1983 was another close finish for titles with Alain Prost (57 points), Nelson Piquet (55) and Rene Arnoux (49) as they went in to the last race of the season. Piquet scored 4 points and the others retired so he narrowly took the Drivers' Championship; having led for over a third of the laps during the season, this was perhaps well deserved.

In the Constructors' Championship, the Ferrari 126C took the honours with consistent driving from Arnoux and Patrick Tambay. The Renault RE40s of Prost and Eddie Cheever were a close second with Piquet and Riccardo Patrese in the Brabham-BMW BT52 & 52Bs third.

Ross Wardle’s excellent artwork depicts Nelson Piquet's Brabham-BMW BT52B leading from Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay in their Ferrari 126C3s, with Rene Arnoux's Renault RE40 in third place, separating the Ferraris.

The first special version is signed by GORDON MURRAY who was born in Durban, the son of a motor mechanic; he gained a diploma in mechanical engineering from the Natal Technical College. He designed his own cars and engines prior to leaving South Africa to work as a Formula 1 designer in England. However, the job he had hoped for at Lotus did not materialise and he worked as a missile designer for Hawker Siddeley until Ron Tauranac offered him a job at Brabham.

At the end of 1972, Bernie Ecclestone appointed him Chief designer and the BT42 came off the drawing board; from 1974-85 Murray produced a number of winning designs. In particular, the BT44 won 5 races in the hands of Carlos Reuteman (4) and Carlos Pace (1) during the 1974/5 seasons.

The most successful BT49 took 7 victories with Nelson Piquet (6) taking the 1981 drivers' championship and Riccardo Patrese (1). The BT52 won 4 races with Piquet (3) gaining his second drivers' title in 1983, plus Patrese (1). Following the death of Elio de Angelis when testing the BT55, Murray left F1 to join McLaren in a managerial position. When McLaren decided to produce a road car, he was chosen as the chief designer.

His McLaren F1 won the Le Mans 24-hour race at the first attempt in 1995. He continues to work for McLaren and is currently in charge of the Mercedes-badged McLaren supercar.