page_title: Clubman (racing car class)
section_title: Birth
hierarchical_section_title: Clubman (racing car class) / Birth
caption_attribution_description: Image by Peter Fenelon, taken at Aintree Festival of Motorsport 2004
context_page_description: The Clubman is a marque of prototype front-engined sports racing cars that originated in Britain in 1965 as a low-cost formula for open-top, front-engined roadgoing sports cars like the Lotus 7, which had been crowded out of the mainstream by rear-engined cars such as the Lotus 23.
  The cars have evolved and specialised, but it remains a very popular class of racing.
  The formulae currently races with the British Automobile Racing Club and is a Motor Sports Association recognised club.
  The largest and most successful Clubman racing series is the Caterham Racing family of classes that race in United Kingdom and France.
context_section_description: The class was initiated by Nick Syrett of the British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) and organised by the Clubmans Register which represent car owners, drivers and constructors.
  Clubmans evolved from categories such as the 1,172 cc formula for Ford-based specials and several of the 750MC's entry-level formulae. It was intended as a low-cost formula for open-top, front-engined road-going sports cars like the Lotus 7, which had been crowded out of the mainstream by rear-engined cars such as the Lotus 23. Before long, the cars rapidly evolved into highly specialised and very quick sports-racers – retaining the front-engined/rear wheel drive layout, but acquiring in due course wings and slicks. Unlike endurance-oriented forms of sports car racing, Clubmans tend to run at club-level meetings. Races were typically short (15–30 miles) and driver changes and refueling were not part of the strategy.
  Marques such as Chevron made their debut in the formula and the long-lived series of Mallock U2 cars came to dominate numerically (and often in terms of results). Over the years, marques such as Gryphon, Centaur, Bladon, Haggispeed, Phantom, Vision, Pulsar and Slique as well as specials like the St Bruno Roughcutter and the Hustler graced the grids with varying degrees of success. Clubmans cars also became a popular class in hillclimbing.
  Clubmans has remained a relatively low-cost formula with cars having a long life and stability of rules meaning that drivers tend to remain in the formulae and develop their cars. In a straight line, Clubmans cars were often almost as quick as Formula Three single-seaters. The formula acquired a reputation for close competition, varied grids, and a healthy social scene.
caption: A Chevron B1 Clubmans car
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:11:20 16:12:05", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "440", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1094", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3816", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:11:19 10:14:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:11:19 10:14:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1661/250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Cloudy weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "541", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}