Beschreibung:

The March Engineering team based in Bicester, England, burst upon the motor racing scene in 1969 with a prototype Formula 3 car built specifically for fast-rising new Swedish racing star Ronnie Peterson. The team had fantastic – indeed quite extraordinary – pedigree, being a partnership of former Formula 2 racing driver, lawyer and entrepreneur Max Mosley, former racing driver/F2 team manager Alan Rees, production engineer Graham Coaker and ex-McLaren and Cosworth 4-wheel drive F1 car designer Robin Herd. Within months they had orders for Formula 1 cars for the 1970 season, and when the grid formed for the season-opening South African Grand Prix at Kyalami that year, it was dominated up front by March-Cosworth 701 F1 cars run by the Tyrrell team for reigning World Champion Jackie Stewart, the works team for Chris Amon and Jo Siffert, and the Granatelli Brothers’ STP equipe for none other than Mario Andretti. Within short order Stewart had won both the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and the Spanish Grand Prix for the new marque, and March was launched upon its extraordinary story. Literally hundreds of chassis flowed from the new company’s Bicester factory to contest virtually any and every racing class then in existence – Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Ford, even sports and CanAm and ultimately Indycar racing too. This particular Formula 1 March carries the serial number of the prototype 1974 Formula 1 chassis which was itself derived from recent Formula 2 experience. It was the smallest, lightest, most compact and most effective Cosworth-Ford DFV V8-powered single-seater that designer Robin Herd and his staff could devise within contemporary regulations. Chassis ‘741-1’ is recorded as having been driven by young German star Hans-Joachim Stuck in the first even races of the 1974 Formula 1 calendar, finishing brilliantly in the World Championship points with 4th in the Spanish GP and 5th in the South African, before being entrusted to Swedish former Lotus driver Reine Wisell for the Swedish GP at Anderstorp. Stuck then retrieved the car for the following Dutch race, and it was entrusted subsequently to Italian ace Vittorio Brambilla for the French GP at Dijon-Prenois. Stuck then drove it home in 7th place in his home German GP at the world-famous Nurburgring. Into 1975 the car continued in harness, being driven by Vittorio Brambilla in the season-opening Argentine and Brazilian GPs and finally being driven by Italian lady driver Lella Lombardi in its swansong, the 1975 South African race at Kyalami. After being withdrawn from works team Formula 1 competition, the car was purchased by British hill-climb star Sir Nick Williamson to contest the 1976 RAC British Hill-Climb Championship. Specialist engineer Roy Lane prepared the car for Sir Nick and the car was featured on the cover of Autosport magazine in July that year, the former Champion winning at Bouley Bay on Jersey in the Channel Islands, while he also set 2nd fastest time of the day on the other Championship hills at Wiscome Park and Prescott. For 1977, Roy Lane purchased the car and drove it himself in the British Hill-Climb Championship. Later drivers included David Render and Paul Edwards It was modified from Formula 1 hip radiators to nose-radiator form for this specialized hill-climbing career while retaining its Cosworth-Ford V8 engine, in enlarged 3.3-litre form. Retired about 1985 the chassis has survived in what is described as “exceptionally good, original condition”. This ex-works 1970s Formula 1 classic has seen very little use in recent years and is potentially an extremely competitive pre-ground-effects Historic Formula 1 car, ideal for modern ‘Vintage’ events.