James Hunt’s F1 Hesketh for sale with Silverstone Auctions
The Formula One car that took legendary driver James Hunt to his first Grand Prix race victory is to be sold at Silverstone Auctions’ 23 July event, during the Silverstone Classic weekend.
Giving both James Hunt and Hesketh Racing their first Grand Prix win at the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, and the only race victory for Hesketh, chassis 308/2 is the most famous and prolifically raced Hesketh car. With 23 Grand Prix starts, 17 of which were driven by James Hunt, 308/2 is the last privately entered car to win a Grand Prix without commercial sponsorship. The white car with red and blue stripes and famous Hesketh Racing teddy bear logo remained in team principal Lord Hesketh’s private ownership until 2007.
Hesketh Racing, founded in 1972, originally competed with little success with Hunt in Formula Three until Lord Hesketh announced that, as the costs were nearly the same, they ‘might as well lose in Formula One as Three’. Entering Formula One in 1973 with a March 731 chassis, team engineer and designer Harvey Postlethwaite joined and built the first Hesketh car which debuted in 1974. Based at Hesketh’s private Towcester estate near to Silverstone, Hunt and the Hesketh team famously arrived at races in luxury cars and helicopters with Champagne on hand, while Hunt’s flamboyant personal life only added to the intrigue and public support for the ‘people’s’ F1 team.
Chassis 308/2 replaced the first 308 chassis in mid 1974. Using the ground-up design of Harvey Postlethwaite, chassis 308/2 is based on an aluminium monocoque in a ‘coke bottle’ shape. With the Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine and Hewland gearbox, the 485 bhp car features two sidepod-mounted lateral radiators, modified from the nose-mounted position of his first chassis, which allowed Postlethwaite to add a nose wing that became the trademark of this F1-winning number 24 Hesketh.
Chassis 308/2 made its debut with James Hunt at the April 1974 Spanish Grand Prix. Hunt and 308/2 achieved their first podium at the June Swedish GP, in third position behind the winning Tyrells, followed by two further third places during the season. The team ended up in sixth place in the 1974 constructors’ championship, but it was not until the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 22 June 1975 that Hesketh Racing scored its first victory. Battling alongside racing legends including Jochen Mass, Jacky Ickx and Jody Scheckter, after qualifying in third Hunt took advantage of an early change to slick tyres on a fast-drying track, to beat off Niki Lauda’s Ferrari and take first place in chassis 308/2. Hunt became the first Englishman to win a Grand Prix since Peter Gethin in 1971.
Hunt and chassis 308/2 had further success with podiums at the French and Austrian Grands Prix in 1975, with Hunt ending the season fourth in the drivers’ standings. Going on to race for McLaren, Hunt won the 1976 F1 World Championship the following year. Chassis 308/2 was used for a further season by Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl, before Hesketh Racing finally closed its doors in 1978 due to lack of funds, although chassis 308/2 remained in Lord Hesketh’s ownership until 2007.
Despite having adopted the sponsored liveries of Edwards and Ertl during their seasons with the car, chassis 308/2 has been returned to its original colours and has been raced as such in recent years.
Hunt’s son Freddie has driven chassis 308/2 at Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival events, and the car has been campaigned by the current owner within Formula One Historic races including the Monaco Historic and at the Silverstone Classic.
“This is an incredibly exciting car, that carried one of the most well-known and loved British Formula One drivers to his first victory,” says Silverstone Auctions’ managing director Nick Whale. “It’s a very important part of Formula One history that continues to be successfully raced. We’re very proud to offer it for sale during the Silverstone Classic event: it seems fitting that a car developed so nearby to Silverstone, at Lord Hesketh’s Northamptonshire estate, should be returning here to be sold with Silverstone Auctions.”
Fully race-prepared by WDK, the car is newly crack-tested and ready to race, and comes with a substantial spares package, including the custom-made original steering wheel used only by Hunt himself.
James Hunt died of a heart attack aged 45 in 1993, having retired from Formula One in 1979 and taking up an F1 commentary career with the BBC alongside Murray Walker: a perfect outlet for his charm, dry humour and outspokenness. Chassis 308/2 is an extraordinary memento of the 1970s Formula One era of World Champion James Hunt.
Visit silverstoneauctions.com for further information.
