Having sold his interest in Brabham Cars to Bernie Ecclestone, legendary British-Australian engineer, driver and fighter pilot, Ron Tauranac, spent the next few years involved with various freelance projects with other F1 teams including Ligier, Williams, Trojan and Theodore Racing, the last of which resulted in the successful International Trophy-winning TR1.

However, the urge to produce customer cars had not gone away and having come to know fellow Australian Larry Perkins in 1974, and working with him to sort out his F3 GRD 374, Ron was convinced that he could do better and drew up what became the Ralt RT1 (RALT stands for Ron and Austin Lewis-his brother Tauranac.) The RT1 was a simple car but a brilliant design that could be adapted for use in Formula Atlantic, Formula 2, Formula 3 and even, in later years, in sports cars.

Larry Perkins won the first European F3 Championship in 1975, a great start to the car’s career.

1976 was the year when the first Formula 2 win was scored by...