The story of Chevron Cars Ltd is one of success and tragedy; founded in 1965 by Derek Bennett, an intuitive but largely self-taught engineer and talented amateur racing driver.

As a young man, he fell in with the racing scene in the North of England, graduating to building, maintaining and driving racing cars for himself and other local enthusiasts.

By 1965, with sufficient demand for his cars, Bennett was able to establish himself as a constructor, starting his business and the Chevron marque in School Street, Salford.

Despite Bennett's untimely death in a hang-gliding accident in 1978, Chevron continued to grow, concentrating mostly upon Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula Atlantic, 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.

After the success of the B35 in Formula 2 and the Chevron B34 in Formula Atlantic and Formula 3 in 1976, Bennett designed an evolutionary series of cars...