Vanwall 2.5 Litre F1 - A Technical Appraisal

The Vanwall Grand Prix car was the creation of a man with a mission. That man was powerful British industrialist Guy Anthony Vandervell, and his mission was to overthrow the Italian domination of Grand Prix racing. Vandervell left the committee-managed BRM project to do things his own way and steadily built up his own Vanwall team. The definitive Vanwall arrived in 1956. It was a British Racing Green car capable of beating the best of the reds, as Stirling Moss proved in the Silverstone International Trophy. The Vanwall had a potent four cylinder engine derived from that of the successful Norton racing motorcycle and a sleek aerodynamic body derived from contemporary aircraft design. Moss left Maserati to campaign the Vanwall in 1957, when he won the British Grand Prix, then beat the red cars on their home territory. It had been decades since a British car had last been able to succeed in Grand Prix races. In 1958, Moss and Tony Brooks won six of nine Grand Prix and made Vandervell's car Champion of the World. On that note Vandervell disbanded his team. The funny little Climax-Cooper continued to keep the green to the fore in 1959, ushering in a new mid engine era. The Vanwall was the last of the great front engined monsters and it had the most advanced streamlining. Putting a milestone car under the microscope and fully into context, this book probes the technology of Grand Prix racing's Greatest Streamliner.