.

Today, the Vanwall brand returns with plans to build six exacting ‘continuations’ of its 1958 Championship-winning F1 car, one for each of its wins that season.

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The modern Vanwall company has enlisted historic racing specialist Hall and Hall to develop the continuation examples of the original VW5 racecar. Like the original, it will be powered by a 2.5lt four-cylinder which should yield around 200kW.

Of the six vehicles produced, one will be retained by Vanwall for historic racing, while the remaining five will be offered for sale for a whopping GBP£1.65 million (AU$3 million).

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In addition to the continuation vintage racecar program, Vanwall is inbestigating the potential to develop new road and racecars in a similar vein to Brabham’s modern reinvention of itself.

The company state, however, that more information on those plans is still to come shortly.

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