1978 Shadow DN9/4A ex Clay Regazzoni

The Shadow DN9 was designed in late 1977 by Tony Southgate following his return to the team from Lotus where he designed the iconic Lotus 78. The first two cars were first raced at US Grand Prix at Long Beach in April 1978.

The were driven by Clay Regazzoni and Hans-Joachim Stuck and paying driver Danny Ongais twice tried to qualify a third car. The cars were sponsored by Swiss cigar manufacturers, Villiger-Kiel.

Chassis 4, our car, was mostly driven by Clay Regazzoni. First raced at Monaco May 1978, Clay Regazzoni had his best result in Chassis at the Swedish Grand Prix in June 1978 where he finished 5th.

For the 1979 season the three remaining works DN9s were reworked into a higher downforce configuration and renamed DN9B. Chassis 4A became 4B driven by the 1978 Monaco F3 winner Elio de Angelis. By the Italian GP the car was being driven by Jan Lammers who picked up 9th place in Canada.

When the Shadow team was sold to Theodore Racing in April 1980, the three remaining DN9Bs at the Northampton factory transferred to Teddy Yip and did not return to Don Nichols.

The car remained in the 1979 4B configuration for most of its subsequent life in historic racing, being driven successfully by W Hall, R Rowan and John Harper between 1984 to 1988 before being raced in Thoroughbred Grand Prix series by John Fenning (founder of Willans Race Harnesses), Mike Wrigley and Helen Bashford-Malkie. Helen had a remarkable first season with the car achieving a best result of third at Brno, making her the first woman to take an FIA TGP podium. She was a top ten finisher in every race she entered.

Former BRDC Chairman, John Grant, acquired the car in 2007 and commissioned Vin Malkie to revert the car to its 1978 specification. John competed regularly in Masters Historic Racing before selling to prolific historic F1 race Max Hilliard Smith.

The current owner, Parc Ferme F1 Collection, bought the car from Max Hilliard Smith and has enjoyed three successful seasons with the car being driven by Ewen Sergison. In this time the car has competed in Masters Historic Racing where the car is a regular podium finisher in the Fittipaldi class as well as competing twice at Monaco Historique (2022 and 2024) and Goodwood Festival of Speed where Ewen finished 2nd in class.

This car is not only competitive in Masters Historic Racing but also a regular entrant at Monaco. The car is sold race ready and will be running in Masters this season.

Complete with spares, crack tested in 2024 with current FIA HTP (renewed in 2025) the car is now available for £395,000