BENETTON F1 B188-01 For sale
Description
This wonderful B188 is chassis number 01, in 2001 it left the Benetton factory complete but without engine. Later in 2006 it went into the hands of a collector who ordered the car to have an original Cosworth DFR engine re-installed. The Benetton remained unused until January 2008 when a total mechanical service was carried out until August including suspension, crack test, brakes, cooling & sump systems, gearbox and electronic completely rebuilt to be race ready. In this process the engine was rebuilt at Nicholson-McLaren Engines with dyno test, it’s now ready for 1500 km of use. It raced in September 2008 the EuroBoss at SPA. All of the corresponding invoices are in the car’s file, the total amount is of 40 000 €. However during this process B188-01 still retained all its original parts and was not altered from its original 1988 specifications. Though this F1 was already in excellent condition a lot of attention was brought to the detailing and a very nice cosmetic work was done. It comes with a very important spares package: hubs, uprights, pinions&shafts, half shafts, transmissions, bearings, air scoops, sway bars, rockers, coolers, water pipes & lines, steering, etc… about 300 kg. The pit equipment is also included with another set of wheels, wheel nut socket, starter and the refuelling system. This is a very interesting Rory Byrne’s designed Benetton which was in its days very successful and one of the nicest Formula 1 from the end of the 80s. Now restored and in fine condition, being really a “race ready F1”, it would be a great entry in EuroBOSS in 2009 or will be a lovely car for an enthusiast to be used in private testings. - - - THIS CAR IS SOLD - - -
- - - This car is sold - - -
- - - We are always looking for a similar car, feel free to contact us if you have one for sale - -
Model history
The Benetton Formula 1 Team was created in 1985 after the Benetton family bought the Toleman team. The new owner brought a lot of money to this rather anonymous team and a lot of ambition, the skilful Toleman’s head designer Rory Byrne had now the means to design a very serious Formula 1. After an interesting Berger’s victory at Mexico in 1986 with the BMW-Turbo engine, the next season was to be disappointing for the newly formed team. Despite a great chassis ( Byrne drawn all of the 7 Schumacher World Champion cars ), the factory Ford – V6 Turbo was not as powerful as expected. Benetton could only be the witness of the McLaren-Williams-Ferrari epic battles. At the end of 1987, the FIA worried about the outrageous power given by Turbos ( more than 1100 HP in qualification ), announced new regulations for 1989 based on 3.5 liters aspired engines. Consequently 1988 was to be a year of transition and Benetton very surprisingly decided to anticipate and designed an all new Formula 1 around a revised V8 Cosworth. Benetton became Ford’s factory team and had the exclusivity on the new V8 DFR wich had lowered crankshaft, allowing much better gravity center and rear air-flow circulation. The output was brought to 620 HP which was a big step compared with the previous DFYs. The transmission was an all new “reverse gearbox”, a system Porsche had already tested on prototypes, for a better weight balanced. Byrne designed and extremely pure aerodynamic body which gave to the B188 this beautiful shape. In 1988 the drivers retained were Boutsen, which proved in 1987 to be a strong performer and fine chassis analyst, and Nannini the young Italian hope. The tandem performed extremely well, actually this season revealed Nannini’s skil and the B188 was evidently the best aspired Formula 1. Though McLarens were untouchable, indeed it was the pinnacle of Prost-Senna duel ( only Berger managed to break McLaren’s domination at Monza ) and Ferrari was still advantaged by using the Turbo engine, Benetton managed to reach the 3rd place at the manufacturers championship, leading Williams, Arrows, Lotus, March ... Boutsen was given the honorific title of aspirated engines’ World Champion, with Nannini they scored 8 podiums and 39 points. A total of 9 cars were built in 1988 and 1989, as the B188 was still fast, it was only replaced by the B189 at the 5th race of the 1989 championship.