The largest collection of Ayrton Senna cars ever assembled will go on show at thew Silverstone Festival later this month.
Charting Senna’s career from his early days karting in Brazil to winning F1 championships with McLaren, the showcase will feature over 25 exhibits at the circuit where he won more races than anywhere else — at every stage of his single-seater career.
These include the Van Diemen RF81 single-seater in which he won the Formula Ford 1600 championship in his debut year, as well as the Ralt RT3 he raced against Martin Brundle as they duelled for the 1983 Formula 3 title; Senna emerging triumphant.
There are 12 F1 cars in the collection, including the Toleman TG183B in which he made his grand prix debut in 1984; his race-winning JPS Lotus 97T; and his title-winning McLaren MP4/5B.
Further honouring his legacy, a collection of trophies, race suits, helmets and sculptures of Ayrton — crafted by his niece Lalalli — will be available to view in the Silverstone museum. Former F1 driver Bruno Senna, Ayrton’s nephew, will also be driving one of his uncle’s famed racers during a showcase on Sunday August 25.
Find details of the full list of Senna classics below, including each car’s individual backstory.
Junior Career
Senna first flew to Britain in 1981 to kickstart a career in single-seaters — signing with notorious Formula Ford outfit Van Diemen.
On debut, he finished fifth at Brands Hatch — an impressive result given that he was behind the wheel of an outdated car: the RF80. Soon after jumping into the co*ckpit of the updated RF81, Senna quickly became unstoppable, to the tune of 12 race victories from the following 19 races. The Brazilian was crowned Townsend Thoresen and British RAC 1600 champion with races still in hand.
Senna continued his form into 1982 aboard the RF82,in which he won 22 races across all competitions and claimed the British and European Formula Ford 2000 championships.
In 1983, Senna’s meteoric rise continued in the Marlboro British F3 Championship with West Surrey Racing, where he won 12 races in total — the first nine earned consecutively and six of which came at Silverstone — and beat Martin Brundle to the title by a slim nine point margin. The instrument of his dominance — the evocative Ralt RT3 — will be on display at Silverstone, alongside his other junior category title winners: the RF81 and RF82.
Formula 1
The bulk of Silverstone’s incredible Senna collection will be made up of 12 stunning Formula 1 cars — representing all four teams for which he competed: Toleman, Lotus, McLaren and Williams — and celebrate the Brazilian’s record-breaking grand prix decade.
This will include the Williams FW08 (in which Senna completed his first F1 test at Donington Park in 1983), the Toleman TG183B (in which he made his grand prix debut and scored his first championship point at Kyalami), the Lotus 97T (in which he won his first grand prix at Estoril in 1985), and seven McLaren MP4 variations in which he won drivers’ world titles in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Also included in the collection will be one of Senna’s most famous cars, the V10-powered MP4/5B — built as a new end-of-season chassis specially for Senna — in which he raced just 400 yards before clashing with title rival Alain Prost at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. The collision resulted in both cars skating off into the gravel, handing Senna the championship. The MP4/5B chassis never raced again and now resides at the McLaren Technology Centre.
Rally Cars
The secret test that gave Senna his first taste of rallying in 1986, is legendary.
The-then 26-year-old snuck away from his F1 drive with Lotus for a day of sliding sideways around the the overcast Welsh hills in the Cambria mountains — home to some of the finest rally stages in the world — as part of a special feature for Cars and Car Conversions magazine.
He drove five cars in total, but only two will be making an appearance at this summer’s Silverstone Festival: an MG Metro 6R4 and Ford Sierra RS Cosworth — both dressed in their original liveries.
Road Cars
With Honda engines driving Senna to 35 grand prix victories and all three of his F1 world titles, the Brazilian chose to return to the favour in the early 1990s by working with the Japanese car giant on its first mid-engined supercar: the Honda NSX.
Senna completed demonstration runs around numerous grand prix circuits including Suzuka (as seen below) and twice at Silverstone. The pair of NSXs which toured the latter circuit, will be on display at the Silverstone Festival this summer.
Bikes
Although Senna built his immense reputation on four wheels, his avid enthusiasm for Ducati motorcycles and commitment to helping the children of Brazil eventually materialised into an endorsem*nt deal shortly before his death in May 1994.
Only 300 examples of the Senna-themed Ducati 916 were ever made — three of which will appear next to Senna’s four-wheeled machines at the Silverstone Festival — and all of them sold in record-time shortly after being released in 1995. All proceeds were donated to the Ayrton Senna Institute.
Second and third editions of the 916 have since been created in remembrance of the fallen three-time world champion. Over the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend Ducati revealed the Monster Senna — a stripped back version of the standard Monster pained with the colours of Senna’s helmet.
2024 Silverstone Festival tickets remain available.Click for details.
