The 1977 season was undoubtedly the most successful in the history of the British racing team Ensign Racing Team, based in Burntwood, a town in Staffordshire, West Midlands.
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| ENSIGN N177, Clay Regazzoni Zandvoort, Dutch GP 1977 |
The team owner, Mo Nunn, finally secured a sponsorship deal with the Swiss company Tissot, which provided the necessary funding for an advanced technical project and allowed the team to attract top-tier drivers such as Clay Regazzoni, who competed in all championship rounds, and Jacky Ickx, who only raced in Monaco.
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| ENSIGN N177, Clay Regazzoni Long Beach, USA West GP 1977 |
Thanks to the strong team assembled by Nunn, Ensign was finally able to compete consistently, not necessarily for victory, but at least for point-scoring finishes. The car fielded at the start of the 1977 season was the Ensign N177, designed by Dave Baldwin and Morris Nunn himself. The car was powered by the classic three-liter Ford Cosworth DFV V8 engine, paired with a five-speed Hewland FG400 gearbox, all mounted on a traditional aluminum monocoque chassis.
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| ENSIGN N177 Theodore Racing, Patrick Tambay Mount Fuji, Japanese GP 1977 |
With a wheelbase of 2,565 mm and a weight of 605 kg, the car bore a visual resemblance to the McLaren M23, featuring a low and narrow nose along with short sidepods housing radiators positioned laterally to the engine. During the season, starting from the British Grand Prix, the Theodore Racing team also used an N177, driven by Frenchman Patrick Tambay. Theodore Racing was a Hong Kong-based team founded by Dutch businessman Theodore "Teddy" Yip, who had built his fortune in Indonesia. After a shaky start to the season, apart from a sixth-place finish in the opening race in Argentina, the N177 proved to be a reasonably competitive car. Thanks to the five points scored by Regazzoni and the additional five collected by Tambay (all credited to Ensign), the 1977 season ended with 10 points and a tenth-place finish in the Constructors' Championship.
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| ENSIGN N177, Clay Regazzoni Monza, Italian GP 1977 |
Unfortunately, after this decent season, Ensign's growth was once again hindered by financial difficulties, forcing Nunn to enter the 1978 championship with the old car and revert to the necessity of hiring pay drivers. Under this system, the N177 remained on the track until mid-1979 but failed to achieve any further significant results.
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