The passing of Reynard as a maker of racing cars hurts me more than I can say. I can find no pleasure in the fact that I predicted it. The fact is that Reynard ran out of market and that was clear for all to see. You did not have to be a genius to see that coming.

Reynard was in the business of selling racing cars and where, these days, could Reynard sell cars? CART has tightened its regulations so new cars are not necessarily needed. Reynard's purchase of Riley & Scott has not been justified in terms of financial return. Reynard's attempt to launch itself as a public company failed and some of the reason must be due to the fact nobody wants to invest money in something as unpredictable as production racing cars. Remember what happened when March Engineering launched as a public company? Within three years trading in shares was suspended.

You can earn a very good living by making the tenth best washing machine in the world. Somebody does. You can bet that he drives a top-of-range Mercedes-Benz and does not worry about being able to put food on his table. Make the second best racing car and your customers will take to the hills.

Reynard drivers won both the British and German Formula Three Championships in 1992 and lost the Formula Three market to Dallara in 1993 because Dallara made a better product, it's a simple as that. Dallara wiped Reynard out out of the market. Adrian Reynard looked at the Dallara 393, took a sharp intake of breath and hoped that his customers in Britain would not notice. British Formula Three teams had always bought British cars which, in 1993, meant Reynard or Ralt.

Ironically, Reynard lost the Formula Three market because Ralt, Reynard's arch-rival, made a seriously bad car. The only customer for the Ralt RT93 was Peter Briggs of Edenbridge Racing. Peter lost little time in sending his cars back where they came from and then he cast around and settled on the Dallara 393. His team began to win and every other leading British Formula Three team soon had their Reynards for sale.

Reynards won the first five British Formula Three races of 1993 and in the last five races of 1993 the best that a Reynard could do was one fifth place. Reynard gave up on production Formula Three cars. Reynard went some way down the line with Renault, the idea being that Reynard would build a bespoke Formula Three car for Renault in 1994, Renault would pick up the bills and Reynard could sell a production version in 1995. That was the general idea, but the deal fell through.

The profit on a Formula Three car was not substantial, given that deals had to be struck with teams. On the other hand, a racing car has an accident on average once in every eight or nine starts, and that crash means replacement parts.

How do I know the above statistic? I was told it by Rick Gorne early in 1983, just after he joined Reynard. Rick had a business plan, something then unheard of motor racing, and he reckoned that spares would account for sixty per-cent of Reynard's business. Lola, March and Van Diemen all operated on thirty five per-cent, but Reynard's replacement parts were expensive.

You can only sell spares when you first sell cars. Reynard gave up on the Formula Three market and concentrated on Formula 3000 and, from 1995, CART. Formula Three is still going strong, Formula 3000 is now a one-chassis category and CART is a much smaller market than once it was.

I wrote the book, The Reynard Story, and I wrote it because Adrian Reynard asked me to write it. That is not why I am pained at Reynard's downfall. I am pained because, to me, Adrian represented a dream. I am not the only person who believed in the dream. Everyone who worked for Adrian believed in a dream.

When he was a teenager, Adrian used to spend his Saturdays working for George Brown. George had once been a top motorcycle racer until he was badly injured. He then took to breaking speed records on two wheels and became a legend. Through working for George Brown, Adrian became an accomplished welder.