RALPH FIRMAN: THE MAN WHO WENT FLYING WITHOUT WINGS
Although he’s not sure of the exact numbers, Ralph Firman thinks that his Van Diemen company created more than 5000 racing cars under his stewardship from 1973 though to 2002, so it is not unfair to claim that he’s helped launch 100s of motor racing careers.
Van Diemen was the blue riband manufacturer in the heady days of Formula Ford 1600, which was an intense playground in the 1970s through to the 1990s. The Norfolk firm claimed more than 200 wins in the British Formula Ford category and has lifted the spoils at the end-of-season knockout-style Formula Ford Festival more than 20 times when it was in its pomp. It is a record unmatched by any other constructor.
Not only was Ralph Firman the boss of the company until he sold it to Elan Technologies, he was always at the race meetings, crouching next to the cockpit of a car and taking feedback from its drivers and stretching his engineering grey matter.
Firman was probably more connected with what was happening on the track than any other boss of a car constructor, and the factory-run (and usually Duckhamscoloured) Van Diemen was the plum drive to have in Formula Ford 1600 for almost 30 years.As well as fighting on track, he helped a raft of privateer teams achieve results they might only have dreamt of – it was all good for business.
While Formula Ford was his heartland, Firman’s company took a big bite of the cherry when single-make formulas were the new kids in town in the 1990s. Van Diemen built numerous different chassis for overseas markets, branched out into batch builds of Formula First, Multisports sportscars and Formula PalmerAudi. There had been Formula Renault cars and even a Formula 3 machine too.
The spark of invention hasn’t left Firman and, a few years after selling his firm, he was back in the Formula Ford paddock and his company produced the original BRDC Formula 4 cars. The Ralph Firman Racing legacy continues to shine today in Formula Ford 1600 with the RFR chassis.
Firman took time out of his busy schedule helping racers get ready for the 2021 campaigns to answer the MN readers’questions.
Question: Did you ever want to be a racing driver yourself, or was it all about building the cars for you?
John Charles Via email
Ralph Firman: “Goodness me, no, I never even thought of it. I figured out very early in my life that I wasn’t ever going to be a racer. I always wanted to be a mechanic and deal with that side of it.”
MN: So how did the motor racing passion come about? Where was the spark?
“I had two slices of luck, actually. Straight from school, I went to work in a garage: Cattermoles in Ipswich. I used to cycle eight miles there and eight miles back every day. The guvnor, Mr Cattermole, had at least 400 used cars on the books at any one time. They could range from anything from
