What makes this one of the rarest F1 cars in the world?

This, folks, is one of the rarest F1 cars in the universe. Not so much because of what it achieved on track, but for the fascinating, decade-and-a-half campaign since it changed hands in 2009 to make it race ready again. All being well, this is the year. Ear defenders on standby.

First, the history: this is the 2001 BAR-Honda 003-004 chassis that raced in the middle of the glorious, naturally aspirated V10 era that many reckon is the greatest of them all. We’re talking upwards of 17,000rpm and 800bhp here: what better way to lose your hearing?

It was driven by both Olivier Panis and Jaques Villeneuve, and the ‘97 world champion took it to the podium at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim that season. So limited success, but the Lucky Strike branding is evocative and iconic. Almost as iconic as smoking is bad for you…

Gutted of its engine, it was placed in storage and only uncovered again when the team had changed its name. Twice. British American Racing was bought out by Honda in 2005, and three-and-a-half years later it became known as Brawn GP as Honda fled F1.

The team Ross Brawn paid £1 for wasn’t blessed with space. Or cash. So a clear-out and sell-off was ordered. Turns out pawn shops won’t take Jenson Button’s old spoilers.

But “no gavel ever fell for that car,” explains Dan Bythewood. And he would know, because he bought it. A real estate developer in the US by trade, he had racing in his blood as a youngster but learned early on that making it over the Atlantic and all the way to F1 was a dream that needed deep pockets.

So years of hard graft later, he settled for the next best thing: buying second-hand. When the Lucky Strike car came up, he went directly to Brawn and offered to buy it before Bonhams could flog it. But only if they gave him one vital thing: he didn’t just want the car, he wanted the rights to it.

And that is what makes this example so rare in the world of grandfathered F1 machinery. Armed with a laptop full of CAD files (and a signed letter from Brawn declaring it all legit), Dan and the team at TDF - which is rebuilding this car and several others in its UK workshop - can faithfully recreate all of it. Which means they can bring it back to life.

“I always wanted a driveable car. I didn’t want a paperweight,” Dan says. “I wanted it to run so I could fulfil my lifelong dream of being in Formula 1.”

He insisted on going the whole nine yards having had a close encounter with an old Spyker (previously Jordan, later Force India, Racing Point and now Aston Martin) in Monaco. Its gearbox - made by Xtrac - was missing, so he rang them up to enquire about a new one. The line went dead.

“I called them back… it wasn't the cell phone that was the problem,” Dan recalls. The chat that followed was short: “Hey, wait. Do you actually own the rights to your car?” “No, what rights? What are you talking about?” “We can't even talk to you. But good luck on your journey.” End of conversation.

“But I appreciate them for doing that,” says Dan, “because it helped me understand what I needed to do if I wanted to have a proper Formula 1 car.”

With the rights locked down, a thorough rebuild began. Starting with a big compromise: the engine. Honda wasn’t interested in supplying a fresh one, and even if Dan had found another elsewhere Honda could simply “take it from you because it's their property.” And remember, the car raced when F1 engines were so disposable that teams had separate units just for qualifying. Reliable? You’re having a laugh.

So Dan turned to Cosworth. He’d got hold of a 3.0-litre V10 LK engine used by Jordan in 2003, which Cosworth then brought up to 2005 TJ spec to give it a longer lifespan.

“What was amazing is that the gentleman who originally built the Cosworth engine that was in my possession was the gentleman who rebuilt my Cosworth engine years and years later.”

Arguably it’s more of a monster than the original: 18,600rpm at the redline and 4,000rpm just on tickover. It’ll smash most racetrack noise limits at 150dB. When they finally found somewhere they could fire it up, “it was shooting a three foot flame out of both exhausts because it was just running super rich.” You won’t see a V6 hybrid doing that.

Next up was a more advanced steering wheel, required to cope with the more complex engine. The one you see in the gallery above is pinched from Jenson Button’s 2007 car. “It actually took a lot of work because [it’s] code protected, and no one knew the codes for it. So we had to hack into the steering wheel to get it to accept all the new things we wanted it to do, and all the dials we changed.”

Also the 13-inch rims had passed their use-by date (not kidding), so Dan had to put in a custom order for new ones. He needed three sets, but there’s a minimum order for bespoke OZ Racing rims. So he’s got a dozen. Spares aplenty.

But most of what you see - the aero, the suspension, the Xtrac six-speed transmission (no, they didn't hang up this time), the Koni shock absorbers - is as it was, and now the project is nearing completion almost 15 years after Dan acquired the car.

Time to go racing at last? Nearly, as soon as the carbon tub is crack tested (again) and some engine mapping is fixed. Then it’s full steam ahead for a proper shakedown to prepare for some historic races on the F1 support bill later this year. Yup, Dan’s finally on the cusp of living his dream.

Unsurprisingly, he’s buzzing. “There is nothing on this planet like a Formula One car. The braking is so incredible that your mind just can't fathom that you're going to live through braking 60 metres out when you're at 200 miles an hour. It’s mind numbing.”

And for that reason, it doesn’t matter to him that his car was a solid midfield runner in its day. “Because it's not that it's the fastest. It's an engineering marvel that these really great engineers were able to pull together. So it's super exciting for me to drive it.”