• Overview

  Iconic Cosworth DFV Grand Prix car

  Ex-Jackie Oliver, Jean-Pierre Jarier, George Follmer

  Podium-finishing Formula One car

  Immediately recognisable Tony Southgate design

  Eligible for both the Monaco Historic and Masters F1 series

  Race prepared by the experts and Hall & Hall

• A Cosworth DFV, distinctive high air box, balloon rear tyres and now eligible for historic F1. What else could you want!

  1973 was a landmark year for Formula One. The previous year’s dominating Lotus 72 had set the template for others to try and follow, with curvaceous bodies very much ‘out’ and sharp wedges & high air boxes ‘in’. 

  One constant was of course the legendary Cosworth DFV engine that had already powered five Drivers’ and five Constructors Champions… and counting. ’73 also welcomed F1’s latest rock star James Hunt to the grid, although he would be no bother to the duelling champions Fittipaldi and Stewart for now, while old hand Denny Hulme was still demonstrating his wealth of talent in the twilight of his grand prix career.

Off the back of building a rapidly improving Can-Am team, Shadow made its F1 debut in 1973 and had utilised the vast experience of Tony Southgate to design its striking DN1. 

Devilishly finished in black and wearing the distinctive sponsorship of Universal Oil Products (UOP), the Shadow certainly had the looks to match its enigmatic name. Southgate’s qualifications included designing the 1968 Indy 500 winner, but, more relevantly, the 1971 BRM P160 in which Peter Gethin won two races and in the process set a new record for the highest average speed for a grand prix of 150.8mph at Monza. The record would stand for an astounding 32 years.

Shadow missed the first two races of the season, but arrived at the third round in South Africa with a car for each of its drivers; ex-Team Lotus driver Jackie Oliver, who’d triumphed at the 1969 Le Mans in a Ford GT40 and would go on to win the Can-Am championship in ’74 driving a Shadow sports car, and F1 novice George Follmer.

But it was the older and yet significantly less experienced Follmer who came up trumps for Shadow, converting a poor qualifying into a 6th place finish and scoring the team’s first points in on its debut. Follmer would go one better at the next race in Spain, taking a podium behind Fittipaldi’s Lotus and Cevert’s Tyrrell. Not bad for the newest team in town.

Jackie Oliver had been less fortunate, with a string of retirements and only a 10th in Monaco to his name. That was until this car arrived, complete with revised rear suspension and an extended wheelbase. Shadow DN1 chassis 6A first saw action at the 11th of the championship’s 15 races and it was here, at the German Grand Prix held on the infamous Nordschleife, that Jackie placed 8th and immediately scored his best finish of the season to date.

Differential troubles forced DN1-6A into retirement during Round 12 at the Österreichring, this time with Follmer at the wheel.

Oliver was reunited with the car for its third outing at the 14th Round in Canada, where he would go on to score his first podium for five years and the last of his F1 career. 

An outstanding start from row seven on a rain-soaked grid saw Oliver climb to second place by lap 20 and even take the lead, just at the precise moment Formula One’s first ever safety car was deployed on lap 32 after a heavy collision between Jody Scheckter and François Cevert. With the concept as yet unproven and the lap charts having been thoroughly muddled when a drying circuit caused an intense flurry of pit stops – the mixture of having both slick, intermediate and wet tyres still being quite new at the time – the safety car collected the wrong driver as the race’s leader, causing some of the field to gain a lap on others and no-one to really know who was placed where.

Colin Chapman even performed his characteristic hat-throwing celebration as Fittipaldi drove his car over the finish line, only to watch in shock as the chequered flag was instead waved for the car driven by Peter Revson half a lap later.

It would be three hours after the race that officials, having scythed through the timing charts car-by-car and lap-by-lap, declared Revson the winner, Fittipaldi second and Jackie Oliver third – although many in attendance were convinced that they were about to witness Shadow’s historic first win!

Oliver only raced the car once more, during the final race of the ’73 season at Watkins Glen, and 6A’s last F1 race was Round One, Argentina in 74 with Jean-Pierre Jarier at the wheel. Soon after the Shadow was sold off briefly campaigned in the 1976 Shellsport G8 Championship, notably driven by Lella Lombardi.

More recently owned by an American enthusiast, DN1-6A has been meticulously restored to its original configuration for historic racing. Even more recently and over an eight-month period, expert competition car restorers and preparers Hall & Hall performed a full and thorough strip down, clean up, crack test and preparation program. 

With no hours driven since, this Shadow is the ultimate seat from which to enjoy the Monaco Historic Grand Prix or indeed the full calendar of races in the FIA Masters Historic F1 Championship.

1973 Shadow DN1 6A Cosworth DFV Race Results

• Race Date

• Race

• Drivers

• Car No.

• Result

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  5th August 1973
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  German Grand Prix, Nürburgring
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Jackie Oliver
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  17
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  8th
                

---

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  19th August 1973
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Austrian Grand Prix, Österreichring
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  George Follmer
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  16
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  Retired
                

---

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  23rd September 1973
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Canadian Grand Prix, Mosport Park
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Jackie Oliver
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  17
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  3rd
                

---

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  7th October 1973
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  US Grand Prix, Watkins Glen
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Jackie Oliver
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  17
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  15th
                

• Race Date

• Race

• Drivers

• Car No.

• Result

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  13th January 1974
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Argentinian Grand Prix, Buenos Aires
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Jean-Pierre Jarier
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  17
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  Retired
                

• Race Date

• Race

• Drivers

• Car No.

• Result

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  21st March 1976
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Shellsport G8 Championship, Mallory Park
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Roger Springett
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  Unknown
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  DNS
                

---

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  28th March 1976
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Shellsport G8 Championship, Snetterton
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Richard Scott
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  Unknown
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  9th
                

---

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  16th April 1976
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Shellsport G8 Championship, Oulton Park 
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Lella Lombardi
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  Unknown
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  12th
                

---

•                 
  Race Date
                  
  19th April 1976
                

•                 
  Race
                  
  Shellsport G8 Championship, Brands Hatch
                

•                 
  Drivers
                  
  Lella Lombardi
                

•                 
  Car No.
                  
  Unknown
                

•                 
  Result
                  
  9th