Reynard

Earlier this year Reynard disappeared, having once been the world’s most prolific maker of racing cars. I’ve known Adrian Reynard for more than twenty years and so I was personally sad when Reynard folded. The historian in me was also sad because Adrian was the last of a great English tradition: the guy who builds a special and who is asked to make replicas and so becomes a constructor.

Eric Broadley was one such constructor. He built the Lola-Climax Mk 1 because he had ambitions to be a racing driver and could not afford a Lotus. As it was, the Lola Mk 1 wiped out Lotus from the small sports racing car market. John Cooper was another who built a special for his own use and ended up a constructor, as was Colin Chapman, Brian Lister and John Tojeiro.