A very well developed Richard Lloyd Racing 962 with a full and successful period racing history starting in 1988 in the hands of superb drivers including Derek Bell, James Weaver, Martin Donnelly and Tiff Needell.

This was the Richard Lloyd team's lead world championship car for 1988 and 1989, followed by a season competing in the Japanese championship in 1990. It then enjoyed a quieter life as part of Nick Mason’s collection appearing at occasional events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.  

In 2000 it was bought by Murray Smith and taken to the USA where he successfully campaigned it in the HSR Historic series, including leading the 3 hour endurance race at Sebring.

We added it to our collection in 2003 and it subsequently went on to record two race wins in the current Group C Racing series, driven by Andy Purdie in his debut season - including the Group C 25th anniversary race at the 2007 Silverstone Classic. The fact that Henry Pearman became the 2008 series champion in the sister car underlines the competiveness this car offers today.   962-200 has only a few hours on a fresh engine and is absolutely superb and very easy to drive quickly, with superbly predictable handling and also a great period race history and driver line up.

Period race history of chassis 962-200

For 1988, a new RLR car was built – the first of the ‘200’ series cars. The opportunity was taken to fine tune the new car in the wind tunnel to incorporate redesigned floors in conjunction with new regulations for 1988. Derek Bell was a great driver coup for the team and was joined by James Weaver for the first round of the world championship at Jerez, where they recorded a fine 4th overall, against the might of not only the new Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9 but also the Sauber Mercedes C9 as well.  

Sadly, the loss of a main sponsor resulted in the car running with no sponsorship for this race. Porsche Cars GB threw the team a lifeline for the Silverstone round, where another great 4th overall was achieved, sadly the position was taken away post scrutineering for a fuel tank irregularity. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason stepped in and purchased the car to inject some much needed funds in to the team.  

The next race at Nurburgring netted 7th place with Martin Donnelly sharing with David Hobbs and at the following round at Spa the car was constantly the fastest on track, posting fastest race lap before retiring from a potential podium placed finish. To round off 1988 the team took the car to the World Challenge at Tampa, where Price Cobb joined Weaver and this time they finished a strong 3rd overall. 

The car was updated over the winter in readiness for the 1989 season and refinished in red, with Cabin as the feature sponsor for the season. Derek Bell was joined by Tiff Needell. The first world championship round at Suzuka result for the team was a poor 19th but the BRDC super sprint race netted a fabulous 2nd overall for Tiff – the only car with anything like in the pace of the winning  works supported Joest entry.  

Things continued very well with a 5th in the high temperatures at Dijon and then disaster at Le Mans with only two hours remaining, when a split fuel line put the car out whilst looking at a great potential top six finish. The following round at Brands Hatch also looked promising until a long brake pedal took the car out of another top six finish. The following two rounds at Nurburgring and Donington Park netted a 15th and 11th place finish but the final round in Mexico saw the team back on tremendous form with a fantastic 4th overall. 

For 1990, the team ran this car in the Japanese Group C championship with Sala and 1989 Le Mans winner Manuel Rueter at Fuji twice and also Suzuka, without much success and after this, Nick Mason kept the car for his fabulous collection.

Overview of the Nigel Stroud honeycomb chassis RLR team cars 

The late Richard Lloyd and the great team he formed around him were unquestionably the most competitive of the non factory cars many times during the golden Group C era.  Despite being extremely competitve against the factory Rothmans 956's, he quickly realised that their Canon backed factory 956 (106) would need something cutting edge as the world championship became more and more competitive. One of the very few privateer teams to win a 1,000 kms race, the first success was the last race for his original factory 956, all be it already with some aerodynamic changes from original, for a dominant win at Brands Hatch in 1984. 

After this, he commissioned Nigel Stroud to design a stiffer honeycomb chassis and redesigned the front suspension and sold his factory car to the Brun team, who went on to secure the 1986 world championship with this very car.  The new car was desiganted the identity of 956-106B. and came close to winning the 1985 Le Mans 24 hour race, finishing a superb second. The team and the Joest entered car had the measure of the works run cars that year. The Stroud designed chassis also went on to record another fabulous Brands Hatch 1,000 kms win in 1986, being competitve throughout that season.  For 1987, the first Lloyd specification 962 was built - again using the 106b designation, now for the third time and this car recorded a fine win at the Norisring and also at Kyalami. The separate rear wing and tail with faired in wheels and distinctive nose, with elliptical headlight covers earned it the nickname of the British Porsche, which now looked more like a TWR Jaguar. This car was the class of the Porsche field, with its distinctive Liqui Moly livery and certainly the closest team in taking the fight to the all conquering Jaguar XJR-8.  

For 1988, a new car was built and run by the team, and the chassis numbering system altered by starting at 962-200.   At the same time, Rob Dyson ordered the same spec car to run in IMSA in the USA, which he renumbered DR1  The RLR team car (200) was joined in mid 1989 by 962-201 in time for Damon Hill to make his only Le Mans appearance, joining David Hobbs and Stevan Andskar.   

For 1990, chassis 201 was the sole world championship car, sporting the distinctive pink and white Italiyia Sports livery, and this car recorded the highest 962 finish of the year, with a podium at Montreal.  For 1992, Chris Crawford's ADA team bought the last car, and ran it at Le Mans in 1992 with Derek and Justin Bell and again in 1994 for a Japanese line up.