Vanwall will build six completely new copies of the VW5, the car with which the team of the late Tony Vandervell won the Formula 1 constructors championship in 1958. Five cars are intended for private individuals, one remains in the possession of Vanwall itself. It should be no secret that this is quite a costly affair.
A VW5 ‘continuation car’ costs £ 1.65 million, excluding taxes. Converted to euros, this is more than € 1.8 million. The Vanwalls are hand-built by Hall and Hall, an English firm that specializes in the restoration of historic racing cars. They use the original design drawings from the 1950s during construction. Colin Chapman, better known from Lotus, was responsible for the chassis at the time. Even the engine is the same as it used to be: under the hood is a 270 hp 2.5-liter four-cylinder. All this takes thousands of man hours to put together, according to the press release.
Vanwall was active in Formula 1 from 1954 to 1960. The VW5 from 1958 was chosen as the basis for the ‘continuation car’ because Vanwall achieved the most successes in that year and won the first manufacturers’ championship. Fun fact: Stirling Moss won the 1958 Dutch Grand Prix in a Vanwall VW5. Five copies of the Vanwall are on the market for private individuals. With the sixth, the Vanwall Historic Racing Team will participate in historic races itself.
Continuation cars are a recurring theme in the automotive world. The British brands in particular are fans of it. Aston Martin, for example, builds all-new DB5s to the specification of the Goldfinger car, complete with associated gadgets. Aston Martin is also building completely new copies of the DB4 GT Zagato. Jaguar is also actively engaged in keeping the E-Type alive. There was even talk of an electrical reincarnation of the latter, but that project was nipped in the bud.