However his season ended prematurely with a big accident while racing for the lead with Michele Alboreto around the French street circuit at Pau.

In seven races, he failed to qualify the cumbersome car on every occasion before he finally made it onto the grid for the South African GP.

Without a drive in 1984, he returned to the RAM team as to replace Manfred Winkelhock who had tragically been killed racing a Kremer Porsche 962C at Mosport Park.

For the next few years he made his living in Japan where he raced for Kunimitsu Takahashi's Advan-backed Alpha team in Formula 3000 and sports cars.

He embarked on a full season with Sauber-Mercedes in 1989 and took a fine second at Le Mans that year driving with Mauro Baldi, the pair going on to win at Brands Hatch and Spa.

In 1992 he was back at Le Mans, this time with Toyota driving the Tony Southgate designed TS010 and scoring another second, though the following year he failed to finish.

This led to a final visit to the Sarthe in 1995, when he drove the SARD MC8R, retiring after just 14 laps when the car suffered a total brake failure.

In 1996 Acheson went to the Daytona 24 Hours with the Newcastle United football team liveried Lister Storm, sharing the car with Geoff Lees and Tiff Needell.