Hart Power or the story of Brian Hart, David amongst Goliaths but ultimately the story of a one man band that chose and believed in the product and edge he could offer in what was probably one the most competitive market for engine builders and that was the late seventies transition, all the way from Formula Two to Formula One, from naturally aspirated feeder series into a turbo and manufacturer killer engine.

This story will be published in two parts, so let’s start with the early days and Formula Two.

Early days

A little bit of background, as to where is Brian, well, you could find him in the UK  through Brian Hart Ltd developing enlarged displacement BDA engines from the very late sixties, early seventies for rallying mainly. With the later transition from 1600cc engines in Formula Two to 2000cc engines from 1972 onwards, Hart made a name of himself by powering Mike Hailwood’s Surtees to the title that year with his 1840cc BDA.

The following year would see the development of his 420S engine, a 2000cc aluminium block engine which differed from the Cosworth unit notably by having the main bearing caps integral to the sump in order to achieve bottom end strength. That engine proved strong and Ford bought the rights, homologated it from 1973 and used it as the mainstay of its rallying program for a number of years.

With all that, Brian took the concept to another level in 1974 and set sights on developing the ideal 2000cc racing engine, putting the homologation considerations aside. This would result in the 420R engine, a similar but different engine to the Cosworth BDG engine. The aluminium block was stretched longer, was linerless, with a larger bore of 93.5mm (as opposed to the 90mm BD figure) and was more rigid as well as 10kg heavier. That said, while the engine proved interesting, it didn’t get its way into the homologation process due to the fuel crisis and only saw use in sportscar racing.

New beginnings

Yet and by 1977, regulations for Formula Two changed drastically as it allowed non-production based engine blocks and by the second round of the European Formula Two Championship in Thruxton, Brian Henton would score an all-British win with the Boxer PR2 powered 420R engine, a feat repeated at Enna-Pergusa in Sicily by Keke Rosberg later in the season and no small achievements considering both of circuits were pure speed layouts at the time and that the Hart engine was a self-funded effort against factory teams ran and supported by BMW and Renault respectively.

By 1978 and as Renault had withdrawn its effort from the category to concentrate on its Formula 1 effort, the 420R engine proved the sole challenger to the BMW mighty M12/7 engine, it was 4 versus 8 for the Hart power gang. In the meantine and during that same season, the Toleman Motorsport Group having ran a private March-BMW combination, they took note of the Hart engine capabilities due to the lighter aluminium block and corner dynamics the March-Hart of Henton achieved throughout the season. After back-to-back test set by team boss Alex Hawkridge and feeback from Rory Byrne on the engine capabilities, the Hart units were chosen for the following season and that formed the start of a long a fruitful partnership between the two.

With the rise of ground effects in the category, 1979 saw the Toleman team switch to a Ralt design with Byrne and Tauranac of Ralt working the specificities of the Hart installation Although they had what they believed a better chassis-engine combination to the March-BMW one, the title fell to the Anglo-German effort and Henton finished as runner-up. The question of tyres also became integral to the effort and with Toleman considering the March to be favoured by Goodyear, a switch to Pirelli was brought in for the following year and with that came the necessity to develop an entirely new and self-built design which would be the Toleman TG280 by Rory Byrne for 1980.

With the above considered, a second generation of the 420R essentially was brought into Formula Two. With the new car being designed to make maximum use of the tyres and ground effects by then, Brian Hart reworked the engine ancillaries, location of metering unit from side of the engine to the top in order to make way for the venturi tunnels, other changes had happened over time with the inclusion of an external water pipe in order to enhance cooling, larger valve diameters along thinner valve stems in order to improve gas flow and rev capabilities.

All those efforts proved rewarding, the Toleman team taking the overall title with the T280 and Brian Henton while Derek Warwick would finish as runner-up.

Now Formula One was in sight, but let’s wait for part two of the story.