1967 CHEVRON B6

CURRENT OWNER MICHAEL SCHRYVER

Michael Schryver has owned and raced chassis CH-DBE-2 since 1984 and has made it one of the most successful B6s of the seven cars built in early ’67.

As the forerunner to the B8, Derek Bennett’s stylish GT of 1967 quickly found favour – chassis CH-DBE-2 was sold to Peter Taggart, who raced it internationally when new. He sometimes shared it with Dr Tony Goodwin in longer races and it was Goodwin who became the car’s second keeper in ’70.

During his three years of ownership Goodwin took the fairly radical step of cutting the roof off. He was at an international race meeting and noticed that open cars were getting more start money – so he took a hacksaw to the B6 and turned it into an open-cockpit car!

When it next changed hands, it went to Peter Denty for the roof to be put back on for new owner Fred Boothby. Peter Lockhartsmith also owned the car briefly in the mid-1970s. It was then bought Richard Thwaites, who raced it for five years, winning the ’82 Atlantic Computers GT Championship. After a couple of years with Robbie Gordon, Schryver bought it in ’84 for £8000.

In 34 years, Schryver has won at least five championships and the Spa Six Hours twice. He even did the Tour Britannia with it in road trim. For a couple of seasons, 1985 and ’86, Schryver and Simon Hadfield campaigned the car in Thundersports. It’s even been raced by Autosport’s Ben Anderson.

During Schryver’s tenure the chassis has been stripped twice, with friend and co-driver Hadfield doing the work. He also corrected the roofline, which wasn’t quite right, using another B6 as a benchmark. It’s still using the original chassis and has never had a major accident. Schryver started with an 1800cc twin-cam engine, and then used a 1600cc twin-cam from George Wadsworth for many years. More recently a two-litre BMW engine has powered the car to more race wins, and that’s set to continue in 2018.