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The Shadow DN8 was the Formula One car with which the Shadow team raced in 1976, 1977 and 1978. It began life as Tony Southgate’s design, finished by Dave Wass after Southgate left for Lotus, and late in its second season it gave Shadow the only Grand Prix win in the team’s history.
Shadow DN8 at a glance
| Constructor | Shadow Racing Cars |
|---|---|
| Designer | Tony Southgate, design completed by Dave Wass |
| Seasons | 1976–1978 |
| Chassis | low monocoque tub with hip radiators |
| Cooling | oil cooler in the nose, later moved |
| Debut | 1976 Dutch Grand Prix |
| First win | 1977 Austrian Grand Prix, Alan Jones |
| Drivers | Tom Pryce, Alan Jones, Renzo Zorzi, Riccardo Patrese, Hans Stuck, Clay Regazzoni |
| Replaced by | Shadow DN9 in 1978 |
Based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on the Shadow DN8. The championship points quoted for the team include races run in the older DN5B and the later DN9, as the Wikipedia results table notes.
History of the Shadow DN8
Development
The DN8 was conceived by Tony Southgate, who left Shadow for Team Lotus before the car was finished; Dave Wass completed the design work. The car had a low monocoque tub with hip radiators and an oil cooler in the nose, an arrangement that was later changed. It was meant to race from the start of 1976, but the withdrawal of the team’s major sponsor UOP the year before left Shadow short of money, and the DN8 did not appear until late in the season, at the Dutch Grand Prix. Only one DN8 was built for 1976, and it was not until the third race of 1977 that both drivers had one.
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1976–1977
Tom Pryce qualified third and finished fourth on the car’s first appearance at Zandvoort, but for the rest of 1976 it was a midfield runner, and it began 1977 the same way. After Pryce was killed in the South African Grand Prix the team brought in Alan Jones, who scored points in Monaco and Belgium and then won in Austria from fourteenth on the grid. He had run second for much of the race and took the lead when James Hunt’s car developed engine trouble; further third and fourth places in Italy, Canada and Japan gave Jones 22 points and seventh in the Drivers’ Championship. Renzo Zorzi, too slow to keep the second car, was replaced after five races by Riccardo Patrese, who shared the seat with his Formula Two programme while Jackie Oliver, Arturo Merzario and Jean-Pierre Jarier deputised. Patrese took a point for sixth in Japan. When Southgate returned to Shadow in the summer of 1977 the DN8 was developed further: the chassis was slimmed down and the water and oil coolers were reworked for the closing races.
1978
The DN8 stayed in service at the start of 1978 for the team’s new drivers, Hans Stuck and Clay Regazzoni. Regazzoni finished fifth in Brazil, but at the next race in South Africa neither driver qualified. The Shadow DN9 appeared at the following race for Stuck, and one race later Regazzoni had his, ending the DN8’s front-line career.
Design and features
- Low monocoque tub: a compact central chassis with radiators set in the hips.
- Nose oil cooler: mounted in the nose at first, then moved during development.
- Mid-season refinement: a slimmer chassis and reworked coolers after Tony Southgate returned in 1977.
Shadow DN8 versions
- 1976 car: the single DN8 built for that season.
- 1977 two-car specification: a second chassis available from the third race.
- Late-1977 development: slimmer chassis with reworked water and oil coolers.
- Early 1978 cars: the DN8 raced by Stuck and Regazzoni before the DN9 arrived.
The DN8 is one of the cars in the Shadow collection on this site.
Sources
- Shadow DN8, English Wikipedia: design, racing history, results