LeGrand Chassis

Mk18 and Mk25 - The D Sport Racers

The LeGrand Mk18 D Sports Racer (DSR) is perhaps the best known of the LeGrand cars, and for good reason. This venerable design, first produced in 1974, was still winning SCCA national level races 20 years later. The follow on DSR model, the Mk25, first introduced in 1979, won the SCCA Runoffs three years in a row with David Kaiser as driver and developer from 1995 to 1997.

These incredible cars are simple and straightforward. They are designed around production motorcycle powerplants, limited to 1000cc, use a simple straight-through final drive (no differential), have fore and aft wings, but no ground effects, and yet they achieve lap times very close to Formula Atlantic cars. These are small cars; the Mk18 has a wheelbase of 76 inches, and weighs only 640 pounds.

The Mk18 was a semi-monocoque center section (light square section tube frame with stressed aluminum skin) with full tube frame forward of the dashboard and aft of the firewall. The Mk25 moved the radiator forward, the monocoque chassis was lighter with fewer steel bulkheads, had a stronger roll hoop, and improved suspension geometry.

LeGrand sold everything from complete cars, rollers, kits, components, complete drawing sets, to individual drawings.

LeGrand started a cottage industry, giving advice and selling any component to anyone trying to make a slightly better Mk18. After Paul Decker won the 1982 SCCA runoffs in Atlanta in his LeGrand Mk18, he started building his own Decker cars from LeGrand components, and there are more that 10 different bodies that fit the little cars.

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1968 ARRC

The 1968 American Road Race of Champions (SCCA's national championship at the time) was held on November 19-24 at Riverside Raceway, CA. The 18 lap DSR race covered 46.8 miles in 32 minutes, 0.9 seconds for an average speed of 88.0 MPH. LeGrand drivers competing in the race included:

DSR Home Page