Hesketh 308 series

[historicmechy]

That would be great to hear about Thundersports!! Its a team that had such a rock and roll lifestyle whilst Lord Hesketh was in charge and it would be great to relive some of it!!! Anthony

[Gavin4BRM]

Originally Posted by historicmechy

Where i work we rebuilt a 308c which we believed to be 308c-2. It is the sister car to the Fred Goddard car. The post which says that 308c-2 was broken up for parts would possibly work into the story for our car as inscribed into the top of the fuel cell is "chassis fwo5-1".

I do know that previous to us looking after the car it had stood as a show car for Evesham Vale computers. Prior to that i have no information.

If anyone has anymore news on the matter i would be interested to hear it.

thanks,
Anthony

I believe 308C1 was bought by Williams Eng to convert into FW05-1. This was much later returned back to its original 308 spec. This is based on research and reading, not personal knowledge.

[andy97]

There are definately 2 x 308's in the Donington Collection - saw them their only a few weeks ago. Also interesting to note the massive similarity with the Wolf WR1 that's on display - all designed by Harvey Postlethwaite, of course.

[Dan Rear]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

As this is a Hesketh thread thought you might like this.........One of my relatives co-ordinated the Penthouse/Rizla sponsorship on the later cars he designed the "sexy lady" livery. However during either a Aurora or GP meeting Guy Edwards crashed the car (and her) so for the next meeting a livery of the "sexy lady" with her legs in plaster was drawn up, sadly it was never used but it would have been a great PR stunt! I'll try and get him on here as he has lots of great stories from his days with Hill(senior)Hunt and Hesketh, not all printable.......

I suspect this would be 1976, when Guy E ran in the works Hesketh team, though by then it was Bubbles Horsley in charge, and Lord H wasn't really involved anymore. The Horsley operation carried on into 1977, then 78, with 308Es, but is was a pale shadow of the 73-75 days.

[L Brahin]

I just found this thread. If anyone is interested, I am the owner of Hesketh 308/1. I purchased the car about a year ago from Larry Less in San Francisco, California. He purchased the car From Peter Senkowski in 1997. Larry spent years restoring the car to its current James Hunt livery and configuration which I assume to be the basis of the 308 B chasis which was first utilized in the 308/1 at the end of 1974 at Watkins Glen. The car was sold by Hesketh Racing in 1975 to Harry Stiller and driven by Alan Jones. Later in 1975 the car was sold to Harold Ertle and campained by Harold Ertle for a number of years. Harold sold the car to Peter in 1988. To my knowledge that is the chain of ownership.

The car was raced last year with HGP at Sonoma/Infinion where is was Drive by a friend of mine, Divina Galicia. This year I plan to historic race the car in Las Vegas with HGP, Mosport at the F 1 reunion, Silverstone with the masters racing series, Nurburgring with masters and Spa with masters. Also I have invited Derek Daly to race the car at Infinion with HGP. She is back in action and beatifully restored and prepared. We just completed testing of the car last weekend at a Brian Redman Event at Morosso Park in Florida.

To my knowledge Hesketh built a total of 4 cars. Three were actually raced as Heskeths, the 4th car was sold to Wolf and never really raced as a Hesketh.

Pictures of 308/1 can be found on the HGP website in last years Infinion Race with Divina behind the wheel. She finished the race just ahead of me in my Tyrrell 09.

Also I understand that a tranporter claiming to be the original Hesketh transporter was recently sold on E bay. Does anyone know of its whereabouts?

[L Brahin]

Davhuts thread actually has a picture of me driving 308/1 at Elkhart Lake last year.

[John Turner]

Warm welcome LB. Great first post. I'm sure that Allen Brown will be particularly interested in this info. for his site, which looks at the Heskeths here:-

http://www.oldracingcars.com/marque.asp?MarqueID=HES

[driftwood]

what are the cars in the donington museum?
i saw 308c possibly d i saw 308 e car and perhaps 1 308
i have some fotos as they sit next to each other

[allenbrown]

Welcome Mr Brahin

The history you have been given is broadly correct but of course Harald Ertl died in April 1982, making it a little difficult for him to sell a car in 1988. It is also incorrect that Stiller sold the car to Ertl but it's close. However, it is correct that Peter and Ulrich Senkowski did own your car at one stage.

Regards

Allen

[funformula]

Any information where these 4 cars are today?

Chassis No 1: is Mr. Brahin´s

Chassis No 2: (the Zandvoort winning chassis) Donington ???

Chassis No 3: probably the showcar without chassisplate sold on EBAY about 3 years ago

Chassis No 4: ???

[Dan Rear]

OTOH there were 3 308/308Bs, 1 308C, and 5 308Es. The 'D' was an updated 308/308B variant. The other FW05s, were indeed Williams made, the 308C being used as a 'template'.

Then there was the IBEC of course...

[L Brahin]

Dan, were not Harvey Postlethwaite and B.S. Fabrications only involved with the production of four actual Hesketh 308s with the 4th one (which I believe featured a solid rubber suspension) being sold to Wolf and never run as a Hesketh. Weren't the e cars simply customized 308s featuring longer wheel base spaces, the elimination of the air box and modified roll bars.

[allenbrown]

Hesketh history off the top of my head (so E&EO!).

The original Heskeths, as associated with the Lord Hesketh/James Hunt era of 1974/75, were the 308s. These were modified and called 308Bs but a completely new design emerged in 1975 called the 308C. Only one raced but a second car was nearly complete at the end of the season.

Lord Hesketh then withdrew from racing and Hunt went to McLaren and the one-and-a-half 308Cs went to Frank Williams who renamed them Williams FW05. A third was later built to that design.

But the Hesketh team reappeared in 1976, somewhat to Lord Hesketh's surprise when he discovered that Bubbles Horsley owned the team! The new '1976' Hesketh team brought the old 308Bs back out, now renamed or redeveloped as 308Ds.

In 1977, Horsley continued, now with a completely new design, the Frank Dernie 308E. Five of these were built with a sixth one later emerging for sprinting. The team expired early in 1978.

As John mentioned earlier, car-by-car histories are on OldRacingCars.com: http://www.oldracingcars.com/marque.asp?MarqueID=HES

Allen

[driftwood]

Being lazy here and not looking in the A-Z book Maguire F1 car was Hesketh williams car? or a williams fw04 car

[allenbrown]

It was a FW04.

[L Brahin]

Allen, what was the car that Ertl drove in 1977, it is listed as a 308E2, was that not my 308/1 as modified. Also who designed and fabricted the other E cars. I appreciate your help.

[driftwood]

There are 3x 308E cars on the uk due to race in the Masters series F1 events 2 are running now 1 to join soon
i see yr site lists 308E#1 F1 and 1-2 car for sprint version
what happened to the sprinting 308e

[Dan Rear]

Originally Posted by L Brahin

Allen, what was the car that Ertl drove in 1977, it is listed as a 308E2, was that not my 308/1 as modified. Also who designed and fabricted the other E cars. I appreciate your help.

No, don't think so. The 'original' 308, which you have, was quite different from the 308Es. Ertl drove both, yours in 1976, and the newer 308E in 77. Frank Dernie penned the 308Es, Harvey P the 308, 308B, and 308C.

[minifox]

hi,
ive had the pleasure of helping run the fred goddard car and i can tell you that the 308c has a different back and various other components to the more common 308 which you can buy models of etc
the car that someone has showed a pic of is a 308 and the 308c has been for sale on the fred goddard site for a while now

thanks alot

lewis

[L Brahin]

I checked out the picture of the Hesketh on the Fred Goddard Racing site, which advertises the car as a 1976 ex James Hunt. I have pictures of James Hunt in 1975 at Dijon, Monza and the Glen driving what I guess is the 308 C1 body style. The rear of the car on the Goddard web site looks similiar as does the side pod area. The nose is completely different from the James Hunt 308c and looks more to me like the nose of a Shadow. The Hesketh nose was a a sports car style nose similiar to the 308B style with the extended front wing. Plus Hunt did not drive a Hesketh in 1976, obviously that was the year he won the championship for McLaren. What is that car on the Goddard site?

[funformula]

It´s a 308C / Williams FW05 with a nose that looks like the version used at the end of the 1976 saison with the sidewings cut off and the Hesketh frontwing mounted in front instead.

[minifox]

its a 308c but them pictures were taken when the oringinal nose was being re constructed

thanks

lewis

[willcox]

The Hesketh 308/1 last heard of in the Schloss-Langenburg museum is the one that has been rebuilt by Fred Goddard Racing. This has been raced with the Masters Last year and the year before by Graham Willcox

[allenbrown]

Welcome Graham!

[Gavin4BRM]

Although not directly within this thread, Thiswayup models in Africa have just released a 1/43 scale model of the 308C James Hunt car. I know, I have just paid for one.