Founded by Tony Vandervell, the Vanwall name was derived by combining the name of the team owner with that of his Thinwall bearings produced at the Vandervell Products factory at Acton, London.

 Vanwall was a British motor racing team and racing car constructor that was active in Formula One during the 1950s. Founded by Tony Vandervell, the Vanwall name was                 derived by combining the name of the team owner with that of his Thinwall bearings produced at the Vandervell Products factory at Acton, London. Originally entering     modified Ferraris in non-championship races, Vanwall constructed their first cars to race in the 1954 Formula One season. The team achieved their first race win in the 1957   British Grand Prix, with Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks sharing a VW 5, earning the team the distinction of constructing the first British-built car to win a World Championship   race. Vanwall won the inaugural Constructors' Championship in Formula One in 1958, in the process allowing Moss and Brooks to finish second and third in the Drivers' a  a       Championship standings, each winning three races for Vanwall. Vandervell's failing health meant 1958 would be the last full season; the squad ran cars in a handful of races in          the following years, but finished racing in 1961.

 

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vw5 1958

The Vanwall Grand Prix cars are a series of open-wheel Formula One race cars, designed, developed and built by British manufacturer Vanwall, for Formula One racing, between 1954 and 1960.

The 1958 Vanwall can rightly claim to be one of the greatest ever front-engined F1 race cars. As winner of six of its nine races that year, with the maximum amount of points possible, no other car, not even a Ferrari, could get close to a Vanwall on the limit.

After Maserati's retirement, the 1958 season was very much a Ferrari vs. Vanwall battle. Ferrari's newly developed 246 Dino was very fast in a straight line, but it was beaten by the Vanwall on twistier tracks. Moss repeated his 1957 feat and won three Grands Prix, and Brooks added another three to Vanwall's tally. Sadly Moss came one point short of Ferrari's Mike Hawthorn for the driver's title, but Vanwall did comfortably win the very first constructor's cup.

The Vanwall team withdrew at the end of the season, but not before paving the way for the many other successful British manufacturers that followed. Tony Brooks entered an updated Vanwall once in 1959 and 1960, but like its Ferrari nemesis, it was not able to keep up with the mid-engined Coopers. A Lotus 18 based mid-engined machine was also developed, but never raced.

Of the original front engined Vanwall Grand Prix car there were never more than four cars at one time but a total of eleven chassis numbers were allocated. As the design evolved existing cars were updated and then renumbered. At the end of the program, most of the assets were sold to Tom Wheatcroft, and today at least three complete cars exist of the car that won Formula 1's first constructor's trophy.

Vanwall VW5 1958 (youtube.com)

1954-1960/2023-now