1984 Toleman TG184-01

When the Grand Prix circus returned to Europe after the American races in 1984, Ayrton Senna was still a Formula One newcomer. The Toleman team had been struggling for three years and had only begun to get a few results toward the end of 1983. While the team had done very well in Formula 2, the F1 Toleman-Hart just couldn’t seem to compete with the much wealthier factory teams. A new car had been produced for 1984 and that looked much more promising, and so did the quiet and somewhat aloof Brazilian Senna. He had won everything in Formula Ford, Formula Ford 2000 and many of the races in F3, but F1 was a big step up and many people questioned whether he could possibly repeat his winning ways in a Toleman.

For the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, the 10th race of the season, the team had four cars, including a brand-new one just built for Venezuelan Johnny Cecotto. First practice on Friday morning had only been going for 4 minutes when Cecotto had a very big crash in his new Toleman-Hart TG184. He had seriously broken his ankles and was taken to the hospital, and the Toleman bad luck looked set to continue. Then Ayrton Senna went out in the shortened morning session in TG184-01 and set the fastest time of all. Everyone’s attention went to the end of the pit lane where the little Toleman team was. Maybe it was just a bit of luck, but he was quicker than Prost and Lauda in the McLaren-Porsches and everyone else.

In the afternoon practice, he went out again in TG184-01 and though this time Prost, Lauda and Elio de Angelis in the Lotus 95T went faster, no one else was faster than Senna. For Saturday practice he used his racecar TG184-02 and eventually was 7th on the grid, and in the race moved up to finish a fine 3rd. After Friday practice, when Ayrton stepped out of TG184-01, the car was put aside and never appeared again on a race circuit until March 2007 when the car was taken to Donington Park for us to test as a preview to the GPLive event in May. Senna got out and we got in!

The Toleman Story

Looking back, F1 fans remember Toleman as having a fairly short history in Grand Prix racing. However, the Toleman company had a very long association with motor racing. The Toleman Group was formed in 1926 and their business was delivering new and used cars, and was based in Manchester, England, where Fords were being built. When Ford moved to Dagenham, in Essex, Toleman moved too. In the early 1950s, the company chairman, Albert Toleman started doing some trials with a Dellow and then rallying with a Ford Zephyr. With co-managing director Jeff Jeffries, Toleman was quite successful and the pair won a club rally championship in 1954 and 1955. They were about to do the Monte Carlo Rally when Albert Toleman’s health started to fail, and so the company’s motorsport activity went quiet until 1969.

Alex Hawkridge had joined the company in 1968 as a clerk, about the time Albert Toleman died. He progressed very quickly and in 1969 introduced a friend, Colin Hawker, to Albert’s sons, Bob and Ted Toleman. Hawker had built and was racing a V-6-engined Ford Escort and Hawkridge convinced the Tolemans to provide some sponsorship. A year or two later, Hawker put a Cosworth DFV into a Capri under the Toleman Delivery Services banner. As “Super Saloon” racing had become very popular, it was not long before they took a Le Mans chassis from the Duckhams Special with a DFV in the rear and put a VW 1500 body on it and this car, the DFVW, was very fast and very well known. Hawkridge himself, and Bob Toleman even, started doing some Formula Ford racing in 1975 using Royales. They got to know Royale designer Rory Byrne and works-driver South African Rad Dougall. In 1976, Hawkridge started from the front row at Castle Combe with Nigel Mansell, and won, while Mansell finished 6th. The year 1976 was the year Formula Ford in the UK was dominated by Derek Warwick. Tolemans were about to sponsor Dougall who had a big crash and broke both legs. A few weeks later, Bob Toleman was killed in a Formula Ford race at Snetterton.

These events slowed the Toleman racing program considerably. Hawkridge and older Toleman brother Ted continued to do some Sports 2000 racing, but it was a much smaller operation. However, when Dougall recovered, he won two Formula Ford 2000 championships for Toleman in 1977 in the semi-works Royale. Alex Hawkridge, who was in charge of the company’s racing team among other jobs he held, then decided not to go into F3 but straight into Formula 2; a very big step. A Chevron F3 car was used for Dougall at the end of 1977, but the Toleman team had decided that nothing was to be gained from F3, so two March-BMW 782s would be run for Toleman by Tom Walkinshaw. Rory Byrne joined the team to engineer the two cars with Dougal as driver. The effort showed some promise but they were up against a lot of other teams with the same cars. Toward the end of the season, Brian Henton suggested some improvements, which helped, and then he was invited to join the team for the South American Temporada series. Henton had been using a Brian Hart engine, so they took one March with a BMW unit and one with a Hart.

For 1979, the team had to decide how to beat the works March entries. Byrne had made a visit to Ron Tauranac and the Ralt factory, where he saw Ron’s new Ralt F2 design. It was thus decided that Toleman would run the two works Ralts, with Tauranac present at the races, Roger Silman as team manager, and Rory Byrne as the other engineer, with Dougall and Henton as the drivers. This didn’t work all that well, as the Ralt for Dougall arrived late and was too heavy, so for half the season they were using two different chassis. Dougall won at Thruxton in the March and had points in the early races, as did Henton. Once Henton was in the Ralt full-time, he started winning, but the South African found the Ralt difficult. By the last race, all Henton had to do was finish ahead of Marc Surer to win the championship. With only two laps left in the race, the brakes failed, Henton spun while in the lead, Surer went past and that was the end of the title.

Formula 2 Champions

Toward the end of the 1979 season, Tolemans decided to build their own chassis for 1980. Design draftsman John Gentry had joined Byrne and they laid out plans for the TG280, also using the Hart engine, but designed to use Pirelli radial tires. This was a lighter, stiffer car that had taken some four months to build. The team had moved its base to Witney in Oxfordshire, and around December, BP had offered to provide sponsorship if there were two British drivers. One of these was Derek Warwick and the other Stephen South. But, then, South gave his attention to an F1 drive and was fired, and Henton came back into the team. Henton led Warwick 1-2 at Thruxton. He won again at Vallelunga so had three wins and four 2nd-place finishes, while Warwick won at Silverstone. At Zolder, four Tolemans led the entire field, as both Huub Rothengatter and Siegfried Stohr had bought TG280s. So Henton won the European F2 Championship from Warwick, and the cars had ended up being very reliable. The original plan had been to spend a year learning, a year getting results and the third year for the championship. They had achieved this and had now decided to apply the same plan to Grand Prix racing. They would find this a much harder road.

On to Formula One

Tolemans’ experience with the Pirelli tires and the Hart engine, and an understanding that they would have to be even more innovative in F1 than they were in F2, meant that the team would continue with the Italian tire manufacturer and with Brian Hart. The simple way would have been to use a Cosworth engine, but that would not have provided a winning edge. This was the period of great rivalry between the manufacturers and privateers—the FISA-FOCA wars—and Toleman sided with the Grandees. As a result, they were allowed to miss some of the early races and could concentrate on getting the car ready for the 1981 season.

The first efforts were with a Formula 2 car with Brian Hart’s first turbocharged engine, the 415. The TG181 was based on these first tests, where Brian Henton said the car was producing a lot of power, even though they were not using much boost. When the first car was complete, it was tested at Monza and it was discovered that the early ideas were wrong, as the car was plagued with overheating. The car was way off the pace at the first meetings, and so a change was made from water to air intercooling, and the turbo was moved to the top of the engine. This gave an improvement in power and, as a result, the car nearly qualified in Spain. Partway through the season, in an effort to continue to push the technological envelope, Brian Hart came up with a monobloc engine. Several more modifications were made to get the car to qualify to justify the sponsorship from Candy and Saima. Finally, Henton managed to qualify for the Italian Grand Prix, but that was the tenth attempt. He also finished 10th. Derek Warwick qualified in Las Vegas but didn’t finish, and those were the only two races the team managed to get into that year.

In 1982, Candy and Saima disappeared, leaving Cougar, which was essentially an internal Toleman name. Some Candy money appeared for Teo Fabi who replaced Henton, while Derek Warwick continued for another season. Though Warwick got into the South African race, he and Fabi either could not qualify, pre-qualify or finish in the first nine races, even though there were a few hopeful moments. Warwick finished 15th in France, 10th in Germany, but the final four 1982 races were just like the first several. However, Warwick had caused a minor sensation in the Dutch Grand Prix when he set fastest lap after his rear wing had fallen off, and he did run 2nd for a time in the British race.

A new car, the TG183, was finished toward the end of 1982, and the testing was so successful that Candy came back as an active sponsor for 1983. All the design faults in the TG181 were done away with; there was more room for the intercoolers, the body shape was better and the 415T Hart engine was now a semistressed chassis member. The monobloc engine was more rigid as well and was lighter. A stiffer pull-rod suspension system replaced the rocker arms, and this looked likely to perform better with the Pirelli tires. Then suddenly, FISA banned ground effects for all the teams, and many new solutions had to be found. Side pods disappeared or got smaller and that meant space had to be found for radiators and oil coolers. The changes brought about the amazing advent of double rear wings, and Toleman was in the forefront of these developments. Rory Byrne was hard at work applying aerodynamic theory to the new car, using the larger nose with twin radiators to get more downforce, while the frontal area also worked as a venturi. There were various set-ups for the different circuits, and Byrne seemed to be able to achieve a well-balanced car.

Bruno Giacomelli joined Derek Warwick, and the cars were no longer having problems qualifying except for Bruno at Monaco. But good results were still not forthcoming. Warwick was 8th in Brazil, and Bruno 13th in France. Soon, the suspension was completely redesigned and the pair was 7th and 8th in Belgium, with Giacomelli 9th in Detroit. The team changed companies with their turbocharger after a long run of engine failures, and Warwick rewarded this with 4th at Zandvoort, the team’s first ever points. Some 5th, 6th and 7th places followed, and Warwick was 4th in the final race in South Africa. The team had planned to be winning by now, so these results were encouraging but far from what had been expected. Many people thought Toleman might pack up, but some surprises were in store for 1984.

Senna Arrives in F1

If Toleman was disappointed, then Renault was much more so, having thought they would finally win the championship. Even though Alain Prost won several races, Piquet managed to steal the title, and then Prost was fired. Patrick Tambay got his job, and Derek Warwick was made Renault number two. When testing started in Brazil in mid-January 1984, a lot of drivers were in new teams. Tambay was fastest in the 6-day test over Nigel Mansell’s Lotus 95T, Rosberg in the Williams FW09, DeAngelis’s Lotus, Alboreto’s Ferrari 126C3B, Warwick in the second Renault, Patrese and Cheever in Alfa Romeos, and Winkelhock in the ATS.

Tenth fastest of 22 cars was young Ayrton Senna, who for sometime was known as Ayrton Da Silva, using his mother’s name. He had risen swiftly through the ranks and had been Martin Brundle’s main combatant in British F3. At Rio, he was a very competent 10th in the TG183B—ahead of the MP4 McLarens of Lauda and Prost. That was something of a surprise. His new teammate, former bike-racer Johnny Cecotto was 19th, also in the 1983 car.

Senna had joined Toleman at the age of 24, having tested for both McLaren and Williams, and his choice of Toleman was seen as quite odd, though the argument was that he would be number one, that he would learn, and the pressure would be less. It is said that he wanted to go to Brabham but Piquet wouldn’t have it. I am not sure I ever believed any of those stories. Senna and Cecotto were stuck with the old TG183 for the first several races while Byrne was desperately working on the new TG184. Ayrton retired in Brazil, at his home circuit, and then managed 6th at Kyalami and Zolder, having done pretty well in most of the practice sessions with the “old” car. Then he couldn’t qualify at Imola before the new TG184 was ready for Dijon. He was a pretty unspectacular 13th on the grid and then retired in the race, but the new car was very different. It had a lighter Kevlar body and even better aerodynamics. However, the Hart engine couldn’t carry any weight and a subframe was necessary, which added the weight the Kevlar had lost, but the potential was clear.

Ayrton and Monaco 1984—Chassis TG184-01

Monaco 1984 is remembered mainly for injustice. The Clerk of the Course was Jacky Ickx, and at 31 laps, in pouring rain, he ordered the red flag and the race was stopped. Alain Prost won by 7 seconds from Ayrton Senna who was rapidly catching him. The conditions were no worse than they had been twelve years earlier when the race was not stopped and Beltoise won from Jacky Ickx. The controversy was over whether Ickx, as a Porsche “employee,” should have done that.

By Monaco, the Toleman chassis had been adjusted and seemed to suit the new Michelin tires the team had finally switched to. Brian Hart had been developing an electronic fuel-injection system, and the team was now optimistic about the future. Senna brought a great deal of optimism with him. As you got to know him, you discovered that his optimism was a deep belief in his own abilities, a belief that he could really do whatever he wanted to.

Practice and qualifying was in the dry, and Senna drove both chassis TG184-01 and his racecar TG184-02 in both sessions, swapping back and forth. His best time on Thursday was only 1.27.865, 16th quickest, 4 seconds slower than Alboreto’s Ferrari and less than half a second faster than Cecotto in the other Toleman. Work went on Friday, the rest day, and on Saturday, Ayrton reduced his lap by nearly 3 seconds. But everyone else had also sped up so he was still only 13th on the grid, again having used both cars. With Prost now on pole, and the McLarens, Lotus, Ferraris, Renaults, Brabham, Williams and even Ligier ahead of him, Senna’s task seemed daunting. The Brazilian hadn’t established himself as a great driver yet, never mind a great wet weather driver, but when race day was soaking wet, the small, damp crowd was in for something special.

The two Renaults were out in the first corner, and it wasn’t long before Mansell got by Prost for a short time until he too went off. Lauda was also the victim of a spin in the wet, but as the laps went by, Ayrton Senna was moving past everyone, with that other promising newcomer Stefan Bellof chasing him as he rose from last on the grid to 3rd in the Cosworth-powered Tyrrell. Senna didn’t quite have as smooth a race as Prost, as the Brazilian did manage to get the car over a curb at the Chicane and into the air at one stage. On lap 24, Senna set the race’s fastest lap, some 30 seconds slower than qualifying time, but the Toleman-Hart on full boost in the wet at Monaco was spectacular. Some people think Senna had passed Prost, and indeed he did at the end of lap 32 when Prost pulled up before reaching the flag and the Brazilian got there first. But the results were declared at the end of the previous lap. If only for a few more laps!

TG184-01 at Detroit

After Monaco, the Grand Prix teams moved to North America. Senna was 9th on each of the practice days for the Canadian Grand Prix, and got up to 7th in the race, driving almost the entire distance with serious braking and gearbox problems. He finished 7th. While Motor Sport’s Alan Henry sensed the real Senna potential and said so, Denis Jenkinson seemed less impressed when he reviewed the 1984 drivers in the August issue of the magazine. He seemed to have Brundle, Warwick and Hesnault ahead of Senna at the time!

Then everyone moved from Montreal to the tighter road circuit at Detroit. Senna had TG184-02 with the new Brian Hart electronic fuel injection, and that had him in 7th spot on the first day and 6th on Saturday. He was clearly improving in every practice session, probably faster than the car could. His 7th on the grid was just a fraction behind former Toleman driver Warwick, and ahead of Tambay, Lauda and Arnoux. The race start in Detroit was a disaster, as Mansell’s ragged start saw him hit Prost, and then Piquet hit Alboreto and Surer crashed into Piquet. Mansell’s car survived but Piquet and Alboreto went for their spares. Senna had the front suspension broken by Piquet’s wheel so he had to run back and get TG184-01, the car you see here, and get it ready for its only race. Senna, therefore, lost the chance of trying the new injection system. He pushed very hard after the re-start, only to slide off on lap 22 into retirement, with some minor damage to TG184-01 to be repaired.

In Dallas, Senna had the new Hart development engine to try, and improved again to qualify 6th. He was clearly able to run with the fastest cars in the race, and did so until the driveshaft broke on lap 48.

Last Appearance at Brands Hatch

As mentioned earlier, Senna caught everyone’s attention at the British Grand Prix. A huge crowd turned out for the entire weekend and many of them were Senna F3 fans. He responded to Cecotto’s frightening accident, which ended his F1 career, by setting fastest time of all in Friday’s unofficial practice in TG184-01. The handling of the Toleman-Hart was brilliant in the afternoon, when he stayed in touch with the very best and experienced Grand Prix drivers. TG184-01 had been put aside after a minor fire in practice and Ayrton drove immaculately in the other car to finish 3rd to Lauda’s McLaren MP4-2 and Warwick in a Renault RE50. The first three were the only cars on the same lap at the end.

Senna had four retirements in the final races of 1984, finishing 3rd again in the last race in Portugal. However, he had signed for Lotus, for 1985, before the Italian GP so the Toleman team dropped him for that race. Then he headed off to Lotus and the future as a world champion, but it had all started with the little Toleman team.

Driving Senna’s TG184-01

The opportunity to drive a “Senna car” came about in a slightly accidental and strange way. Having wanted to help promote the new GPLive event, which took place at Donington, on May 18–20, I approached David McLaughlin for his ideas on finding a truly charismatic car that would be representative of the exciting cars which would appear at the event. This led to a discussion with Alistair Davidson, who had seen the Toleman up for auction three years ago and had bought it at a “very reasonable price.” He was happy to cooperate, but I sensed a bit of reluctance in his voice. After all, this was his treasure and he didn’t know me. He had also bought a TG181, the ex-Warwick car.

The test day was on March 19, a day that much of Britain was covered in snow. It was snowing as I left Northampton headed north to Donington where the weather was said to be worse. But Donington Park was a little oasis in a land of snow. We stood upstairs in the media center and could see snow on the hills just to the north and west. We would be lucky to get away with a few laps. I went to meet the team and see the car for the first time. It had been sensibly restored and was in the same livery as at Detroit in 1984. It was then that I learned that the car had only had a little demo run to make sure it worked, but that it had not returned to a racetrack since Senna got out at Brands Hatch. I said to Alistair and the team that we only needed a few laps to get some good photos for our preview and for this article. They looked at me rather strangely, and I thought, “Oh no, something’s wrong, this isn’t going to happen.” So, when they said, “No, we have the track for an hour to do the photos and for you to drive the car.” I was stunned.

The owner, necessarily, had the honor of taking the car out and giving it a warm-up to make sure everything was working. A few minor adjustments were needed but somehow, the car had seemed to survive its long storage in good condition. When Benetton bought the Toleman team, the car among other things was sold off, and had a few owners. Ted Toleman got into a bit of difficulty by allegedly selling some of his cars more than once, so the tale goes. A few years ago, the car appeared at auction and was bought by its current proud owner. A fair bit of work went into confirming that it was a “Senna car.” The car was stripped down and all the parts carefully logged on a computer. The engine was sent to Terry Hoyle, and of course Terry had maintained contact with Brian Hart, and one of the Hoyle mechanics used to work for Hart. When the engine was taken apart to rebuild, it was found to be in surprisingly good condition. The chassis components were restored, but the body was much as last run at Brands Hatch and unchanged. Alistair Davidson and David Alston have each done a few laps at Dunsfold Airfield but that is all it has done until Donington.

How do you get ready to drive a car raced by Ayrton Senna? He hadn’t been successful to any great degree with this car, but he had had it going very quickly and famously at Monaco, in the race at Detroit, and in practice at Brands Hatch. As I sat in it in the garage, a few things were pointed out. The rollover bar had a few identifying bends in one of the photos in a Senna book, and sure enough, there they were when you reached up to feel the little cross-member in the roll bar. This feature was one of the things that helped to identify the car. Removal of the nose gives access to the pedal area and there inscribed on the back of the throttle and brake pedals are two words: Ayrton and Senna…apparently done by the man himself with a screwdriver! This car had its own boost control—Senna was the only Toleman driver allowed to control the boost himself. This was almost mystical territory.

As a pretty modern monocoque, entry doesn’t suit all sizes, though most effort went into bending the legs down through to the famous Senna pedals. Once done, everything else works pretty well. The gear lever, with a neat diagram for the shift pattern, is easy to use. In fact, the gearbox was a dream all through the session. The rev counter and boost gauge are right behind the steering wheel. There is pretty minimal instrumentation, with a fairly standard fuel pump and starter button arrangement. The rev counter reads to 10,000 rpm, though I would not be going beyond 7,500, the owner was kind enough to say that “to experience the car you really had to feel the turbo come in about 6,000!” There are temperature gauges to the left, just above the turbo boost control, and the lever to adjust the stiffness at front and rear. Oil, fuel and alternator warning lights sit on the top of the dash, and a largish fire extinguisher props up your knees. It was all a comfortable fit when done up physically. Psychologically, this was a big moment, made all the better by the car’s smooth starting and refusal to stall…loved that! Then it was out onto the rolling Donington tarmac for some warm-up and some of the photos you see here. The snow was still holding off, so temperatures wouldn’t be a problem.

The first few laps were about warming up the Hart engine and remembering the shutdown procedure so as not to overheat the turbo. This was all low-rev stuff until the camera car pulled in and I could gradually get the throttle down and warm the Avon slicks up. Everything seemed easily manageable, even as the pace picked up. It wasn’t until lap four or five when I came out onto the long straight at Donington and saw the revs move past 6,000…6,200, and then there was a bit of a shake and what I can only describe as a whirring sound indicating the old turbo was doing its business. The revs rose quickly to 7,500 rpm and I had to move equally quickly to get up to fourth and then fifth and I realized the end of the straight had arrived. Bang, smoothly down to fourth and third and ease into the tight descending right-left and ease up the main straight, waiting for the turbo again. After a few laps, a nice rhythm set in. Redgate, at the end of the pit straight, could be taken harder in third and that brought the turbo into play all the way to the Craner Curves taken in fourth, holding fourth all the way down to the Old Hairpin. A slow down-change saw the needle drop off, but going down to second and a bit of right foot had it back up. Here, I could feel an amazing characteristic of this car, ——with all that twin rear wing, it wanted to oversteer. But it all held nicely.—up to third and fourth—going much more quickly up to McLeans this time. As I got to the top of the hill toward the right-hander onto that straight again, I slotted down to third gear and held the throttle down earlier, the turbo coming on in the corner and really winging it down the straight. Again, I had to grab fourth and fifth as fast as possible. I had never been down that straight in such a short space of time.

Several more laps, with a nice appreciative crowd on the pit wall, and the car would go better and better. The Hart engine was wonderfully responsive, the turbo quite manageable, very smooth and predictable handling, solid undramatic braking—it couldn’t be better. I had anticipated a lot of buffeting as there is no windscreen, but it is a tribute to the aerodynamic design that this was never an issue. It does mean, with a reasonable amount of room to move around in, that g-forces will be felt especially on the neck. My eye caught the little switch on the right side of the dash—rain light. While I was having a smooth and quick and faultless ride on the wide sweeps at Donington, Ayrton Senna had been driving this car at Monaco using the full 10,000 rpm and full boost, slinging the car round the circuit with no room to spare, with that oversteer and the rush of the turbo. In the 1984 race, he had switched on that rain light and did it in the pissing down wet! That tells you everything you need to know about Ayrton Senna and car control.

With this thought in mind, I was headed in. The engine stuttered a bit, and then again, and it coasted down the long straight and stopped. It came back on at the end of a rope, just a faulty alternator, which killed the battery, but it allowed some time to reflect on how tenuous the Toleman was in F1. It was flying at one moment and sitting on the sideline the next, but, there were some glory days, in this very car.

Specifications
Chassis: Carbon monocoque
Wheelbase: 2692 mm
Track: 1816 mm front, 1683 mm rear
Dry weight: 540 kg
Fuel Capacity: 220 liters
Fuel consumption: 3.8 – 4.2 mpg or 67 – 74 liters/100km.
Engine: Hart 415 T
Engine weight: 131.5 kg without turbo
Displacement: 1496-cc
Bore/ Stroke: 88 x 61.5 mm
Power: 560 bhp@ 9800 rpm
Turbo: Holset
Fuel injection: Hart/BRA
Gearbox: Toleman-Hewland 5-speed
Suspension: Front: pushrods, rear : pullrods
Shock Absorbers: Koni adjustable
Brakes: Brembo – steel discs
Rim Diameter: 13″ front and rear
Rim width: 11.8″ front, 16.25″ rear
Tires: Avon (was originally Michelin) 24-5/635R13 front, and 370/650R13 rear.

Resources
Many, many thanks to Alistair Davidson and David Alston and their team Duncan Ritchie and Roger Parks, and to Donington Park for the time and space.