John Surtees was one of the three UK manufacturers, along with Lola and McLaren, to construct cars for the first year of UK Formula 5000 racing. Len Terry, who also designed F1-winning cars for Jim Clark and Dan Gurney, designed the TS-5.

Surtees employed David Hobbs to drive the works car, and after having shown great promise during the early part of the season, Hobbs went to the United States with the TS-5 and continued with his success. He finished second in the U.S. championship, having run only half of the races.

Surtees' second Formula 5000 car was the TS8, based on the team's Surtees TS7 Formula 1 car. It was built on the same jigs and employed the same suspension, brakes, and wheels as the TS7. It had a slightly longer wheelbase and a Hewland DG300 gearbox. It had a Chevrolet V8 5.0-liter engine that was used as a stressed member within the chassis.

At least eight examples were built and proved to be capable racecars, with reliability being its Achilles' heel.

by Dan Vaughan