Shaun Lynn is likely best known in historic racing circles for his exploits in either his Jaguar XJR9 Group C car or, latterly, his arguably even more beautiful 2003 Bentley Speed 8 GTP car.
Indeed, part two of this interview will take a look at the Bentley story, for now, though we’ll take some time to dig a little deeper with Shaun, father of ex Aston Martin factory driver Alex Lynn, about a more recent acquisition, and the car that we’ll see racing in 2021 in the Masters Endurance Legends Series. The 2015/16 BR Engineering BR01 Nissan LMP2 car.
Shaun’s car was one of three BR01s out testing at Donington Park yesterday ahead of the resumption of the Masters Endurance Legends series, Lynn Snr joined on track by his younger son Max (see below, and by friend and fellow historic (and contemporary LMP3 racer) Richard Meins.
So Shaun, just how did the purchase of the car come about?
“Bob Berridge told me that he had managed to get hold of the BR01s, the whole project, the cars and the moulds and the engines and everything.
“The BR01 has real design heritage, Paolo Catone designed the car (seen below the first BR01 on its public debut – Paolo Catone later walked DSC around the car).
“I know that when it was a young car, it wasn’t quite as quick as the Oreca (05), but it was still very quick and was almost certainly robbed of a longer contemporary competitive life by the change to the Gibson LMP2s in 2017. (Arguably it was this car, together with the Strakka Dome S103 that persuaded the rule-makers to switch the LMP2 formula to the Gibson-powered cars for 2017).
“The car is a lovely, lovely car. really enjoyable to race, really comfortable. It’s fast but not scary quick.
“I liked the fact (from a collectors point of view) that there’s not many of them too.
“I like the livery. I like the story and more than that I just thought when I sat down and spoke to Bob about it, it’s a good car to put a lot of miles on and enjoy racing.
“And actually, from a value perspective, it’s not crazy money either so you can enjoy yourself.”
What about the value of these cars as an investment?
Motorsport is full of “Could have, Should have” stories. I’m a huge enthusiast and spend a lot of my free time reading and researching all of those stories that we all love.
“If only the New Man car could have survived in ’86, it would have been the only three-time winning car at Le Mans, but at six hours to go, it didn’t make it!
“History is just everything for a car and the BRs were robbed of that to an extent. But I think all of those cars, the LMP2 cars, the LMP3, the GTE and GT3 cars, they’re all going to find their way into the historic racing world and I think everyone has woken up to that now.
“AF Corse, Aston Martin Racing, they are all alive to that being more of a reality than a prospect already. The GT cars especially are easily drivable.
“The LMP2 cars from the current generation are perhaps less easy to get the performance from but I have no idea that will come. There are plenty of them out there and if you are Jota and you have your LMP2 Le Mans winning car, that’s not a car that has gone down in value!”
Are we at a point where we are already seeing the last iteration of LMP1s in historic competition with the Peugeots?
“I think you’ll see an (Audi) R18 out there – I think some of those cars will come out.
For me, when I was racing, the R18 and the 908 were just amazing things.
“I was lucky enough to be out there racing with them on track in the (CRS) Ferrari 430 and the R18 at Spa, when that thing came past underneath me into Blanchimont, I think it was Allan McNish, he had two wheels on the grass and I thought he’d hit me.
“And he hadn’t, it was just the airflow. I’m screaming at the radio, this guy’s hit me, I pitted and they looked around the car and there wasn’t a scratch on it, I suspect that they didn’t believe me until they saw the in-car and there was just this fin going by!
“They were awesome. The R18s and the 908s, the Audi in particular though with those big tyres – just awesome!
Tell me a little bit about the history of your BR01
“Mine came sixth at Le Mans (in 2015 with Nic Minassian, Maurizio Mediani and David Markozov), and was the Daytona pole setting car too I believe in the hands of Mikhail Aleshin (below)!
You drive it, you own it and you pay the bills so you are the ideal man to ask about the economics of a car like this, in particular when compared to a car of broadly similar performance like a historic F1 car or a Group C car?
“Firstly, these cars are designed much more robustly. They’re designed on a budget and any LMP2 car is cheaper to run than a Group C car.
“If you’re running a Jaguar XJR9, that engine is not a cheap puppy to look after!
Precisely the same goes for the 956 and the 962. They are getting more expensive only because the parts are rare, but they’re not crazy prices yet at least.
“But if you want to have value for money high-performance historic racing the LMP2 car is way, way, way cheaper than anything else is on the grid against it.
“But of course, looking after a car like that, it’s a very quick car and you’re not hanging around. So you got to make sure things are done correctly. So if there’s carbon damage, you get it repaired correctly. And you don’t cut corners, and you don’t cut corners on brakes, you don’t cut corners on crack testing, and anything else because it’s not just you, it’s everybody else around you.”
The BR01 was, very firmly, from the period where LMP was a Pro-Am class so you would expect the car to be easier to drive than older LMP cars?
“It’s an easy car to drive. And it’s an easy car to learn. That’s the big thing. I’ve got an instructor that I work with, you’ve got all the data, you’ve got all the cameras and basically, because it’s an easy car to drive for anybody you can just jump in for a few laps.
“I don’t drive on the edge, because I can’t get it to the edge. But the car, in my hands at the moment doesn’t have any foibles that are catching me out. It’s just a great car. and easy to run, easy to use, easy to get time out of snd from an instructing perspective your viewpoints good, you can see everything, it doesn’t shake itself to bits.
“In the Jaguar XJR9, between changing gear and the window and the mirrors vibrating you don’t know who’s behind you. You just got to turn in and hope that no one else is inside of you. Because you can’t see.
“Whereas on this, it’s fantastic. It’s beautiful. You can see everything around you. It’s good visibility, and you feel safe.
“So when you add it all up, the safety of running, the ease of use. Yes, you’ve got the costs of running it, but you’ve got the cost of running any car. But it’s cheaper than everything else that surrounds you on that grid – cheaper than a Peugeot 908, the Bentley, a Dallara V10 or an Audi R8 or anything like that.
“At the end of the day, I’ve got a Nissan in the back! And if it’s damaged, everything can be done pretty quickly, pretty easily, and it’s on the shelf.
So here’s the final part of this. So what we’ve described at the moment is a car that is reasonably accessible in the world in which we’re living here in terms of cost, reasonably accessible in terms of preparing and operating, accessible in terms of performance from the drivers point of view
Here’s the critical question. Is it still fun?
“Absolutely it’s huge racing fun. Do I think that I’m driving a Bentley? No, I don’t. I don’t have all that history under my right foot.
“But you’ve got a lot of it. It’s beautiful to drive. It’s great to drive. You’re on the grid, you’re racing competitively.
“And you’re in a real car, you’re not in a made-up car or copy car or whatever. You’re in a real car that raced in period.
“You’re just not driving the pinnacle of that category, you’re not driving an LMP1 you’re driving an LMP2. But I don’t have a more discounted feeling from driving the BR compared to an Oreca, it’s exactly the same.
“If I was driving a Pescarolo compared to a Bentley compared to an R8 do I feel the Pescarolos lesser than the others? It may not have the same pedigree, but it’s still an LMP1 car, it’s still got a great history.
“This is a great car. It’s very competitive and I’m very, very happy with it.”
Tell us a bit about the atmosphere. Tell us a little bit about the racing experience for a weekend?
“Well, everybody’s friendly, unlike in some modern racing! Everybody’s open but of course, when we put the helmet on it’s very different. People do give you a reasonable space on the track.
“It’s a great environment, there is fun on and off the track. Off the track is nowhere near as serious as modern racing.
“And even the LMP3 stuff that I’ve done, because in the LMP3 stuff you’ve got to be on your wits, because it is Pro-Am, and people are trying to make a name for themselves. So you’ve got to be sharp, you’ve still got to be sharp in this as well but you can go out and have dinner and enjoy the whole weekend.
“I love racing with everyone in the paddock. That’s the whole thing. At the end of the day, it’s a hobby, and you’re there to enjoy yourself as well as racing cars. You mustn’t lose sight of that. You’re supposed to be there to have fun.”
Many of our readers will know of the racing achievements of your son Alex, but your younger son has had a crack in the BR01 hasn’t he?
“Max did the Caterham Academy and is racing in the next class up now, he tested the car with me at Donington and, as I’m sure the BBM boys have told you, he was quicker than me by the end of it!
“We’ve raced together in a friend’s Lotus Elan and we’ve raced together too in the 2 litre Porsche Series. One day I’d love for all three of us to race together but for now, Alex is, quite correctly, entirely focused on his professional career.”
