1989 Spice SE89C

The Chamberlain Engineering squad, one of Spice’s most successful customers, claimed the World Sports-Prototype Championship C2 title with FermÍn Vélez and Nick Adams with SE89C chassis 06. It remained part of the British team’s fleet into the 1990s and competed at Le Mans on a further two occasions. Twenty years on, it was rebuilt by a former Spice Engineering employee.

Duncan McKay bought the car from Chamberlain after its contemporary career finished, and raced it at the end of the 2000s. He then took it to historic preparation specialist Damax run by Robin Ward, chief mechanic at Spice in the late 1980s, who restored it to 1989-spec for Group C/GTP Racing.

“The tub was fine, but the car did need a major recommissioning, which meant new bearings, driveshafts, wishbones and gearbox internals as a matter of course,” says Ward, who estimates that Damax has so far rebuilt 10 or so Spices. “We always put new wishbones on because they are tubular section steel and tend to rust from the inside — we’ve made jigs to be able to fabricate all the suspension parts.”

Ward, who shared the SE89C with McKay over two successful seasons in 2010-11, describes the Spice as a “user-friendly racing car”.

“They are pretty straightforward to run, as well as being easy to drive,” he says. “They are competitive, too. They only really get beaten by the more powerful turbocharged cars.”

Damax Ltd, Brackley, Northamptonshire, Tel: 01280 308077, damax.co.uk