LeGrand Chassis History

Mk1 and Mk2 – The Beginning

A new design for Formula 3 was begun, growing from what the three friends had learned from the Renault specials. The resulting 1962 "Cheetah" Mk1 was a simple straightforward design using many custom light alloy components and was right at the minimum weight of 440 pounds. An interesting aspect of the car was that it used a cable operated the steering rack from the steering column. The car was very light and inexpensive to build. It used a race tuned BMW 700cc twin cylinder engine/transaxle producing 76 horsepower. The air-cooled engine eliminated chassis plumbing allowing for a very light and tinny car. The plan was to have a production run of six cars: three to sell and one for each of the builders. Stuart Dane began the layout and design but was tragically killed in February 1962, at Riverside Raceway in the Renault special. Around this time, Neil headed east while Red soldiered on alone. Red finished up the design work and then retired from active driving.

Bruce Eglington, a young engineer and race driver, introduced himself to LeGrand for the purpose of test driving. Along with an immense driving talent, he brought experience from racing several seasons in Lotus 18 and 20 cars. When the Mk1 hit the track in early 1963, Bruce beat all comers in a two heat, 200 mile pro Jr. race at Willow Springs Raceway. Bruce soon took on the role of factory driver. The little Mk1 was so dominant that year that they raced it against the faster Formula B and C cars, effectively killing the Formula 3 class.

This is a photo of an Mk1 kit.

[ Jerry Burr owns a 1963 LeGrand MK1 F4. He has a profile on the CSRG website. ]

[ At Speed Images photo album of Jerry Burr's 1963 LeGrand MK1 F4. ]

The success of the Mk1 was immediately parleyed into the Mk2, an H Modified sports racer. Red had started the design work on the car, but when Bruce Eglington came along, he was left to finish it. The Mk2 was basically a widened Mk1 with a sports car body, but it could accommodate engines from the BMW to a SAAB two stroke, three cylinder engine. The Mk2 was also a winner, and many H Mod records fell at the hands of Bruce Eglington. Most all the designs were collaboration, with a designer and Red working as a master fabricator looking over their shoulder giving input as needed. Red is said to have been a gruff and crude, yet big hearted, man, and this trait caused Bruce and the other designers to work a little harder on the cars they were designing.

Mk3 and Mk4 - LeGrand Stakes His Claim

The Mk3 was the first car to use the LeGrand name, due to a prior conflict with similarly named cars that Bill Thomas was making for Chevrolet. Design work for the Mk3started in the winter of 1964, when SCCA introduced new rules for formula cars. With design help from Bruce Eglington, and styling by Don Stephan, LeGrand produced the Mk3 for the 1965 season for SCCA Formula B &C classes. This car followed the Mk1 and Mk2 design and featured inboard front suspension, but now used magnesium rocker arms, hubs, wheels, uprights and steering box castings. In an effort to keep unsprung weight to an absolute minimum, Airheart calipers were used at all four corners and were connected to the master cylinders with plastic tubing. These cars were right at the weight minimums of 750 pounds for Formula C and 850 pounds for Formula B. Bruce Eglington went to race in Europe soon after the car was finished, and therefore had no national level success with this truly great race car. , The car did attract drivers, however, such as Lou Sell, Carl Knapp, and Earl Jones. Bob McQueen won races on the East Coast in the first Mk3, with Jones, Knapp and Sell winning on the West Coast. Earl Jones, with an Alfa powered car, won the American Road Race of Champions Formula B race for LeGrand at Daytona in 1965, finishing ahead of Mark Donohue. After a production of 20 of the Mk3s, Red moved the manufacturing out of his garage, and into a new production facility in Sylmar, California. The Mk3 was in many ways the zenith for LeGrand Racecars. After only 4 years, this small California company was producing top level formula cars.

Red was an astute designer and his wheel tooling method allowed him to makes wheels of various widths with a minimum of time and expense. At a time when wheel widths were rapidly increasing, Red’s lightweight wheels were quickly seen on many of the most competitive cars. This key element also kept LeGrand cars winning, because they were matched to the newest designed tires at a time when it took the British months to supply new wheels.

Following the successful formula used for the Mk2, Bruce widened the Mk3 to produce the Mk4 sports racer for G & F Modified in 1966. With this car, Red gave the design team a free hand and acted only as a fabricator. The Mk4b used the new suspension that was developed for the Mk5. Originally designed for a 1000cc engine, the Mk4 was quickly redesigned as the Mk4b to accept engines from 1100 cc to small block V8s for SCCA classes. In fact, no Mk4 cars were produced, the entire production being Mk4b versions. A contemporary of the Lotus 23 and the Elva Mk7, the Mk4b was stiffer than either and a bit larger. Don Stephan designed the body for the Mk4b, and the buck for the body work mold was built under Bruce Eglinton's apartment, with the Mk5 body also built in the same manner. Gene Levan commissioned S/N 001, and with a works Datsun twin cam engine placed 2nd in his first race at Phoenix. Bill Lomenick built S/N 002 from a kit and used Maserati 2 liter power. George Hollinger bought the second factory built car, S/N 003, fitted with Climax power. Unfortunately, the Mk4b cars were not able to beat the Lotus 23s, and had little in the way of outright wins. Some of them raced with Genie or one-off bodies. One of the more interesting variants of the Mk4b was Peter Brock's Hino Samurai, built for FIA endurance racing utilizing a beautiful aluminum coupe body. It is unknown how many Mk4bs were produced. However, Al Nowocinski, the current owner of S/N 001, has tracked down a total of seven Mk4b cars.

Based on the remarkable success of the Mk3, wherein LeGrand beat the best of the European chassis on American soil, Bruce Eglinton designed a formula car specifically for European competition. The Mk5 followed much along the lines of the Mk3, but abandoned inboard suspension in favor of conventional outboard coil over shocks. The primary reason for this change was to increase flexibility of geometry control and add superior control of bump steer. Leading lower and trailing upper control arms were incorporated providing anti-dive geometry. This basic front-end geometry was used on all subsequent LeGrands through Mk10. The Mk5 was smaller and more compact than the Mk3, being specifically sized for Eglinton’s 5’8", 130 lb. body. The bodywork was designed by Don Stephan and was along conventional lines with the exception that a pronounced lip was added to the rear of the engine cowl. On close inspection, it is evident that great care and pains were made to wrap the body very tightly around the innards. The overall design is very compact. One of Bruce's primary design goals was to keep the car small and light and the degree to which this is achieved is striking when the car is seen beside its British contemporaries.

Construction of the Mk5 started in the summer of 1966. Red did not play a strong role in the early stages of the project. When Bruce first approached Red about the project, Red wasn't interested, and Bruce and Don went off on their own. Design and construction were done outside of Red's shop with the chassis being built by Johnny Parson's (Indy 500 winner) shop. Bruce's friend Gary Hood, who had gone to Europe with Bruce in '64 and ran a machine shop in Pasadena, made the patterns for the uprights and did the entire machine work on these parts. Originally, the car wasn’t to be a LeGrand but an ES-1 (Eglinton-Stephan). Red didn't get involved until it was evident that construction was not going to be complete in time for the '67 season, and a deal was made with Red to help complete the car. A condition of Red's involvement was that the car would indeed wear the LeGrand emblem. Red finally warmed up to the project with enthusiasm and put the final touches on the car to instill the LeGrand signature. The Mk5 was very much derived from the Mk3, and served as the prototype for the Mk6 and Mk4b.

Bruce was hoping to get the new Cosworth SCA 1 litre F2 engine but couldn’t obtain an engine deal,finally purchasing a Cosworth MAE engine and Hewland gearbox. With a minimum of testing and pictures taken at the Pasadena Art Center, Bruce set off for the 1967 F3 season. Considering that Bruce had no support crew, and had to do the transporting and wrenching as well as driving, his season was quite respectable. His best finish was 4^th place in Schleitz, East Germany. It was a great season with races at Reims, LeMans, Monza, Estoril, Bruno Czechoslovakia, Avus (West Berlin) and others. The All-American effort certainly made a positive impression on the Europeans.

While Bruce was in Europe, Red was putting together the latest model, the Mk6. Essentially a production version of the Mk5, the Mk6 was designed to replace the Mk3. The Mk6 was run in either FB or FC, depending on the engine that was installed. It was a bigger car than the Mk3 and now came stock with 7.5 x 13 in front and 9.75 x 13 rear wheels which soon grew to 11 x 13s by mid 1967. A number of these cars are thought to have been producedalthough, there is very little specific competition history. The 1.6 liter Lotus and Alfa twin cams engines were the powerplant of choice for FB.

In this era, the expanding wheel business became a major part of LeGrand racecars. It kept the doors open and allowed Red LeGrand the resources to follow his passion of building race cars with his name.

The Mk7 was designed to contest the SCCA 5 liter Formula A class. Previously, the FA class was a bit of a catch all, but starting in 1968, the class was strictly a class for 5 liter engines based on production V8 blocks. Red and Bruce decided to literally throw together a car from the parts bin. The Mk6 FB car was used as the starting point. The Chassis was widened, a large radiator was fit in the nose, the engine bay was beefed up a bit , and external side pod tanks were fitted. With many similarities to previous LeGrand Mk3-6, the Mk7 is a tube space frame chassis, with the stated benefit being that it is easier for the private entrant to repair than it would be to repair a monocoque construction chassis.. Brakes were 10.5 in diameter solid disks with Airheart single pot caliper. These were later swapped for double pot Airheart calipers on the Mk7A. The rear brakes used LeGrand’s signature placement of the disk inboard of the upright to improve cooling. Wheels were 9.5 in wide by 13 in. diameter front, and 11 x 13 rear. 10 in and 14 in. x 15 in. diameter wheels were used on the Mk7A.

The Mk7 was designed to use either the Chevy 302 or Ford 302. The chassis design was different for the two engines. In prototype form (S/N 001), a stock Camero Z28 engine with wet sump was used with a McKay manifold and downdraft Webers. This engine produced 400-425 HP and the total engine cost was less than $1000. Customers were soon putting full race dry-sumped engines in the cars. Most customers chose the Chevy over the Ford block.

The S/N 001 car used a ZF gearbox. The Hewland LG500 was chosen for later cars because it was easier to work on and because it provided more flexibility in gear selection. Wheel base was 90 in., with front and rear track being 57 in. Two 15-gallon gas tanks (the SCCA maximum allowed) are placed longitudinally on each side of the driver. Dry weight was 1270 lb. (rule minimum was 1250 lb.). Proprietary LeGrand cast magnesium parts were used for the wheels, uprights and wheel hubs. Steering was via LeGrand rack and pinion. In 1968, the Mk7 sold complete, ready to race, with a 450 HP Bartz dry-sumped engine, for $13,372.

By Christmas, Red and Bruce had a car complete. Bruce recalls that despite the rush job, the car actually was very good, had reasonable balance; considering the relatively skinny treaded tires and no wings; and was so light that it was really fast. Bruce said that it was the first time he had driven a car with such power and torque, and it was awesome. Perhaps the weakest components were the brakes, but they did work.

On 25 February, 1968, the prototype car was entered in the Pacific Coast season opener at Las Vegas, with Bruce Eglinton driving. This was a national event, and Bruce scored a victory right out of the box. Bruce recalls that he actually did a "horizon job" on the field and won quite easily. Keep in mind that this was a new class, and the rest of the constructors had not yet gotten their cars sorted. The little LeGrand Race Car Company was able to pull something together quickly and outclass the field.

The Mk7 has the dubious distinction of seriously curtailing the blossoming career of Bruce. After the Las Vegas victory, the LeGrand factory was on a high. They took their trophy home and promptly built an identical second car (002). In June of ‘68, the car was taken to Whitman stadium in Pacoma, Los Angeles to just check that there were no oil or water leaks, and then it was taken up to Willow Springs for chassis tuning prior to its first F5000 race. The rules required fuel cells, and Red ordered some, but they didn’t fit in the tanks. No one thought much of this, because Bruce hadn’t driven a car yet in his career with fuel cells. So, as always, gas was put straight in the aluminum side tanks. Nomex wasn’t required until 1968, and Bruce didn’t yet have a Nomex suit yet. So, he went out in shirtsleeves and helmet, but no gloves because "he was going to just warm it up". While exiting the pits in first gear, the throttle stuck. Bruce’s first instinct was to jam on the brakes. In previous cars, this would overcome the engine while you found the kill switch. With 500 HP and gobs of torque, the little single pot Airheart brakes were no match for the car’s power and just locked up the front wheels eliminating steering. Bruce fumbled for the kill switch, unwilling to push in the clutch, for fear of destroying the team's new engine. Things happen fast with 500 HP pushing you, and Bruce hit the wall, maybe at only 60 mph before finding the kill switch. The left front corner was torn off with an A-arm piercing the left fuel tank. The car burst into a ball of fire. The bodywork had been removed which was good and bad, since it allowed gas to spray all over Bruce, but did allow him to exit the car quickly. Bruce suffered 3rd degree burns over 30% of his body, was in the hospital for 18 months, and was very lucky to live.

This unfortunate incident was quite a blow to LeGrand. His star driver and chief engineer was out just when things were looking promising. Lew Sells won the Championship that year in an Eagle. LeGrand built six Mk7s in 1968; five used Chevy power, one Ford. Jim Paul came in to help Red with the engineering chores. S/N 002 was rebuilt, and Rex Ramsey was chosen as the factory driver. Rex did okay, but a LeGrand Mk7 never won another race at the National level, although they did win several regional events. Chuck Elliot raced S/N 002 in the first L&M Championship, and had a respectable result. The LeGrand team gained experience, learning that components that were strong and reliable with 170 horse power were no match for 500 HP.

Bruce Eglington had started the design on the next formula 5000 car before his accident, the development from racing on the national level and the experience gained required an all new car. The Mk11 F5000 car was designed by Jim Paul with a clean sheet of paper and was built to contest the USAC series. It featured a beefed up chassis (still tube frame) and suspension components, wider wheels, and stronger uprights. Although Rex Ramsey raced it first, Jim continued to race the car in the Pro Series and made middle of the pack finishes. The car often broke components, even with the beefed up design. It is believed that only one Mk11 was built. By this time, all manner of wings had grown on race cars. It was tough to keep up with the development capabilities of the larger British companies.

Little is known about the Mk8 other than that it was a one-off sports racer, presumably built from the Mk6 parts bin.

The Mk9 was an F3 car, designed by Bruce so he could return to Europe. , These plans were dashed, however, by the fire in the Mk7. There is a rumor that one Mk9 chassis was built, but it was never finished, living only in the corner of a nearby shop.

1968 was a busy year for LeGrand. The British had introduced the Formula Ford in 1967, and LeGrand built theirs in 1968. Red was one of the first US constructors to introduce a FF model with the Mk10. This was a true LeGrand design, having no other collaboration or input from any other designer. The LeGrand Mk10 brochure states, "What we at LeGrand are offering in our Mk10 is essentially a simplified version of our Mk6 Formula B car, while still retaining the advanced lightweight fully adjustable Heim jointed suspension system that has made the Mk6 so successful." The first Mk10 cars even shared the Mk6 bodywork. Before the US FF rules were solidified, the Mk10 featured magnesium front uprights and wheels. The minor changes made to M10-F were fully compliant with FF rules, with steel wheels, front uprights and a new wedge body. The chassis was no longer an Mk6 copy, but featured increased wheelbase and increased front and rear track. The Mk10 was a very successful and popular model, winning many races across the country and, running well through out the life of FF. Jim Russell Racing ordered Mk10-F cars for their schools. See photos.

The Mk10 marked the end of the Eglinton/Stephan design influence at LeGrand. After recovering from his injuries, Bruce did race again, and actually did quite well. He and Don were a bit of a team, but they never really got going with Red again. They both went off to pursue successful careers in engineering and design in areas far removed from auto racing. New people joined LeGrand Racecars to take up the slack. Red by now had been building the cars he loved for 8 years. The long hours and the lack of monetary gain started to make him a little burnt out. The magic of the first few years were gone. The wheel business had grown tremendously, and Red also began working on Koni shocks and selling a wide variety of suspension springs. Jim Paul came in immediately after Bruce's accident, and did a lot of the work on the Mk11. John Griffith did most of the detail design and drawings for the Mk14 through the Mk29 (the last LeGrand), and Bob Campbell helped with the development and test driving of the Mk18.

The ’72 Mk13F was a replacement for the Mk10F. The main difference was the inboard rear brakes, and new body work. A one-off FF was the Mk13b; a modified Mk10-F built for Eric Seltzer. This car featured bodywork off the Mk14 and a modified chassis. This car was essentially the prototype for the Mk21 FF.

The 1976 Mk21 FF was a fresh design, replacing the aging but still viable Mk13, Formula Ford. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the Mk21, introduced in 1974, sought to gain an aerodynamic advantage, one of the few avenues left for the FF designer to exploit. It features a low spoon nose with side pod radiators. This was a very successful car at all levels of racing and had quite a long production run. .. Mk21s were used as school cars and eventually Red sold the rights to the design to American Roadracers who wanted to develop a spec class. Alas their efforts did not succeed.

The 1980 Mk27 was the last car Red LeGrand produced. It returned the radiators to the front and was a tidy design. It performed well, winning at all levels until the precurser to the Swift FF was introduced.

Interestingly Red built a SuperVee before he built a Vee. The Mk12 FSV is very similar to the Mk13b in appearance, still a tube frame chassis. Apparently the 12, 13, 14, and 15 were all built at about the same time. Only one Mk12c has been accounted for, and little is know of its competition history. Speculation is that it was either a quick one or two-off, to contest the new 1971 FSV class, or it was the prototype for the Mk15

The ’72 Mk15 represented a bit of an engineering turning point for LeGrand. The Mk14 was an attempt to produce full monocoque cars, and apparently the experiment failed in that no other cars were built of this construction. Red himself suggested that this was a very expensive construction technique and almost impossible to repair. As LeGrand Racecars catered to the backyard mechanics and small time racers, it made sense for Red to stay with a construction technique that was economical and easy for kit builders to handle. The Mk15 was the first of the semi- monocoque cars. This construction was used for all subsequent racecars, except the Formula Fords where it was illegal. The cockpit featured a very light square tube framed chassis with stresses aluminum skin (ala Ferrari construction). Very few of these cars were produced.

Bob Campbell, who was helping Red develop the Mk18, learned that the manufacturing rights, drawings and body molds to a Formula Vee called the KWIC were available. The KWIC was a Formula Vee built by 4 experienced racers up around the San Francisco area. Bob raced against it many times and knew it was fast. He knew exactly what the back of it looked like. Bob Klingler and Slim Peperdine were the two principals of the KWIC car. Red gave them $2,000. Soon Bob and Red found themselves with three body section molds and one set of drawings. They cut materials and welded up two frames, and cleaned the molds and laid up two noses, one cowl and one tail. That's all the fiberglass there was, as the entire floor, sides, and rear undertray was aluminum sheet. It had a very proven Lynx-type frame and Z-Bar rear suspension. Nothing fancy, just rugged and simple to build. Red only made two changes to the entire design. He changed the steering linkage, and modified the rear body work.. Mario Panzarella provided all the components and engine for the first car, the Mk22.

In the summer of 1977, the Mk22 was entered in its first race, at Riverside. Bob and Red has a miserable day Saturday sorting the car – missed qualifying altogether and took the car home that night and changed everything on the suspension. From a dead last start on Sunday, Bob passed half the field before the start line with a blatant Texas start, and gave LeGrand another "out of the box" win by the time the checkered flag dropped. A second car was delivered as a kit, and both cars were gone before too long. No record on more cars is available.

The ’72 Mk14 was the most radical and advanced car LeGrand was to build. A replacement for the aging Mk6 FB car, the Mk14 featured a completely new chassis and had the potential to move LeGrand Racecars from the ranks of club racer to the professionals. The chassis was fully monocoque, the only LeGrand to use this construction. The chassis was beautifully made, was reasonably light and very stiff, able to get the power to the wheels. Front and rear wings were now standard fare in 1972. Only 2 examples of Mk14 cars were reported to have been built.

The ’72 Mk16 was once again a sports racer derived from a formula design. The Mk14 was widened to produce this car for B Sports Racing or 2 liter Can-Am. Designed for the Lotus twin cam engines, or the BDA variants, this car feature full monocoque construction from the nose to the firewall, with a tube-frame rear chassis. Suspension was right off the Mk14 and the body looked very similar to a McLaren Mk8 Can-Am car with an integrated rear wing. It is believed that only a couple of these cars were produced. None of these cars are now know to exist.

An one-off variant of the Mk16 was a special built for Mason O’Kief in ’73, with a Porsche 6 cylinder and FG400 transaxle.

John Griffith, the designer at LeGrand Racecars, approached Red about the idea of producing a street car. Asking Red directly didn’t produce much enthusiasm, although things started to change when a Martin McBurney approached Red with more or less the same idea. As the shop had produced the Mk15 Super Vee, it seemed the logical starting point for design. John penned a tube and aluminum semi -monocoque chassis, a two seater open cockpit, open wheel body with front and rear wings. It looked like an ultra-wide formula car. In went a Martin McBurney 1835 cc upright VW Type II engine which was dynoed at 140 hp at 6000 rpm, and 914 side shifter 5 speed gearbox. The completed car was fast and light, as a good shift into 3rd gear would lift the front 1-foot off the ground. The car was on the cover of Hot VWs in July 1980 & Peterson’s Kit Car Directory in 1980. Two cars were produced; John's car and one which Bill McLeod in Glenn Allen, Alaska produced from a kit.

The LeGrand Mk18 D Sports Racer (DSR) is perhaps the best known of the LeGrand cars, and for good reason. This venerable design, first produced in 1974, was still winning SCCA national level races 20 years later. The follow on DSR model, the Mk25, first introduced in 1979, won the SCCA runoffs three years in a row with David Kaiser as driver/developer in 1995-1997. When the demand for a new small bore sports racer became apparent, Red was not interested and it took quite a lot of prodding by John Griffith to start on the new design. Many young and talented designers were always around LeGrand race cars. It was the "Think Tank" for local southern California SCCA race car enthusiasts. The Mk18 was a modern, all new LeGrand, generating much excitement. Dave Bean consulted on the suspension, Todd Gerstenburger did the layout of the aerodynamics, and Bob Campbell did the test driving. But John Griffith and Red were responsible for bringing everybody’s idea together into a car that dominated DSR for years. These incredible cars are simple and straightforward. They are designed around production motorcycle powerplants, limited to 1000cc, use a simple straight-through final drive (no differential), have fore and aft wings, but no ground effects, and yet they achieve lap times very close to Formula Atlantic cars. This is another case where Red studied the rules and designed a car specifically for the class taking full advantage of the motorcycle engine/gearbox package. These are small cars; the Mk18 has a wheelbase of 76 in., and weighs only 640 lbs. The Mk18 was a semi-monocoque center section (light square section tube frame with stressed aluminum skin) with full tube frame forward of the dashboard and aft of the firewall. The Mk25 moved the radiator forward, the monocoque chassis was lighter with fewer steel bulkheads, had a stronger roll hoop, and improved suspension geometry. LeGrand started a cottage industry, giving advice and selling any component to anyone trying to make a slightly better Mk18. After Paul Decker won the 1982 SCCA runoffs in Atlanta in his Mk18, he started building his own cars from LeGrand components, and there are more that 10 different bodies that fit the little cars.

Red died in November of 1988 and LeGrand Racecars was continued by his son, Robin. Most of this effort was continued production of the Mk25s, and the increasing business of vintage restoration. Robin, with the help of John Griffith and others, produced a new formula car for Bill Huth, owner and operator of the Willow Springs Raceway. An interesting car, the Mk28 had a turbocharged Kawasaki powerplant. The idea was to achieve Formula Atlantic speed with FF budget, and to build a series of these cars for spec class racing at Willow Springs. One car was built and was getting sorted when the rug got pulled from under the project. This car now sits in the show-room at Willow Springs. Robin, discouraged with he lack of success of this project left the racing business, turning over all the vintage LeGrand tooling to the LeGrand Registry. See photos.

LeGrand Race Cars also was involved in contract work. In the early 70’s, George Cheney had Red build for a factory Ford Pinto for the 2.5 liter Trans Am series. It won many races before later retiring to vintage racing

Overall, more than two hundred LeGrand racecars were built from 1962 to 1991. Many of these early cars are now restored to their former glory and continue to compete on the vintage circuit.