1986 Van Diemen RF86

Van Diemen was founded in 1973 by Ross Ambrose and Ralph Firman Sr. The company's name derives from the island of Tasmania, Australia, which was formerly known as Van Diemen's Land and is where Ambrose was born and lived before moving to the UK to co-found the company.

For over five decades, Van Diemen has stood as one of the most, if not the most, successful constructors in the history of Formula Ford with household names like Ayrton Senna, Johnny Herbert and Mark Weber having kick started their careers in a Van Diemen. The inception of the company and its debut vehicle, the FA73, marked a pivotal shift from Lotus in 1972, with Ralph Firman, Dave Baldwin, and Ross Ambrose at the helm. The FA73, a direct evolution of the Lotus 69 which was designed by Baldwin, clinched victory at the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival on its inaugural outing, paving the way for Van Diemen's remarkable 21 Festival victories.

Having become the largest volume manufacturer of race cars in the world, Van Diemen drivers have gone on to win the Formula One World Championship, Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500. The original Van Diemen brand was raced by Ayrton Senna, Eddie Irvine, Mark Webber, Mark Blundell, Jonathan Palmer and David Coulthard to name a few.

Introduced in 1986, the RF86 was to prove to be one of the company's most successful models ever. This particular RF86, chassis 113 was bought new from Van Diemen and raced by Paul Tracy in the 1986 Canadian Tire F2000 Series with backing from Rothmans cigarettes finishing fourth overall, with one win at Sanair Super Speedway and three podium finishes for 164 points. Tracy went on to drive for Penske and Newman/Haas amongst others, winning the American Racing Series in 1997 and the CART/Champcar World Series in 2003. The car was subsequently sold to the US where it ran in various regional championships.

After a period in storage, the car was purchased in 2017 by its current owner and shipped back to the UK prior to commencing a total chassis-up restoration and rebuild. The chassis was fully stripped and refinished by Gerry Wainwright Motorsport, fitted with new laser cut panels, and a new foam-filled tank supplied by Alloy Racing Fabrications. It's powered by a zero-mileage Quicksilver engine fully rebuilt by Toovey Race Engines in Cannock, with media-blasted and refinished headers, a new stainless steel collector and a correct Ford Motorsport silencer. The original Hewland Mk9 gearbox was also fully overhauled with new bearings, splined input sleeve, selector fork and Hewland wing-mounted rear cover. Now completed, the car presents in fabulous condition and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner.

With all new lightweight URS bodywork finished in Oxford Blue as per the original specification, the car currently wears the Duckhams livery. The decision behind this was to avoid issues in Cigarette sponsorship in current racing. The vendor also notes that Paul Tracy came over to the UK at the end of the 86 season to drive one of the Duckhams-sponsored Van Deimen factory cars in the Grandstand FF2000 Winter Series at Brands Hatch. Paul’s father took the bodywork back to Canada, which remained with chassis 113 to this day.

Eligible for various race series within the UK and Europe, accompanied with the vehicle is a large history file. Included within is a letter from Paul Tracy dated December 1997 confirming he was the owner of the car, SCCA logbooks, numerous invoices and receipts for the restoration work including details on the engine and rebuild, as well as correspondence with previous owners relating to setup, various related literature and more.