Scottish racer Adrian Hamilton is selling a Van Diemen RF80 purchased a year ago and raced just once since. He bought it with the sole purpose of contesting this year’s Pau Historic Grand Prix and – perhaps – signing off on a 40-year career.

“I’d always wanted to race at Pau and looked around for a car eligible for the Formula Ford 1600 race, which meant it had to be pre-1982,” says Hamilton. “I made a list of cars that I thought might be good for the event and ended up with the RF80. I’d had an RF79/80 sometime in the early ’80s, so I reckoned I’d give one another go – even though I initially thought a car with a front radiator wasn’t a good idea for a street circuit.”

The car was imported from Germany and was already in raceable condition, but Hamilton “did a lot of detail work” on it in preparation for the rigours of the French street track and also built up two fresh engines for his adventure.

Hamilton thinks he might have underpriced the car at £18,000. He suspects that values of Formula Ford cars from this period are going to rise in the wake of the Historic
Sports Car Club’s takeover of the Classic FF1600 Championship for next year.

“That’s going to make the car more attractive,” he says, “so I’m sure it will sell.” If it doesn’t, he might be back at Pau next year: “Racing on a circuit where every corner is blind shouldn’t really be a one-off,” he says.

Adrian Hamilton, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Tel: 07801 911300