Jackie Stewart’s race-winning Tojeiro-Buick starred in the RAC TT Celebration

The Tojeiro-Buick has become an experienced campaigner in the Revival’s blue riband race, the RAC TT Celebration, although it has struggled over the years to compete with the power of the Jaguar E-types and AC Cobras that have become regular front runners in recent years. 

It’s entry in 2025 marked its fourth attempt to achieve success in historic motorsport’s most prestigious race, and its first in the hands of new owner Kyle Tilley and his team at Era Motorsport. 

John Tojeiro was an ambitious and inventive car designer who built his self-named creations from scratch. He himself can be considered partially responsible for the Revival’s most recognisable racing car; the AC Cobra was developed from the AC Ace, which in turn was produced from a design originally penned by Tojeiro. 

Much of his work was done in conjunction with the famous Ecurie Ecosse team, who helped him manufacture two brand new mid-engined GT cars to race at the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours. 

Known as the Tojeiro EE, only one chassis — this one — made it to that year’s race at the Circuit de la Sarthe, and it arrived sans paint and without having undergone a single mile of testing. Chassis TAD-4-62 was way ahead of its time, particularly among the British manufacturers, and the Tojeiro, powered at this time by a 2.5-litre Climax engine, was running strongly before retiring with a gearbox failure after just 80 laps. 

It was a bold attempt to bring a brand-new concept to the world's most challenging motor race, the Tojeiro EE is widely recognised as the first proper rear-engined GT prototype.

After a couple more outings at the likes of Brands Hatch and Monza, where the Tojeiro continued to showcase some reasonable potential, the decision was made to inject a little more power into the centre of this lightweight prototype.

A Buick V8 was considered the perfect balance of grunt and heft, built as it was from lightweight alloy and able to be modified simply with high performance parts. By now both Tojeiro Coupes were complete, and they were both fitted with Buick engines for the 1963 season. 

However, TAD-4-62, which had been re-labelled as TAD-2-63 and become known as EE2, was about to make an even more remarkable acquaintance. Ecurie Ecosse had brought in a talented young driver by the name of Jackie Stewart, and he was immediately put to work at the wheel of the Buick-engined Tojeiro. 

The headline performances for this exciting new pairing were a victory and a third place at Snetterton, while the Tojeiro also achieved decent success with other renowned drivers, notably another Scotsman, Tommy Dickson. 

That would prove to be the final chapter in EE2’s competitive story, as the team’s attention turned to developing the other Tojeiro chassis which had been bolstered by a new 289cc Ford engine akin to those deployed in the Cobra. 

Since then, it’s passed through the hands of several owners before falling into the ownership of Tilley, who we spoke to at the 2025 Goodwood Revival to hear more about how time has treated this historically significant machine. 

“It’s very original, almost to a fault,” he said. “It could almost do with being redone and starting again, but because the car is so original we're just trying to preserve what we have and keep the Tojeiro name racing.” 

Well, the name is healthier now than it’s been for decades. As we stood with the Buick-engined car in the paddocks at the Revival, it was sat next to its Ford-engined sibling, which made for quite the sight. That two such incredibly rare beasts have both survived the rigours of time is truly remarkable. 

“It’s great for the Tojeiro family. Robin, the son of John the original designer, keeps track of where the cars are, he's been messaging us about it. It’s just really cool to continue that legacy. 

“For me it’s definitely a point of pride, especially when we can take something that original and still be fairly competitive.”

“We were fifth yesterday in Practice, and it just goes to show you don't have to build something brand new to go and be competitive. You can still achieve a great result while preserving history.” 

That, ultimately, is what makes the Goodwood Revival such a special event. The authenticity of what we see on the Motor Circuit is astounding, and this Tojeiro is the perfect example of a car that has been carried forward in time and put back on the racetrack almost exactly as it was more than 60 years ago. 

“It's a massive privilege anytime you get an invitation to Goodwood. As a driver, team owner, preparer, car owner, it's about as good as it gets.  

“This car has been a stalwart of the RAC TT Celebration in recent years. We started looking after it about six months ago and it's only had three or four weeks of thorough preparation. We’ve been redoing various bits and bobs to bring it back up to where it should be safety wise.” 

The team at ERA Motorsport have also endeavoured to bring the car back up to competitive speed once again, with pretty alarming results. 

"We did a 1:25 in Practice, which is about eight seconds faster than it's ever gone around here before, so it's all going in the right direction. It's light, so it’s easy on the brakes, it's easy on the tyres, so it'll do the same lap time at the end of the race as it did at the start. We’ve got a real shot in the wet conditions, probably less so in the dry. 

“We don’t have enough horsepower to really take the fight to the faster E-types and Cobras, but we'll give it a good go and see what happens. It’s just such a privilege to be here racing in the TT.” 

Tilley was joined in driving duties by 2024 British Touring Car Champion and RAC TT Celebration runner up Jake Hill, and that 1:25.213 lap time was enough to put the Tojeiro-Buick all the way up in fifth on the grid. 

The race didn’t quite come to them on Sunday, however, and even in tricky conditions the power of the Cobras and E-types proved too much to contain. When you consider this is a car built by a small-time team to take on the greatest in the world, the Tojeiro-Buick remains to this day an astounding achievement. 

Tickets for the 2026 Goodwood Revival are now on sale.

If you’re not already part of the GRRC, you can sign up to the Fellowship today and save ten per cent on your 2026 tickets and grandstand passes, as well as enjoying a whole host of other on-event perks.

Photography by Jayson Fong, Nick Dungan, Joe Harding, Pete Summers, Amy Shore, Drew Gibson and Charlie Brenninkmeijer.