1979 Van Diemen VD79 FF

History

March 12th, 1973 the first Van Diemen racing car rolled out of the factory gates in Norfolk and thirty years later the marque continues to go from strength to strength, producing cars that are exported across the world and is the world's largest volume producer of racing cars.

Van Diemen was founded by race mechanic Ralph Firman and his partner, Tasmanian racing driver Ross Ambrose, who decided that they could beat the other manufacturers at their own game – and thus Van Diemen was born and three decades on has the remarkable record of 24 National Championships and 11 Formula Ford Festival wins amongst hundreds of race wins.

Van Diemen is not only famous for its cars but also some of the works' team drivers have gone on to be known across the globe and Ayrton Senna is perhaps the most celebrated but also Eddie Irvine, Jason Plato, Julian Westwood. Countless hundreds of other drivers throughout the world have benefited from Van Diemen's expertise including, Roberto Moreno, Mauricio Gugelmon, Jonathan Palmer and David Coulthard.

Incidentally, for those that have always wondered the name comes from the old Dutch name for the island of Tasmania, off Australia's south coast; Van Diemen's Land!

In 2002 Van Diemen International completed its sale to Elan Motorsport Technologies who continue to provide the same engineering excellence and commitment to constant development that has made Van Diemen the leader in its field for over quarter of a century.

Source - Van Deimen