Build Your Own Formula 1 Car: A Prost Formula 1 Chassis, Engine, Gearbox, and Spares

This collection of parts from the Prost Grand Prix Team includes an original Peugeot A18 3.0 V10 engine and matching gearbox, a Prost Formula 1 AP02 chassis/tub, and a variety of other parts including BBS F1 wheels, brake rotors and calipers, and a large numbers of gears, camshafts, radiators, etc.

Prost Grand Prix was a Formula 1 team that consistently showed promise over the course of their 1997 to 2001 operations. The team was headed by (and named after) four-time Formula One Drivers’ Champion Alain Prost, they scored three podiums and they scored points every year with the exception of the 2000 season.

Fast Facts – A Prost F1 Car Parts Haul

• This collection from Prost Grand Prix includes an engine, chassis tub, gearbox, and a slew of other parts – more than enough to form the foundation of a full F1 car rebuild.
• Prost Grand Prix was founded by four-time Formula One Drivers’ Champion Alain Prost, and they raced from 1997 until 2001.
• All Prost F1 cars were powered by 3.0 liter V10 engines, initially the Mugen-Honda MF-301HB V10, followed by the Peugeot A16, A18, and A20 V10s, and finally by the Acer 01A V10 – a rebadged Ferrari engine.
• The team had shown great promise, particularly early on in their operations, however by 2001 the writing was on the wall and the team was acquired by an investment firm.

The Prost AP02 by Prost Grand Prix

The collection of parts you see here are from chassis #004 from Prost Grand Prix’s 1999 season. The team’s drivers were Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli, with the best result being a 2nd place podium finish for Trulli at the 1999 European Grand Prix.

This collection includes many of the parts needed to rebuild Prost AP02 chassis #004, though a number of other key parts will still need to be sourced.

Thanks in no small part to Formula 1 engineering legend John Barnard being brought on board as a consultant, the team enjoyed a notable improvement over their previous year’s performance. The reliability of the car’s drivetrain would remain a problem however, with each driver retiring at least half a dozen times over the 16 race season.

The car was powered by the Peugeot A18, a 3.0 liter V10 with a 72º bank angle that was capable of 785 bhp at 15,700 rpm. Power was sent to the rear wheels via a Prost 6-speed longitudinal sequential semi-automatic transmission, and as was standard at the time the car has a carbon fibre composite structure.

The team would finish 7th overall with 9 points, their best result since 1997. In 2001 the team was sold to Phoenix Finance, the plan was to combine the Prost and Arrows F1 teams into a single outfit, however this plan fell apart as the FIA would view the team as a new entry, resulting in a stiff entry fee being due before they could race.

Over the course of the team’s relatively short history they had a number of significant F1 drivers including Olivier Panis, Jarno Trulli, Jean Alesi, Nick Heidfeld, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and future F1 World Champion Jenson Button would have his first official test session in a Prost AP02 in late 1999.

This collection of parts includes several major components of a Prost AP02 car, it’ll make an excellent source of parts for an existing Prost AP02 owner, alternatively it’ll make a fascinating project for anyone who wants to put in the time hunting for the additional parts needed to rebuild it into a track-ready F1 car.

If you’d like to read more or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on RM Sotheby’s, it’s due to cross the auction block on the 19th of November in France.

Dirk de Jager ©2021 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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A Rare Kurtis 500 S Roadster Special – The “Two-Seat Indy Car”

This is a 1954 Kurtis 500 S Roadster, essentially a road-legal race car built by the legendary Frank Kurtis and his team at Kurtis Kraft, one of the most successful race car manufacturers in America at the time.

Over the course of his long career Frank Kurtis would design and build midget cars, quarter-midget cars, sports cars, sprint cars, Formula One cars, and over 120 Indianapolis 500 cars. Kurtis is best remembered today for the five Indy 500 winning cars he built, and for his utterly dominant midget cars, which were essentially unbeatable for 20 years.

Fast Facts – The Kurtis 500 S Roadster

• The Kurtis 500 S Roadster is part of the second series of production road cars built by Kurtis Kraft, they were more or less just widened two-seat versions of the company’s Indy 500 race cars.
• Customers could order them as either completed turnkey cars or as kit cars, it’s not known how many were built though just a handful remain today.
• Kurtis Kraft’s first production car, the 1949 Kurtis Sport Car or KSC, was the first Motor Trend cover car and it’s believed to have been the inspiration for the development of the first Chevrolet Corvette.
• Surviving Kurtis road cars today are highly collectible, with valves seeming to increase notably year on year.

Frank Kurtis And His Dominant Midgets

When Frank Kurtis founded Kurtis Kraft in the 1930s he had no way of knowing that he would become one of the most successful race car manufacturers in the country.

His company would build over 550 turnkey midget racing cars and 120 Indy 500 cars, they also produced 600 midget race car kits, one of which took part in the 1959 Formula One United States Grand Prix driven by Rodger Ward.

Above Video: This short film from Motor Trend showcases the first Kurtis Kraft production car, the KSC, and discusses its historic significance.

One thing that Kurtis always wanted to do was launch his own automobile company, utilizing the lessons learned building race cars and apply them to road legal sports cars. In 1949 he launched the Kurtis Sport Car (KSC), based on a 1949 Ford chassis and engine the car is a convertible with two seats, and elegant aluminum coachwork.

When ordering your new KSC you had the choice of either a turnkey car or a kit car, the performance by the standards of the day was excellent, however the price could creep up close to $5,000 USD depending on final specification – more than the cost of a new Jaguar XK120.

By 1950 it was clear to Kurtis that a production car company wasn’t economically viable and he sold the company to Earl “Madman” Muntz for $200,000. Muntz went on to modify the car and create the Muntz Jet which would be produced from 1951 to 1953 with over 300 built.

Round Two – The Arrival Of The Kurtis 500 S Roadster

In 1953 Frank Kurtis and his team once again decided to try their hand at creating a production road car, though this time they would be essentially creating a two-seat, road-legal version of their successful Indy 500 race car.

Rather than designing a new car from scratch they opted to use a modified version of the Kurtis Kraft 500B Indy 500 car, with a widened chassis that would allow seating for two. The resulting low-volume production sports car was so similar to the race car that it was nicknamed the “two-seat Indy car.”

The Kurtis 500 S was designed to be a two-seat Indy 500 race car, using a widened chassis from the Kurtis 500B.

Engine options included the Cadillac 331, or a number of other V8s from Buick, Mercury, Lincoln, or Chrysler. Major motor racing figures including Briggs Cunningham, Frank McGurk, Mickey Thompson, and Bill Stroppe were all either Kurtis 500 owners or racing drivers.

After the Kurtis 500 S came the Kurtis KK500 which was designed to accommodate a range of different aftermarket fiberglass bodies. Ultimately they would sell a number of cars but it wouldn’t be significantly profitable project for the company, thus it was closed down in 1955.

The Kurtis 500 S Roadster Shown Here

The can you see here is a bit of an historical curiosity, its early history isn’t known, but it appears to have a later Kurtis KK500 chassis combined with an earlier Kurtis 500 S body.

Marque experts Frank and David Kleptz fully restored the car in the early 1990s and it still presents in excellent condition today, with period-correct Halibrand magnesium wheels, a 325 cubic inch Hemi V8 from a 1957 Dodge D500 with a low-rise intake manifold, dual four-barrel carburetors, and a side-exit exhaust.

The car is now for sale with Hyman Ltd with an asking price of $279,500 USD, if you’d like to read more about it and make an enquiry you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Hyman Ltd

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1970s Datsun Driver Improvement Film: How To Squeeze More Miles From Your Car

How To Squeeze More Miles From Your Car is a film created for Datsun in 1976 to help teach American drivers how to keep their car running optimally, and how to maximize their fuel economy.

Just three years before this film was made the world was paralyzed by the 1973 Oil Crisis, gasoline prices skyrocketed, and many performance cars were left gathering dust on dealer showroom floors as sales were few and far between.

The film features three Datsun cars, including a 280Z, with three different kinds of drivers. Each driver shares their own tips and tricks for saving on fuel, most of which center around driving conservatively and keeping your car in good mechanical condition.

The running time is 13 and a half minutes, and as you might expect it contains plenty of hair styles, fashion, and music from the era.

Cars like the Datsun 240Z and its successors the 260Z and 280Z performed a critical role in changing the perception of Japanese automakers from builders of cheap economy cars to the builders of desirable sports cars, helped along of course by similar models from other marques like the Toyota 2000GT, the Mazda Cosmo, and the Isuzu 117.

If you’d like to read more about the 1973 Oil Crisis you can click here.

Images courtesy of the Walter J. Klein Company, Ltd.

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Found In A Barn: The (Almost) Forgotten Ascari FGT Prototype

Despite its modern looks the Ascari FGT prototype was designed and built in 1992 by legendary British supercar designer Lee Noble. The rights to the design were bought by Ascari who used it as their design foundation for the Ascari Ecosse supercar released in 1998.

Lee Noble would go on to become one of the most popular supercar and sports car designers in Britain thanks to his humble beginnings and for the fact that he was designing and building cars in his shed that were trouncing vehicles from established supercar manufacturers with multi-million dollar development budgets.

Fast Facts – The Ascari FGT

• The Ascari FGT was designed by Lee Noble in 1992, it was seen by the tea at Ascari Cars Ltd, who bought the blueprints and rights for the car, using it as the basis for the Ascari Ecosse production supercar.
• Noble began designing cars in the early 1980s, his most famous early creation being the Ultima – one of the world’s only true kit-build supercars. Updated versions of the Ultima remain in production today almost 40 years later.
• The Ascari FGT prototype has a tubular steel spaceframe chassis, seating for two, and a mid-mounted 420 bhp Chevrolet V8.
• The car is road-legal and it’s well-appointed for a prototype, with leather upholstery, electric windows, electric door mirrors, and a Sony stereo system.

The similarity between the FGT prototype and the later Ascari Ecosse are clear to see, though some elements didn’t make it onto the production car – like the pop-up headlights.

The (Almost) Forgotten Ascari FGT Prototype

When it was first shown to the public in 1995 at the British International Motor Show, no one in attendance would have believed you if you’d told them the car would end up forgotten in a barn a few years later.

Blue collar supercar designer Lee Noble had designed and built the FGT in 1992 and road registered it in 1993. It’s not clear what his early plans for the car were, however before they could be realized he was approached by British automaker Ascari Cars Ltd who struck a deal with him to buy the design and rights to the car.

Now badged as the Ascari FGT the car was shown to the world at various motoring events beginning with the above mentioned British International Motor Show in 1995. It would be here that it would be seen by Dutch racing driver Klaas Zwart, who then made a deal to buy Ascari Cars Ltd and put the FGT into production.

The Ascari Ecosse, based on the Lee Noble FGT, would go into production in 1998 and sell until 1999, Ascari would continue building cars until 2010. It’s not completely clear what happened to the original FGT prototype during this time, what we do know is that it somehow ended up sitting dormant in a barn out in the countryside for 13 years.

The interior is surprisingly well-appointed for a prototype, with full leather upholstery, electric windows and mirrors, and even a stereo system.

The present owner of the car discovered it in its undignified accommodation and immediately bought it. He then embarked on a three year long recommissioning which saw him working along side Lee Noble to bring the car back to its former glory.

During this recommissioning process the 6.0 liter fuel-injected Chevrolet V8 engine and gearbox were both rebuilt, various other components were rebuilt or replaced as needed, and the original fuel-injection system was upgraded and a new MSD ECU was installed.

The car is now being offered for sale with a wealth of original documentation and promotional material from the time of its release, as well as magazine articles and invoices. The price guide for the car is set at $85,000 – $110,000 USD, which does seem like a steal for such an unusual one-off supercar.

If you’d like to read more about the Ascari FGT prototype or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing, it’s due to roll across the auction block on the 6th of November.

Above Video: This (low resolution) clip from Top Gear showcases the Ascari KZ1, a successor to the Ascari Ecosse.

Images: Tom Gidden ©2021 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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