Draft:Image Race Cars

Image Race Cars was a Formula Ford 1600 single-seater racing car manufacturer and race-hire operator in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was based Goodwood, in West Sussex, on the south coast of England.

It was founded by Alan Langridge and Dominic Filmer-Sankey in 1974, and ran until production of the Formula Ford cars ended in 1982. During that period, it also became one of the country’s largest Formula Ford race hire teams.

Early 1970s pre-cursor to Image Race Cars
Image co-founder Alan Langridge had developed his engineering skills working for an agricultural and boat trailer building business in Dorset, run by his father, a former De Havilland aero engineer.

At that time in 1970, Alan also formed a partnership with Dominic Filmer-Sankey, which they called FSL Cars. It developed a kit car inspired by the futuristic Alfa Romeo Carabo, which had been designed originally by Marcello Gandini at Bertone’s legendary studio.

The job of mastering the bodyshell was given to the eponymous Brian Shell, a GRP expert whose day job was at Chichester Yacht Basin. Meanwhile Langridge fabricated a steel chassis to sit beneath it, powered by a rear-mounted transverse BMC A Series engine.

This prototype was driven, but the shell was not finished due to lack of time. Ultimately, the bodyshell mould met an ignominious end, repurposed as a fishpond in the garden of Langridge’s grandmother’s neighbour.

Until this point, Langridge had been occupying a small workshop adjacent to Tim Dutton-Wooley’s workshop in Fontwell. However, in 1971 the kit car project demanded larger premises, and a unit was found in Tangmere, closer to Goodwood. It was located in the chicken sheds on Newcroft Estate in the heart of the village, owned by the charismatic retired army Captain George Taylor.

The demise of the kit car project saw Langridge taking on repairing Formula Fords for John Morrison and Peter Semus’s M&S racing school, based at the nearby Goodwood Circuit.

He also bought a pile of Formula Ford spares, including a chassis, and designed suspension to turn this chassis into a ‘runner’. Alan reflects that “it never had a name, not even Langridge Special”, but he went on to drive it once, surprising himself by winning his class in a Goodwood sprint, before selling the frame to a local, Ian Skinner.

1974 – the birth of Image Race Cars
Thus enthused and re-energised, Filmer-Sankey and Langridge decided to build some Formula Fords from scratch. The first Image, with its winkle-picker nose and pencil-slim chassis, was debuted at the Showboat on the Thames in January 1974.

Three FF1s were built, raced by Morrison, Mike Wrigley - who scored the marque’s first win at Longridge, a tiny track on a Lancastrian caravan site that year - and Mike ‘Fulmar’ Taylor.

Subsequent FF2 and FF2B models won big races with determined works driver Frank Bayes over the next couple of seasons, notably at super-fast Thruxton.

1976 – move to Goodwood Circuit
Image moved to Goodwood in 1976-’77, building FF3s, then the distinctive FF4 which former Jim Russell Racing Drivers’ School World Scholarship Anthony Reid raced as works driver in 1979.

Robert Synge was then recruited as factory manager (and race driver) and went on to build Image into one of the country’s largest Formula Ford racehire teams.

Cars were also rented to Spanish F1 racer Emilio de Villota for a racing school at Jarama, Madrid’s GP circuit, and to Vicky Chandhok [Karun’s father] and associates for the Madras GP events at the Sholavaram airfield track.

Despite strong showings with up-and-coming drivers, the fashion-led marketplace’s dynamic changed, the grandees squeezing the minnows out. Langridge - long flying solo without Filmer-Sankey - became disenchanted by the poaching of star driver Dougie Spencer and Image was wound up in 1982, after 8 years.

Approximately 50 cars were built.

Synge subsequently founded his Madgwick Motorsport equipe, relocating to Silverstone.

Alan Langridge - post Image Race Cars
Langridge’s old pal - and by then Lamborghini Countach-driver – Tim Dutton-Wooley asserted that kit cars could still sell in large numbers. This inspired Alan to create the clever sheet-steel Navajo, as Mini Moke production was about to cease in Portugal. He geared up to produce 100 per year, but sold 25. Later racing work saw him build the frames for Mike Thompson’s advanced Quest FF1600s in the mid-1980s, but when that dried up the doors were closed.

The subsequent chapter of Alan’s life underlined another of his diverse talents. As race engineer to Damon Hill in Formula 3000 and Dario Franchitti in his early IndyCar career it brought greater rewards too.