The car's history begins with Ron Dennis and Neil Trundle, who ran Rondel Racing as a successful Formula Two operation fielding semi-works Brabhams in the early 1970s. After Rondel's drivers Carlos Reutemann and Bob Wollek placed fourth and seventh in the 1972 European F2 Championship, Dennis commissioned Ray Jessop to design an F1 car for the 1974 season, with French oil company Motul committed as the title sponsor. The 1973 oil crisis caused Motul to withdraw before the project could be realised. Tony Vlassopoulo and Ken Grob then purchased the incomplete design, named the car the Token — "To" from Tony, "Ken" from Ken — and completed it for the 1974 season. The RJ02 designation honoured Jessop's initials. The episode marked what would have been Ron Dennis's first Grand Prix entry; his connection to the sport's upper tier would be resumed six years later when he took control of McLaren.
The RJ02 was a conventional Cosworth kit-car of its era: a slim aluminium monocoque, standard suspension geometry, Ford Cosworth DFV V8 engine, and a Hewland FGA400 gearbox. It ran on Firestone tyres with modest backing from Titan Properties. The car's external appearance provoked divided opinion. Its wide body, a prominent forward air intake, and the absence of an airbox — then fashionable on most contemporary designs — gave it a silhouette some found striking and others simply considered ugly.
The Token's first competitive appearance came at the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone in April 1974 with Tom Pryce driving. Pryce completed only three practice laps, qualifying slowest of the 16 timed runners more than 26 seconds off James Hunt's pole time in the Hesketh, and retired after 15 race laps with gear linkage failure. Despite the unimpressive figures, the team believed the car had genuine potential.
At the Belgian Grand Prix at Nivelles — the first round the team judged close enough to home to be financially viable — Pryce qualified 20th among 32 entrants, beating both works Brabhams in the process. He ran competitively until lap 66, when a collision with Jody Scheckter's Tyrrell ended his race. The performance was sufficient to attract Shadow's attention; the team needed a driver following Peter Revson's death, and Pryce was recruited. Token was left without a driver for the Dutch Grand Prix and did not appear in France when Jacques Laffite, listed as a potential entrant, was absent.
For the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, the team operated under the combined identity of Token Racing and Team Harper, engaging David Purley — the driver awarded the George Medal for his single-handed attempt to save Roger Williamson from his burning car at the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix, and otherwise absent from F1 since that year. With only 25 of 34 entries able to qualify, Purley finished 26th, 0.3 seconds behind Tim Schenken's Trojan and therefore the first non-qualifier.
Ian Ashley then drove for the final two rounds. At the Nürburgring he qualified 26th, the last of the qualifiers, and finished 14th classified — one lap behind race winner Clay Regazzoni. In Austria he qualified 24th of 25 qualifiers, suffered wheel trouble requiring two additional unscheduled pit stops, and was not classified at the finish after completing eight fewer laps than the race winner. Following Austria, Vlassopoulo and Grob closed the team.
The RJ02's complete World Championship entry list in 1974: Tom Pryce — Belgium (retired lap 66, collision); Jacques Laffite — France (entered, did not appear); David Purley — Britain (did not qualify); Ian Ashley — Germany (14th, classified) and Austria (not classified). The car scored no points.
The RJ02 reappeared in 1975 as the Safir, entering the two British non-championship events with Tony Trimmer. Trimmer finished 12th at the Race of Champions and 14th at the International Trophy, beaten in the latter by 0.3 seconds by John Nicholson's Lyncar — a narrow margin that echoed, by chance, the 0.3 seconds by which Purley had failed to qualify at Brands Hatch the previous year.
The car's brief story illustrates both the ambition and the structural fragility of the British shoestring F1 movement that proliferated in the early 1970s. Tom Pryce's ability to outqualify works cars on the token's debut World Championship appearance gave the team a moment of credibility it was never able to capitalise on; Pryce himself went on to establish himself as a genuine front-running talent with Shadow before his death at the 1977 South African Grand Prix.