Royale RP27-9 history

Royale Racing Cars was the creation of Bob King (pun intended, apparently). The first factory was situated in the Park Royal district of London and Royale's first Formula Ford car was created in 1968. By the time their first Formula 3 car was released in 1971, Royale was second to Lola in terms of size. 

Pat Symonds joined Royale as designer from Hawke in 1978, after the departure of Rory Byrne to Toleman (for the F2 project). Pat would go on to design the very successful RP26 Formula Ford 1600 in 1978, of which a total of 104 were sold through to 1979. The two-litre version of the RP26 was released soon after and was termed the RP27 (20 built). The first RP27 hit the circuits in September 1979 with race debut in mid-October of that year. The reason only 20 cars were built was probably because Pat had designed the car with RP26 owners in mind - thus allowing the RP26 owner to buy an update kit and convert his car to RP27 specifications. 

The RP27 had an Arch Motors chassis, bodywork by Tony Waterman at Harley Plastics and specialist fabrication was from Adrian Reynard's Sabre Fabrication. 

Of the 20 RP27s built, Richard Dutton (de facto Royale dealer) took 8 cars. Scorpion Racing UK took at least one (chassis #9) - likely to have been driven by Mike "Jersey" Taylor.  

LINK: FF2000 Season  Review 1980

Royale Racing Cars no longer exists as an ongoing concern anymore but the original owners are still around and parts are still readily available. 

Formula Ford – a Short history

Formula Ford DNA would have to have come from the Italian Formula Four motorcycle-engined race series, and this would have then been followed by the American-driven Formula Vee – using basic VW power. The first time the British were shown such a car was at the 1967 Racing Car Show when an American-built Beach went on display. VW were extremely excited by the prospect of a series running their 1,300cc engines. At the time of launch, a Vee could be had brand new for GBP750 complete or pieced together for a fraction of that if one scavenged the yards for parts.

Formula Ford as a series was perhaps the doing of Motor Racing Stables’ Geoff Clarke, an idea hatched towards the end of the 1966 season. The formula was to have been based on a GBP1,000 limit for completed cars and Colin Chapman was immediately on the case with a doctored Lotus 31 Formula 3 car modified to accommodate the new rules. The result, the Lotus 51. Motor Racing Stables had the sole selling rights to those cars with a quoted price of GBP995, including a standard 1500cc Ford Cortina GT engine (83bhp).

If one compared prices of the various formulae in the 1960s, the cost breakdown would be as follows:

Geoff’s hybrid was discussed during a meeting with Motor Circuit Development's John Web and Ford's Henry Taylor at the 1966 Olympia Racing Car Show. The specification for a new low-cost racing series was agreed and Ford allowed their name to be used for the formula. Originally there was a cost limit for the chassis but this was quietly dropped later.

By 1975 there were so many FF cars in circulation that drivers were being turned away from meetings. To ease this problem Formula Ford 2000 was introduced. These cars used 2-litre single overhead cam Ford Pinto engines with slicks and wings. The series never caught on for whatever reason and today, the FF2000 are generally run in a Pre '83 FF2000 Championship.

Formula Ford 1600 continued successfully and is still going strong today. And historic Formula Ford racing is perhaps the best racing around with large grids wherever one goes.