Derek Bennett Derek Bennett was born in 1933 in
Manchester and was brought up in
Prestwich. He was a largely self-taught, intuitive engineer and a talented amateur racing driver. In his early years Bennett took a keen interest in
model aircraft. He took an apprenticeship in mechanical and electrical engineering before becoming a mechanic, but he soon fell in with motor racing scene in the North of England, initially in local
stock-car racing events. Bennett soon graduated to building, maintaining and also driving racing cars for himself and other local enthusiasts, and established himself as a competitive driver at club level, particularly in the Bennett Special, running in a series for 1172cc Ford powered cars; he later moved into the
Clubmans category. Bennett also built a one-off
Formula Junior car which was only a modest success - rear-engined competition from Lotus and Cooper was more than a match for it, and the era of the special-builder in FJ was over. By 1965 there were sufficient requests for replicas of his Clubmans car, Bennett seemed able to establish himself as a constructor and started his business and the Chevron marque in School Street, Salford. Aided by a small staff of like-minded enthusiasts (particularly friend and assistant Paul Owens), for a decade and a half Chevron produced successful racing cars. Bennett never proceeded beyond
Formula Three in his own driving but remained quick enough to test and develop many of his cars, especially at the nearby
Oulton Park and
Aintree. He was working on a
Formula One Chevron when he was killed in a
hang-gliding accident in 1978.
Chevron cars Chevron was particularly noted for its small-capacity
sports cars and its
Formula Two,
Formula Three and
Formula 5000 single-seaters. Although a Chevron F5000 did beat a representative Formula One field once in a race open to both categories (
Peter Gethin at the
Race of Champions in 1973), the marque never seriously addressed F1; one F1 car was built but not finished in Bennett's lifetime and when complete was run only in the national-level Aurora F1 championship in Britain. Bennett was notable for the first car with a diffuser - Chevron GT, the first car with a crash box (called a "nose frame" in its day)
Chevron B16. Although the first Chevrons were developments of Derek Bennett's
Clubmans special (Clubmans is a British national formula for front-engined open-top sports cars with Ford engines) the firm's customers soon started looking to more ambitious racing, and a line of
gran turismo cars was soon established with the B3 (early type numbers were applied retroactively when the cars were homologated for Group 4 and 5 racing) which developed into a line of successful
BMW and
Ford-powered cars capable of competing internationally in the two-litre sports car class. The replacement for these cars was the
B16, but driver
Brian Redman pointed out that with heavy coupé bodywork it would be beaten on most circuits by lighter open-topped spyders from marques like
Abarth. The B16 spyder was introduced, with a body inspired by the
Porsche 908 spyder (which Redman also drove) and this started a long line of successful two-litre sports racers including the
B19,
B21,
B23,
B26, and
B31. Chevron was active and very successful in single-seater formulae during this period, concentrating mostly upon
Formula 3 Formula Two and
Formula Atlantic (aka
SCCA Formula B) with minor variants of the same basic design. Nearly every Formula 1 driver of the 1970s drove a Chevron in their early careers including Niki Lauda. Chevron was notable for its proud
Lancastrian nature - unlike the rest of the British racing car industry which tended to be based in an arc running from South West London, the old
Brooklands circuit and
Heathrow Airport round to
Silverstone, Chevron remained based in a mill in
Bolton, and many of its most celebrated drivers, including
Brian Redman and
Jim Crawford Scottish, actually, were also Lancastrians. Many of Chevron's notable customers were also from the north of England including John Bridges, Digby Martland, and John Lepp. The heyday of the marque ran through to the late 1970s and ended with Derek Bennett's death after a hang-gliding accident in 1978; Chevron continued in its original form owned by Derek's sisters for a couple of years with
Tony Southgate as consultant designer then passed into other hands - some new cars were manufactured. Several key Chevron employees, including designer Paul Brown and co-founder and director Owens, also worked on the short-lived
Maurer Formula Two cars, and later as a director at
Reynard. Some of the assets of the liquidated Derek Bennett Engineering Ltd were bought by a consortium of Scottish racing drivers and enthusiasts who formed Chevron Racing Cars (Scotland) Ltd as did other parties including Vin Malkie and Helen Bashford. This company produced spare parts for the range of Chevron cars as well as designing and building a few new Sports 2000 and Formula Atlantic models up until 1983 when this company also liquidated. Roger Andreason, whose Andreason Racing and Tuning business was, at that time running several Chevron cars for customers, purchased the assets of the liquidated Scottish consortium Under control of Roger Andreason Chevron Cars Ltd. produced over 50 cars for
Formula Ford, Formula Ford 2000, Sports 2000 and Group C categories - as well as maintaining the spare part service for existing Chevron owners. In 2000 Vin Malkie, one of the original Chevron employees and owner of the first
Chevron B1, produced, along with his wife and successful racing driver Helen Bashford-Malkie, acquired the Chevron trade mark and Chevron name. They continued their existing business as Chevron restorers and race preparers. They have since produced technically correct continuation models using largely original jigs and drawings, Vin and Helen still consulted with many of the original Chevron employees on a regular basis, not least Paul Owens, as part of their restoration process. in 2011 in partnership with an investor they produced the
Chevron GR8 and later the
GR8 GT, campaigning successfully with BARC and the later GT car in British GT winning Goodwood Festival of Speed with race car driver Anthony Reid. In 2006 Chris Smith purchased a majority share holding in the newly started company called Chevron Cars Ltd., from the owners Roger Andreason and Tim Colman. Both remained minority shareholders, with Colman remaining as a director. The following five years saw Smith invest substantially in Chevron. During this time he oversaw the construction of around 10 "continuation" B8 and B16 models, which were assembled by Kelvin Jones of Kelvin Jones Motorsport based in Liverpool. In July 2011, Andreason and Colman bought back Smith's shareholding and Andreason was re-appointed as the managing director of Chevron Cars Limited, selling this company name in 2010. In November 2016 the custodians of the marque for 35 years Vin Malkie and Helen Bashford-Malkie sold the Chevron group of companies including the IP, trademark, Chevron name including copyright to the trademark to WDK Holdings, Directors Nicola Foulston and Ian Cox who continue to manufacture Chevron components, cars, restorations and race preparation from their UK base in Stockbridge, Hampshire. Helen and Vin are to remain as consultants. In 2021 Chevron Racing Cars ltd and Derek Bennett engineering ltd companies were acquired by David Beecroft from Nicola FOULSTON and the Velocity group along with the trade mark for use of the Chevron name and logo to be used on new ventures. Beecroft a life long fan of Bennett’s designs having grown up close to the Bolton Chevron factory. The Chevron name and logo has now been put to use on the new for 2025 TOCA Junior Championship car. ==Modern Chevrons==