Ralt
The Mk2 was a sports car built by and for Austin, with a Ford 10 engine, Standard 10 gearbox, and Morris 8 rear axle.
The Mk4 began as a special, using a Vincent-HRD 1,000 cc (61 cu in) V-twin and a de Dion rear suspension.
The Mk5 was planned by Austin as a Peugeot-engined car, but abandoned so he could assist Tauranac with the production Mk 4s.
Two of the original Toleman RT2s were later raced in Can-Am, while the third ended up in South Africa, where copies called Lants were made.
Other F1 drivers to drive a Ralt RT4 in Australia during this period included Jacques Laffite and Andrea de Cesaris, as well as World Champions Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg and Niki Lauda.
The RT4, generally powered by a 1.6 litre, 4 cyl Ford BDA engine which produced around 220 bhp (164 kW; 223 PS), also saw John Bowe win the Australian Drivers' Championship in 1984 and 1985, while Australian Ralt importer Graham Watson used one to win the 1986 championship.
The RT21 was a further development for 1987, again incorporating honeycomb elements in the monocoque; Honda continued to supply the works team, with Roberto Moreno and Maurício Gugelmin winning one race each.
The RT22 was its first carbon-fibre F3000 car, but with Lola and newcomers Reynard beginning to dominate the category, it achieved little success.
Jean-Marc Gounon won at Pau in an RT23 entered by Mike Earle's 3001 International team, but otherwise the car was unsuccessful.
An updated version, the RT24, was built by Nick Wirth's Simtek company for 1992, but soon after, Ralt withdrew from F3000 for good.
The RT32 theme saw Ralt through to the end of Tauranac's time with them, subsequent RT33 (1989)- RT35 (1991) cars essentially being developments of this basic model.
Originally equipped for Pro Atlantic racing with a highly tuned variant of the Toyota 4A-GE twin cam engine displacing 1.6 litres and developing approximately 250 bhp; several of these chassis have been converted both with bodywork to compete in SCCA C Sports Racer (CSR) and now Prototype 1 (P1) with other engine packages such as the twin rotor 13b Mazda, Honda and Cosworth 1600.
Tauranac was looking to sell the company and ultimately ended up selling out to March for just over a million pounds; they had concentrated on high-value bespoke racing cars and allowed their customer cars to atrophy so the merger appeared to be a good move.
