The distinctive black on yellow logos of HydrauTug and Daren Cars spring from their shared origins under our founder John Green.
John's engineering workshop and skills were first used to build a HydrauTug for a friend who shared his interest in racing cars but also had a need for a reliable pedestrian controlled aircraft tug. That tug is still in use over twenty years later.
Our HydrauTugs are in continous use on aerodromes throughout the UK and as far afield as the Falkland Islands and Nigeria.
The three standard tugs are supported by options of ground power unit and aircraft twin nosewheel variants but we are happy to design and produce bespoke modifications to meet our customers' needs.
THE BACKGROUND TO DAREN CARS
Daren Cars was founded in 1967 with the development of the MK1 Daren which first raced in 1968. This car was built by John Green for his own use as a one-off using all the running gear from a Merlyn single seater John was racing at the time.
The smooth flowing lines are of a hand wheeled, beaten and welded aluminium body.
The MK1 driven by John Green still holds the outright lap record at Llandow in Wales
This first car was so successful in 1968 season that John was getting requests to build cars for customers, leading to the development of the MK2.
Because the MK2 was built as a customer car it had a glass fibre body for quick replacement.
The Daren on the far left was John's own car fitted with a 3 litre Martin engine and that on the right was originally sold to Martin Raymond who won the 1969 Motoring News Championship with it. This very successful MK2 was designed by Dave Taylor and there were a total of eight built.
1971 saw the development of the MK3 which was launched at the Olympia Racing Car Show.
Six MK3s were built. The original selling price was £2,500 as a rolling chassis (no engine or gearbox) but complete cars are now collectors items.
This is the car that we currently own, it is a 1969 MK2 and in 1996 it was competing in modern GT races and was still winning its class.
About this time John's son David took up racing and after he had been racing the MK2 for two years John decided to build a new car to avoid risking damage to the original.
The new car was built in the winter of 1996 and called the MK6
Here is the MK6 leading the Special GT race into the first corner at Castle Combe in 1999, soon to be overtaken by the black B6 of 600 bhp. The MK6 is fitted with a rotary Mazda engine providing some 280 bhp.
There is more of the Daren racing story on the Daren Racing Car website at http://www.darencars.co.uk
The family firm continues with David Green now concentrating on building and maintenance of HydrauTugs.