The son and heir to a vast cosmetics empire, Peter Revson was the quintessential playboy racer - a rich boy, dating beautiful women and driving fast cars. However, in this case he also had the talent to be taken seriously on the Grand Prix circuit.

After dabbling in motor racing while attending college, Revson campaigned successfully in Trans-Am, sports cars, Indy cars and Can-Am before turning his full attention to Formula One. After winning the 1971 Can-Am Challenge Cup and finishing second at the '71 Indianapolis 500 for McLaren, Revson was drafted into the F1 team for 1972 - ironically sponsored by rival cosmetic company, Yardley - to partner former champion, Denny Hulme. Revson showed his potential with four podium finishes and a pole position in Canada despite only driving in nine of the seasons twelve races, finishing fifth in the championship.

For 1973 the McLaren team introduced the legendary M23 series and Revson took two wins in Great Britain and Canada, the latter in atrocious weather conditions. Just as it looked like Revson would be able to make a solid run at the championship with McLaren, the team signed former champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Revson was forced to find a new team and chose American Don Nichols team, Shadow which had debuted the year before with moderate success.

The Tony Southgate designed DN3 was competitive though unreliable - Revson qualified the car well for the first two GP only to retire. In testing for the third GP of the season at Kyalami, South Africa, Revson suffered a suspension failure causing him to crash at high speed and he was killed instantly.

Formula One Record

1971 Can-Am Champion
1971 Indy 500 runner-up

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