06/03/2014
NEWS STORY
It seems fitting that on the day Martini teams up Williams, thereby giving the sport one of the nicest liveries we've seen in ages, that team owner turned TV pundit Eddie Jordan announes the sale of two F1 cars bearing the most iconic liveries in living memory.
Jordan has requested that his collection of historically important cars and memorabilia should be sold with all the proceeds going to CLIC Sargent and the Amber Foundation.
"These two F1 cars were kept because of their history, the good memories and what they meant to the team," said Jordan. But it's time to let them go and the money will be used to good effect helping young people and their families cope with cancer (CLIC Sargent) and getting young adults back on the straight and narrow (Amber Foundation)."
The collection includes the first Jordan Grand Prix car ever built, chassis number 01. Designed by Gary Anderson, 191 is a highly significant car as it was driven by Michael Schumacher. It comes complete with the German's original helmet, signed and given to Eddie Jordan personally by the seven times World Champion to express his gratitude for his first Grand Prix racing opportunity!
Still wearing its striking 7-Up livery, it was the very first car to be designed by Gary Anderson, who explained "I wanted to produce a car which looked good and handled well, I wanted something the mechanics would be proud of and the drivers confident to push".
This first Jordan Grand Prix car bestowed instant credibility on the Silverstone based outfit after they finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship.
The second car in the collection is the first Grand Prix winning Jordan chassis 198. This car was driven to victory by Damon Hill ahead of team mate Ralf Schumacher in the 1998 Belgium Grand Prix and comes complete with the Constructors' Championship trophy won on that historic day, as well as Damon's race suit and his helmet. 1998 was the first season the team switched to Honda engines cars and after a difficult start to the year, things started to turn around at the British Grand Prix when both cars finished in the points. Famously at Spa, after first lap carnage, Hill won the race in the rain with Schumacher second. The year was one of F1's most extraordinary turnarounds ever!
There are also a further collection of twelve significant Driver and Constructors World Championship trophies, eight Jordan team drivers' helmets and a selection of other memorabilia in the collection.
Each individual item is complete with a certificate of authenticity, signed personally by Eddie Jordan himself.
Everything will formally be presented to the new owner by Eddie Jordan at Silverstone where the Jordan Grand Prix story began and this sale represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to own a unique part of F1 history.
The collection is not going to auction but being sold privately through Cars International who have the benefit of a full F1 engineering team with the expertise to provide service and maintenance to these vehicles should the new owner wish to use them for demonstrations or racing!
More details can be found on the Cars International website