When the RAC announced a series for small sports prototypes titled ‘F100’ in 1969, few people realised it would last just two years until 1970. Despite its short run, one of the stars of the races was the Nerus Silhouette F100, recently added to the Classic Driver car database.

Nerus Engineering were an Essex-based company specialising in the manufacture of racing car components. When the new F100 series was announced, the company decided to develop its own racing car, in competition with established manufacturers such as Lotus, Merlyn, Beattie and Royale. The result was the Nerus Silhouette F100.



Only two cars were actually made, with an additional car being built up from spare parts. For the design work, Nerus used Jim Clark’s Lotus race engineer Cedric Seltzer, so it’s no surprise the car carries many similarities between itself and Lotus racing cars of the period.



Now the original 1970 Racing Car Show car is for sale. It was the first car built at the factory and raced by Nick Cole both in that and the previous year. In 1970 it achieved the remarkable statistics of always finishing in first or second place in ten of the eleven rounds.



The car is powered by a 1600cc Ford crossflow engine, producing around 160bhp. Weighing just 429kgs, this results in a power to weight ratio of 379bhp/ton. Power is transmitted via a Hewland gearbox and the whole drivetrain is located in a spaceframe chassis with aluminium panels. It has a complete, documented history including all racing results and also has FIA and HSCC papers. It’s certainly ‘ready-to-race’, although at present is on display at the racing museum at Stavelot, near Spa in Belgium.



For collectors of historic sports and racing cars the Nerus Silhouette F100 represents a rare opportunity to buy a unique piece of British racing history. You can find full details in the Classic Driver Car Database.

For further information please contact Jan Luehn at the following address:

Jan Luehn
25 Rue de Neufchatel
1060 Bruxelles
Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)495 571 594
[email protected]
www.janluehn.com


Text: Classic Driver
Fotos: Nanette Schärf