Born-again Eagle has landed
The best looking Formula 1 car from the 1960s is back from the dead and could eventually be joined by a full grid of retrospective racers that mimic Ferrari, Lotus, BRM, Honda and Brabham.
The born-again Gurney Eagle was unveiled at the Historic Sandown meeting in October and is expected to undergo testing with John Bowe before the end of the year and on display at Maranello Motorsport in Melbourne.
It has an old-school space-frame chassis but a thoroughly modern 5.0-litre Ford V8 ‘crate’ motor and is the personal project of Robert Logan, a retired engineer from the Royal Navy who once ran the Roaring Forties business that built some of the world’s best GT40 replicas.
His new project is called Icarus Tribute Racecars and he has formed a new company, Icarus Motorsport, with plans to establish a factory in Melbourne in the rst half of 2020.
Logan intends to sell the cars for US $99,000 (around $147,000) as a turn-key V8powered track car, with around 320kW (about 420bhp) in 650kg, and US $69,000 ($102,000) as a rolling chassis.
It has taken more than a year to construct the car, which has been fully CAD designed with input from a group of Australia’s best motorsport engineers. Logan says he is red up for the next step.
“We’ve already had a lot of interest from the USA,” he says. “I have had great interest in racing them here in Australia and New Zealand, and this I will pursue. But the main point of sale is in the US and I have been told that I will be allowed to race in two separate race groups.”
Just as he was inspired originally by a replica GT40, the new single-seater project came from a chance encounter with a replica of a Honda F1 car in Britain.
“A bit like the GT40, when I saw a replica which encouraged me to build one for myself because I realised we could do much better, the F1 project has a similar genesis. I saw a car in the UK called an F1-67 … so decided to do it myself,” he says.
“The rst car has taken me more than 4000 hours to date, and about $200,000, but this is the prototype and costs much more.”
The parts’ list includes a 5-litre Ford Motorsport V8 engine, Audi six-speed gearbox, Alcon brake calipers, a Motec engine management system and custom-made 16-inch alloy wheels with knock-off nuts. One of the most impressive parts is the custom-made ‘old school’ spaghetti exhaust system.
Logan’s idea is that the basic space-frame chassis can be tted with a range of bodies, allowing a spec-formula package where owners choose what they want to drive. Or they can have multiple bodies.
“The next body will be a 312 Ferrari, a 1967 model. The main bodywork will stay the same, so it’s mostly the nose. It’s not going to be a copy, but something trending towards the original,” Logan says.
“Then the one after that will more than likely be the Lotus Type 49. I want to do it with the Gold Leaf Team Lotus livery. The only shots of that car being driven by Jim Clark, who was my hero, were taken in Australia.” Bowe has already given his support to the project and Kevin Bartlett jumped into the car at Sandown.
“It’s Robert’s passion and you cannot help but be caught up in his enthusiasm,” Bowe says.
“It’s really well built and I’m looking forward to driving it. I’m keen to see it working properly and to be nice and user friendly.”
Bowe is committed to test driving duties, but Logan is not getting over-ambitious with his production plan.
“I’m not going to build the second chassis until I get the car into American. I will not be opening a factory until I have a genuine sale. But I have everything ready to go once that happens.”