March 73S - 74S - 75S - 76S - 77S

Threads seem to start with big ambitions on 10 Tenths so I thought I'd give this one a subject line that covers all 38 of March's Group 5 sports cars (plus the mystery Can-Am 77S).

According to Lawrence, March built 35 2-litre cars: 19 73S, 11 74S, five 75S and two 76S plus a 3-litre 76S. The 77S doesn't appear in Lawrence but Bobby Brown drove such a car in Can-Am in 1977.

It is this latter car I'm trying to find out about. I know it was imported into the US by March importer Doug Shierson with chassis plate "77ST-1". After Brown, it went to Greg Sorrentino and converted to single seat form; then to Charlie Monk then John Kalagian then J. Byron Walker who still has it.

Walker believes it was a works rebuild of the crashed Ultramar Edwards/Lepp 3-litre 76S-DFV. Could anyone tell me what became of that 76S? Did Edwards have two March sports cars that season or did the 76S-DFV get a Hart 2-litre later in the season?

Thanks

Allen

Hi Allen,

An Ultramar-liveried 76S is in the Rosso Bianco Museum.

http://www.shmoo.com/~bmc/photos/Cars/Rosso%20Bianco%20Museum/tn/dscf0050.jpg.html

By the central airbox, I'd guess this is the DFV-powered car.

The DFV-engined car was involved in a transporter accident before Imola in May '76. Not sure what happened after that.

Lepp raced an uprated 75S-Hart in Ultramar colours in the 1976 RAC championship in 76.

Thanks Jeremy

I quickly found the reference to the crash on the M2 (Autosport 27 May 1976 which says it was "only partially damaged") and I couldn't see any further reference to the car after that. The livery on the Ross Bianco car matches the picture in Autocourse (1976/77 p218) almost exactly but - as I've learnt to my cost - that can mean that I'm looking at the same picture the restorer used.

So my attention has to turn to Lepp's 75S-Hart. That was the quickest sports car in Britain in 1976. Does anyone know what happened to it in 1977?

Allen

I've had another email from J Byron Walker and he has sent photos that very clearly show the Ultramar colours under layers of paint on the rear wing. While a rear wing could easily be swapped, Walker says he has found the same colours on the rear bodywork section.

I hate to jump to conclusions, but have we found the John Lepp March 75S here?

The British Sports Car Championship seems to have died after that 1976 season so several cars could have headed out to the 2-litre category of the new Can-Am series. But why was the 75S - if that's what it is - repreented as a brand new 77S?

Adam - do you have any March sports car records?

Allen

Allen,

As background info., the RAC Championship did die after 1976 - As I remember, there were only about 4-5 Group 6 cars of various ages turning up, with the fields bolstered by Clubmans cars.

Autosport's Seasonal Survey for 1976 says Ultramar withdrew sponsorship (from the European Championship, at least) as they weren't getting great exposure for their money. However, their colours were still around in 1977, with Guy Edwards' Lola T294 (or T296 depending which race report you read)...

As to why March would re-name it a 77S...

Jeremy, as I recall the 1976 British Gp6 series usually had more than 4-5 'proper' cars plus the Clubmans, maybe nearer 7-8 per round...

The Lepp 75S, coloured red in 75, and backed by 'Lepp, The Jewellers' was a year later in Ultramar decals. All part of the same deal that Edwards put together including the 76S DFV in 76. Either car could well have been the mystery CanAm 77S I guess, as I have no recollection of reading about them after 76. Could it later have been converted to a single seater though ??

On March Gp6s generally, I think most went to Japan. Weren't 3 of them, supposedly 75s', converted to GpC Juniors and raced out there from about 83-85? I presume the 76S 2-litres went out there, don't recall any being reported in Europe, or US. The hills in Europe maybe ?

In Europe I think there was one other 75S out, apart from the Lepp car, yellow I believe, can't recall off hand who had it and how often it raced that year.

Finally the Ultramar 1977 Lola, I recall it was reported at the time as a brand new car, Mallock and Edwards, with a BDX, so presumably a T296?

Dan,

I think the Mooncraft "C Junior" Marches were converted 73S/74S chassis, a lot of which were raced in the Grand Champion series. The 3 that raced as 75SC at Fuji in 1982 still had the open 73/74 type bodywork, not the flat 75S style.

Of the 2 2-0 litre 76S, I think one went to Kojima for Hasemi, and the other stayed in Europe, which I would guess is the chassis that Silvio Kalb races in Supersports - he says its the sole survivor of the 2, i.e. not including the 76S-DFV.

Mike & Richard Knight raced a yellow 75S at LM in 1975, Messrs Skeaping and cabral raced a couple in European before the 2-litre championship stopped after 2 races.

My point about the RAC in 76 was there weren't enough Group 6 cars to sustain a championship, I'm aware that the number of G6 cars flucuated somewhat.

The Italian March 75S was entered by "Walter Wolf Canadian Racing Team" and raced by Stanislao Sterzel and "Gimax", it sported Wolf colours, dark blue and gold, just like the car Silvio Kalb is currently racing in Historic Gp. 6.

There was a 75s run by 'Valour racing' (Paul Jackson) in some 1985 thundersports races, I think it was all black.

Nordic,

They was some legal story to that was there? or it "disappeared" in strange cicumstances or something? Can't remeber the details now, but you're right, it was a black DFV-powered car. Jackson shared it with Rob Wilson

According to Martin Krejci's meticulously researched results, the following 75S appeared in the WSC or in the 2-race European 2-litre series (EU2):

Mugello WSC 22 Mar
2 75S-BMWs on the entry list for Fornera/Camathias and de Lamare/Neto and Lepp's 75S-Hart also on the entry list.

Dijon WSC 6 Apr
Alroy Racing (Stubbs/Johnson/Cabral) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Andrews/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford

Silverstone BRDC 13 Apr
Lepp March 75S-Hart

Monza WSC 20 Apr
Alroy Racing (Cabral/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Castro Prado/Andrews) March 75S-Ford
Vern Schuppan (Tunmer/Schuppan) March 75S-Hart
Pedro de Lamare (de Lamare/Neto) March 75S-BMW entry only
Citta dei Mille (Fornera/Camathias) March 75S-BMW entry only

Spa WSC 4 May
March Engineering (Lepp/Pilette) March 75S-Hart
Alroy Racing (Keegan/Andrews) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Castro Prado/Johnson) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Beuttler/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford entry only

Enna WSC 18 May
? (Castro Prado/Stubbs) March 75S-BMW entry only
? (Cabral/Andrews) March 75S-BMW entry only

Nurburgring WSC 1 June
March Hart Racing (Morgan/Lepp/Schuppan) March 75S-Hart
Alroy Racing (Knight/Mons/Knight) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Cabral/Castro Prado) March 75S-Ford

Le Mans 15 June
Madison Racing team (Mons/Knight/Knight) March 75S-Ford

Brands EU2 22 June
John Lepp March 75S Hart
Alroy Racing (Skeaping) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Cabral) March 75S-Ford
Roger Heavens (Castro-Prado) March 75S-BMW

Zeltweg WSC 29 June
March Racing (Morgan/Lepp) March 75S Hart
Alroy Racing (Cabral/Lunger) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Binder/Castro Prado/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford

Hockenheim 31 Aug
John Lepp March 75S Hart
Alroy Racing (Skeaping) March 75S-Ford
Manfred Mohr March 75S-BMW

Martin's results table of the 1975 Fuji Grand Champion Series does not show any 75S, only 73S and 74S.

I can certainly see four 75S in there - the fifth one may have been the Michel Pignard or Enrico Grimaldi hill climb March 75S-BMW.

Intruigingly, the same page I found Pignard and Grimaldi (http://digilander.libero.it/racecars/1975.htm) also shows Lepp winning at Knockhill on 21 Sep in a 75S-BMW.

Can anyone make sense out of all this?

Allen

Allen,

Firstly the Sep 12 1976 event was an RAC round, and Lepp's car had it's usualHart-power, not BMW.

The Monza car driven by Tumner/Schuppan car was John Lepp's.

The Alroy cars were powered by BDAs and BDGs

Just to muddy the waters slightly, on Martin's brother Roman's pages http://isr.cudlici.com/ there was a "75S-Ford DFV" driven by Mario Nardari at the Treno-Bondone Euro. hillclimb event in July 1975.

Didn't Heavens run March 74S' in 1974, for the likes of Cabral, Prado, de Lamare. I guess he must have had some Spanish money/connexions at the time. If so, I wonder whether these cars really were 75S', possibly in fact the previous years cars ??

On the Valour car, I agree there was somthing 'odd' about the team. I believe there was some drugs moneys involved, they were involved with Ross Cheever in F3 too as I recall. From dim and distant, wasn't the money behind Valour also involved with Johnny Herbert too, in a sponsorship capacity, though no suggestion that he, or Ross C or Paul J for that matter was mixed up in any wrongdoings.

What about John Travis' BRD 001. Don't know if this was based on a March tub or what, but it certainly looked very like a 75S/76S. Did it go to Les Edmunds for sprint/climbing after ?

Finally, the yellow 75S I mtnioned must have been the Alroy car. I have a set of 'TopTrump' cards showing it at Spa 75. I wonder what SuperRupe was doing out in it there ? Who, or what was "Alroy" I wonder.

There's a photo of the (rear of) Heavens entry at Brands in the Autosport report. Definitely 75S bodywork, but Heavens ran Lolas in 1975, so this looks like a one-off entry.

Valour: Wasn't that car "stolen" or spirited away somewhere without trace?

Agree with you on the BRD, but I seem to recall it was an ew tub, copied from the 75S. Not 100% on that though. It did go to Edmunds.

From what we have so far, pure conjecture of course, the Rosso Bianco car appears to be the Edwards 3-litre 76S. Therefore it looks like the Lepp car went to the US for Brown as a '77S', given Allen's pictures showing some Ultramar paint.

The Italian 'Walter Wolf' 75S, raced in Europe in 76, may well be the Silvio Kalb car, I wonder whether this went to Valour between Wof and Silvio. If not, and it stayed in Europe, the Valour car must have been one the Alroy car.

Any thoughts ? Also are we sure that many 75S' were out in the 75 WSC, or dting 2-litre Gp6 series ?

Dan,

Kalb's car is one of the 2 2-litre 76S chassis, not a 75S. Additionally, Herbie Müller raced a 75S-BMW in a couple of races in 1977. Klaus Wittwer entered a 76S in a couple of races in 78 (One also by Herbie), so I would guess that may be Kalb's car. Eugen Strähl entered one aswell, so one isn't a 76S !

Travis' car was entered in Thundersports as a 76S, but agian, whether it was or not, I'm not sure.

Here's a photo I took of it at Birmingham in 1986. This may be the 75S that Nick Atkins/Richard Hinton drove in the BRDC C2 championship?

And this is the Wolf car at Monza 1976 (photo from 1000km di Monza, Curami/Galbiati/Ronchi)

Jeremy, thanks for that, great pics. So the March situation is far more complex than I'd thought ! The RTH/Atkins car looks very similar to the BRD, is this in fact the latter ? Can we contact Richard on this, he may well sort this one out at least !

Have you any knowledge of the B29s we looking at on here now ?

Dan,

Every old racing car situation is complex!!

Just done TNF search, You asked Richard about this... He confirmed it was Travis' car (which makes it a 75S), but didn't know if it was Lepp's previously (obviously doubtful anyway, given Allen's original point of this thread)...

The search also pulled up some 75S pics. Muller's car similar paint scheme to the Wolf car (dark blue, silver pinstriping)... Keegan in the Alroy, and Lepp are also there.

My Birmingham pic is definitely the 75S, not the BRD, my results show that was raced in 1987.

B29 thread has gone way beyond my knowledge...

Hi folks

I finished going through Autosport for 1975, trying tio make sense of the 75S entries. THe real puzzle, as noted above, is the extra car at Brands in June. I wonder if the Knight/Knight car at Le Mans could have been new, then going to Cabral at Brands. If so, maybe Castro Prado had to take his 75S to Heavens to run for that race only if Alroy didn't have capacity? Either way, there were apparantly four 75S at Brands so, with the Michel Pignard hill climb 75S, we appear to have accounted for the entire production run.

Mugello WSC 22 Mar
No 75S present. Entry list contained: 2 75S-BMWs for Fornera/Camathias and de Lamare/Neto (as at Monza four weeks later) and Lepp's 75S-Hart.

Dijon WSC 6 Apr
Autosport adds that both the A1 Roy Racing cars failed to qualify on their debut. Both had BDG engines.
Alroy Racing (Stubbs/Johnson/Cabral) March 75S-BDG DNQ
Alroy Racing (Andrews/Stubbs) March 75S-BDG DNQ

Silverstone BRDC 13 Apr
Autosport says Lepp was in "the works" 75S with a 2-litre Hart 420R engine.
Lepp March 75S-Hart

Monza WSC 20 Apr
Autosport says Schuppan had Lepp's car and that Cabral/Stubbs fitted a new Hart-BDA for the race.
Alroy Racing (Cabral/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Castro Prado/Andrews) March 75S-Ford
Vern Schuppan (Tunmer/Schuppan) March 75S-Hart
Pedro de Lamare (de Lamare/Neto) March 75S-BMW entry only
Citta dei Mille (Fornera/Camathias) March 75S-BMW entry only

Spa WSC 4 May
Autosport says the BDA was still in the Prado/Johnson car.
March Engineering (Lepp/Pilette) March 75S-Hart
Alroy Racing (Keegan/Andrews) March 75S-BDG
Alroy Racing (Castro Prado/Johnson) March 75S-BDA
Alroy Racing (Beuttler/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford entry only

Enna WSC 18 May
Autosport (15 May 1975 p7) says Morgan will drive the car which "will, of course, be prepared by Roger Hire Racing, under supervision from the works".
? (Castro Prado/Stubbs) March 75S-BMW entry only
? (Cabral/Andrews) March 75S-BMW entry only

Nurburgring WSC 1 June
Autosport (15 May 1975 p7) says Dave Morgan will drive the car which "will, of course, be prepared by Roger Hire Racing, under supervision from the works".
March Hart Racing (Morgan/Lepp/Schuppan) March 75S-Hart
Alroy Racing (Knight/Mons/Knight) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Cabral/Castro Prado) March 75S-Ford

Le Mans 15 June
Autosport (24 Apr 1975 p8) says this will be one of the Alroy cars with a 2-litre Ford BDG.
Madison Racing team (Mons/Knight/Knight) March 75S-Ford

Brands EU2 22 June
Autosport says Cabral has the 75S-BDG used last week at Le Mans, Skeaping has the "March-Hart/BDA 75S" and there is now a fourth 75S: "Prado's Roger Heavens run March-BMW 75S". So is this a new 75S or has Prado moved a car over from Alroy Racing?
John Lepp March 75S Hart
Alroy Racing (Skeaping) March 75S-Hart/BDA
Alroy Racing (Cabral) March 75S-BDG
Roger Heavens (Castro-Prado) March 75S-BMW

Zeltweg WSC 29 June
OK, now I'm confused. Autosport confirms that Prado's car is a Alroy Racing 75S. So where has that fourth 75S gone?
March Racing (Morgan/Lepp) March 75S Hart
Alroy Racing (Cabral/Lunger) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Binder/Castro Prado/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford

Knockhill 13 Jul
John Lepp "works" March 75S

Hockenheim 31 Aug
Autosport adds that Mohr's car was one of the BDG Alroy cars, not a BMW as Martin had it.
John Lepp March 75S Hart
Alroy Racing (Skeaping) March 75S-Ford
Manfred Mohr March 75S-BDG

Shand Carpets "100", Knockhill 14 Sep
John Lepp March 75S Hart

Was Knockhill really a European Championship race? Both Kettlewell and Krejci say there were only two rounds.

Does anyone have Motoring News for 1975? Could that help?

Allen

Allen,

Knockhill wasn't a a Euro 2-litre championship race; I mentioned earlier it was an GB/RAC championship race, but the other possibility is that it was a stand-alone race, as the 1975 GB championship didn't exactly have full grids. The 2-litre series was indeed cancelled after 2 rounds.

Maybe after LM/Brands, Alroy took over the Knight car, and thus ended up with 3 chassis? Unlikely I suppose, but...

OK, after my last post I thought "that will do for sports cars for a while, let's try to find that mystery Chevron B24". So I started looking through the Autosport classifieds for Chevrons and what do I find in the 19 June edition (p57):

March 75S, one race only, complete rolling chassis, offers. Contact Roger Heavens, Abingdon 412.

So Prado's car at Brands was brand new. Could this be the later Wolf car?

Allen

I have Autosport's & MN's sports car repprts for 76, but they only mention the Wolf car briefly, and no indication of it's previous life.

Oops time: I think the Knockhill race was a stand-alone race, I'm not even sure there was an RAC championship in 1975 - There was a race supporting the International Trophy, which I thought was the first round, but I'm not so sure. That race was either the only round of yet another cancelled champuionship, or a stand-alone event. Knockhill may well have been a scheduled championship event, that became a stand-alone race. If you see what I mean.

Along with my post re:B42s on the "another Chevron" thread, a 75S is being run in the US by Lee Chapman Racing this year.

http://www.leechapmanracing.com/our_race_cars.htm

Simon hadfield practiced, but did not reace it, at Sebring in March. As above, not mention of it's previous history.

Originally posted by Dan Rear
Who, or what was "Alroy" I wonder. Yes, I'd been wondering that too. I found it, while trying to figure out Richard Simms' Chevron B24:

New March 2-litre team - Autosport 27 Feb 1975
"Alroy Racing will be a new name on the 2-litre sports car scene this year. The team has been formed by former Paulenco men Alan Stubbs and Roy Johnson. They will be continuing their association with March and will be running two new 75S models."

Allen

Jeremy, the RAC 2-litre G6 series only started in 76, there was nothing like it in 75, the MN series having ceased after 74. Of course the RAC only lasted a year, then in 77 S2000 started. Clear ...!!! I think the Knockhill race must have been a one-off, think it opened that year, so I guess they were trying to get the place off to a big start, maybe the owners put up a good purse for the Sportscars, there were a good few 'up-North' at the time weren't there.

As to the Euro 2-litres in 75, I agree, there were only 2, the second at Brands, the first at Hockenheim from memory. I think the, relative, success of that one-off Silverstone race, and a good Brands entry, persuaded the RAC to run the 76 series, with less than full grids... By then I guess G6 was dying in Europe anyway, and the UK recession beginning to bite, IMF/Miners/Harold Wilson etc.

Are we any clearer on the Lepp car after 76, I'm losing track !

As you can see from Allen's listing, the first 76 Euro 2-litre race was at Brands in July, the second at Hockenheim at the end of August.

I think I got my Septembers mixed up in ther previous post when I said the Knockhill race was a championsship event, and was probably thinking of the Brands race in September 75. That's my excuse anyway.

BRD cars
from memory john travis built 2 cars ( didnt he work at BAe?)
1 was a march sports car copy he raced in thundersports

the other was 792 march clone this car he raced with hart power also it then went sprinting with Charles Williams now in USA possibly s a "march 792"
the sports racer also ened up a sprint car with big engine in it as oppossed to the hart that JT used
Travis ended up working at Lola as a designer
not sure where he is now no doubt designing race cars
ok so what was the Argyle march dfv sports racer as seen for sale in AS 1975 i hope attached ad :p
re 76S dfv valour car- i think its fair to say its not officially around any more!
The 73 74 75 S cars that raced in japan GC series usually had modifed Mooncraft low drag bodies fitted instead of the original march bodies

re 772 dfv can am car
ive asked bobby brown if he recalls the car

he does have a good memory i once asked him about his M8 he raced in 72 he even told me that he traded it for a winnibago - not bad for 32 years ago to recall a car deal !!

Hi drifty

772 dfv can am car!?

Doubt that he'll remember that. Try 77S + 2-litre Hart.

Allen

ok dick lexia intervened u know what i meant!:eek:
yess Bobby said he had 2 litre hart can am car
see his reply below:p

" I thought the car I drove in 1977 was a 1975 model! I won the 2 litre portion of the Can Am with it. The March is still the BEST 2 litre sports car of them all.
I did sell the car to Greg Sorrintiono and lost trac of it after that, I don't know if its still single seat or back to original.
Before I bought the car it had some turbo motor in it and was crashed very bad at Mallory. It went back to the factory and when I got it, it had a brand new tub, body work etc. I had 2 Hart motors for it. It was a GREAT car to drive, slow in the straights but more than made up for that in the turns."

of course ive asked some more questions before u guys raise the obviouse ones:laugh:

Driftwood, that description of the Brown 75S sounds like it could well be the Lepp car from 75-76. It was fitted I think with a 1427cc Turbo of some sort, later in 76, after he'd won the G6 series here. At the final race at Mallory I think he crashed it, he definitely didn't race there (October 76).

Btw the March F2 Travis had was a 'real' 792, the ex-Cooper/Mather car. He may have cloned it later I suppose.

Dan,
Travis defintely made a 792 lookalike.

Re 76S, Autosport's brief report of the latest Orwell race says Silvio Kalb's "ex John Lepp 76S". is this Autosport being Autosport, or is it worth believing? I guess he's contactable by the series website.

Jeremy, I'm pretty sure the Lepp car was a 75S, not a 76S. The 76S he raced with Edwards in 76 had a DFV didn't it, so if Kalb's is a 76S it can only have been this one, ie NOT the 2-litre 75S Lepp had. I wouldn't trust A/S though, unless MAWP is the source of the story.

When did Travis use his 792-alike ??

Kalb's email is info@orwell-supersportscup.com. Any volunteers to talk to him or shall I? Anyone already know him?

Allen

Dan, Agree with you that Lepp was a 75S, hence the uncertain tone of my post.

Allen, I've dropped him an e-mail.

.. And having read Silvio's profile again on the Orwell website, the car is noted as ex-Eugen Strähl in the Swiss sportscar & hillclimb champs. between 76-78 (confirmed by some results on Roman Krejci's webste) so ex-Lepp seems as dubious as I suspected.

Strähl ran a 2-litre BMW 76S on the hills in 1976. HE was a top competitor so this might have been the long-lost third 76S. Otherwise an updated 74S-BMW or even one of the 75S cars converted to BMW power.

Allen

PS Also on Roman's site is Fredy Lienhard running a 75S-BMW very well in the Swiss champs all through 1975! HE ran alongside Michel Pignard's 75S-BMW at St Ursanne.

Re BRD 792 Charles Williams sprinted this car for a few years and confirmed it was a clone and sold to usa
i vaguely recall seeing the car in JT hands at Libre type races in early 80`s im sure he had the 2 BRD cars running at the same time sold the 792 and kept 76s car for thundersports races with some renat drivers paying the way for him to do a full season

Hi Guys,

The March "BRD" 792 was indeed owned by Charles Williams (my Dad) from 1989 to 1995. The car was hillclimbed and sprinted during this time. The car was based on a March 792 as John Travis bought a job lot from March when they closed the F2 division. John maintained the original lower tub but altered the front roll section from a tubular section to a ali fabricated section.

My dad had an unfortunate accident in the car at Prescott hillclimb in 1990 and the tub was fully rebuilt by John using the original jigs over that winter. The Hart 420R engine was rebuilt by Roy Millington of Millington Racing engines.

You are correct, the car was sold to the states. It nearly got sold to a guy in Belguim but the car lacked a March chassis plate and we could not obtain FIA papers. The car was succesful over there but recently appeared for sale on Race-cars.com

James

Just to clear up any confusion, John Travis' March "BRD" 792 was only based on the 'entity' of a March 792.

Thge tub was of his own construction using the standard 792 bottom end with a modified upper sections. At the time Travis was working at BAe in Preston and sourced the aluminium material for the tub from ex-stock Tornado material stores. If you ever get chance to look up close at the car you will see BAe material markings all over the tub. Unfortunatley, the car has no solid history, which is why we found it so difficult to get FIA papers for it. Dan, one of the cars Travis bought from March may have been the Cooper/Mather car, but there is no way of proving it. Believe me, we tried.

Travis ran the car in a Libre class in the early/mid 80's before it went to Scotland and sat in a shed for a few years until we bought it.

Last time I heard, John was working at Penske in Poole, UK.

Last thing......promise.

A picture the day before it left our stable....

James, re the Travis 792, I noted the tub no as 792-31 at a Sept. 82 Mallory Libre race. I'm pretty sure this was the ex-Cooper/Kim car, and I also recall Kim M telling me the Travis car was the one he used in Atlantic in 1981. So I reckon John T did own this one, maybe as well as the BRD.

Purely from conjecture, the 792 was first used by John T in early 82, Kim had finished with it by late 81, so the dates tally, also they lived pretty close to each other, and I guess knew each other from Libres at the time. Colour of the car was brown for Kim in 81 (Newton Aycliffe), fairly sure it was brown too when John T first used it.

As ever, very willing to be proved wrong !

Dan,
You may well be right. The car was brown as we have some pictures of it from Johns days with the car. I was quite young when we got the car so I maybe missing some pieces of the jigsaw. I do not doubt you. Its actually quite nice to see someone who remembers the car.

Perhaps John bought the car from Kim, raced it and then built his own? I know he did buy a lot of stuff from March.

Its like the argument we had with the FIA, the 792 originated from somewhere, but the car in BRD format could not be homologated as a pure 792.

As an aside, when we came to sell the car we asked John if he had a chassis plate. He said he had several but didn't have them anymore.

Dan, James,

Travis definitely did have -31 at the time you mentioned.

However, the BRD was, as I remember from both reports & talking to various folks at the time, a seperate entity built to 792 design/spec, but as you've mentioned James, using John's knowledge/bits from the aerospace industry (as well as March bits, obviously!)

Chaps, wonder why JT built himself a 792 clone, the original was never that good was it! Surely he'd have been better doing a 782, or maybe a later one. Perhaps he was testing out his construction skills/techniques, ahead of becoming a designer ?

Btw Jeremy, were you at that meeting I mentioned ? The Bob Simpson mystery 782/79B was in that race, white as I recall, know anything about it ???

I wish I knew you guys a few years ago!!

I think your probably right Dan. John probably built his BRD 792 to learn more about race car construction and if he had a 792 there already to measure off and had lots of 792 bits, then it would make sense to do a 792, even if it wasn't the best car to copy!!

If that is the case, anyone know what happened to 792 #31?

yeah i reckon JT was testing his car build skills & if he had heaps of march stuff to work with u will naturally build that model if the stuff is sitting there
as u say why build 792 GE car that suffers from porpoising & needed the full GE skirts to make it stick
782 was the better "driver friendly" car
the 802 was 792 refined

Originally posted by Dan Rear
Btw Jeremy, were you at that meeting I mentioned ? The Bob Simpson mystery 782/79B was in that race, white as I recall, know anything about it ???

No, wasn't at that one, I saw the Travis car at Donington, (but it was in Sept. 82!)

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8697/75s.jpg

Lepp/Travis/Atkins - sold 1989 - no idea where it is now.

is this the march car from factory or the BRD clone? i see march plate in tub
Atkins -which driver?

That's Nick Atkins' car from the BRDC C2 series in 88 that Mr. Hinton raced a couple of times.

How many of these things did John Lepp actually drive...?

thought so
lepp drove at least 2 cars from bicester
did john travis actually own a real march 75s

Originally posted by driftwood
lepp drove at least 2 cars from bicester


The 2 I thought would be the car he drove in Euro2L in 1975, then the RAC champ. in '76; plus the DFV engined car.

But if the 77S (Allen's original subject! and thought to be Lepp's Ultramar car) was in the US from 1977 onwards, and one supposedly the DFV car is at Rosso Bianco, then which is the Atkins one?

i will ask atkins if he can remember the car he had
re lepp dont forget he drove 76s in uk 2 litre series and he also drove a car at ingliston/ knockhill events
what march/dfv car did he drive? the Valour/john upton car?

We touched on the Valour car on page 1 of the thread. Or rather we didn't! as we don't know a) it's history or b) if it still exists.

Lepp drove the Ultramar-liveried DFV car at Monza in 1976, but I think Ultramar had second thoughts about how much exposure the European Sportscar Championship was getting, and I don't think it appeared (in that form) again. A car looking like that one is in the Rosso Bianco museum (see link on page 1 of the thread)

I know of the races Lepp ran in 76, but that car was just an update of his 75 chassis though, wasn't it?

Originally posted by Jeremy Jackson
I know of the races Lepp ran in 76, but that car was just an update of his 75 chassis though, wasn't it? That's the strong implication of the 1976 reports. Nowhere have I seen any claim the car is new for 1976.

What else do we know about the Atkins car?

Allen

I have a couple of photos of the Atkins car, that I took at Donington in 198, if it helps.

Yes please!

There'a photo I took of the Blackgate car in practice for the cancelled Birmingham Thundersports event in 1986 here:

http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Birmingham-1986-08-25-photo.html

(car no. 40)

Heres , a few of the car at Donington park, May 1988

And again...

and during practice

Allen (or anyone...), if you want the full sized versions, let me know.

blackgate racing was this John travis race team?

Yes it was

well thats not a march 75 its the other car JT built its BRD march replica like his 792 car a copy as we have stated earlier in the thread

But we (or rather RTH) had the Atkins 75S as ex-Travis, which rather suggests that this was the 75S?

Travis entered his copy as a BRD TS001 or somethng like that.

Originally posted by Jeremy Jackson

However, the BRD was, as I remember from both reports & talking to various folks at the time, a seperate entity built to 792 design/spec, but as you've mentioned James, using John's knowledge/bits from the aerospace industry (as well as March bits, obviously!)

;) Nice to see that there's a March parallel to the Raltlolatolemanromandockingspitzley design tangle!

thats all we need another thread topic starting in the middle of an already complex thread!
why not throw in the heskethwillamsmaguire f1 car !!
ok im kidding can anyone confirm if JT had a true 75s or was it 1 car with 2 names

Originally posted by driftwood
...if JT had a true 75s or was it 1 car with 2 names

Now there's a thing...

My results have a Blackgate-entered "76S" in 1986 Thundersports, and the BRD TS001 in 1987.

same car- i do not think JT had the $$ for a real car and then build "replica"

Nick Atkins bought the genuine March 75s from John Travis' Home, at the time we saw the BRD TS001 under construction - it was a replica with body moulds taken off our car but a Travis designed chassis -beatifully crafted out of the finest BAe materials. He had previously (wrongly ) entered the March as a 76 s - which it never was.

Originally posted by Pete Fenelon
;) Nice to see that there's a March parallel to the Raltlolatolemanromandockingspitzley design tangle!

This was a commercial arrangement, Toleman used their prior experience running a F2 Ralt, as a basis for Rory Byrne's all new TG280, the car turned out to be a quantom leap and they cruised to a 1-2 in the '80 F2 championship .

Toleman moved up to the big time & F1 in 1981 but there was such interest in the Tolemans from customer teams they licenced Lola to mass produce the car under the Lola T850 name.

So it looks like Travis DID have a real March, presumably a 75S, but not the Lepp car, which we think was turned into the 77S ?? The Lepp car was definitely a 75S, red in 75, then Ultramar blue in 76. It was part of the Ultramar team in 76, alongside the 3-litre Edwards car, the latter a real 76S.

IIRC that car was intended to do the full World Series that year with Edwards and Lepp, but wasn't too reliable, and the project was canned after a few races. There's a good pic of it in the 76 Autocourse. Lepp's original 75S was only used in the UK in 76 I think for the RAC series.

Whether this was the JT car is another matter, can't recall now what we've said on it earlier !

As noted earlier, the 1976 Sportscar Champ. car was damaged in a transporter accident, and never re-appeared. But Autosport reported at the time that Ultramar weren't getting a great amount of exposure in the championship...

Anyway, so did Travis actually race his 75S?

Yes, there was a huge photo in Autosport of him in the car at Oulton taken the year before we had the car 86/7 something like that. This begins to sound as if this car had its age updated for sponsorship reasons .

John upton's car in black and red had a DFV driven usually by Ross Cheever was also in use at the same period under the 'Valour Racing' banner his wife was called Val, it was a play on "Our Val " it ran as did the F3 Ralt without any other sponsorship decals to speak of , he seemed to be well funded.

Richard,

there's my problem...I saw the car in Birmingham in 86(see photo link on previous page). Was the car raced in 1986 the March, or the BRD as driftwood suggested?

We mentioned the Upton car earlier in the thread, but it "disappeared"... in dubious circumstances?

Jeremy :

Just looked at it - that is the March 75 S we bought from Travis, I cannot remember the exact dates but definitely the BRD was much later , maybe as much as 2 years.

Your photos are of the car in our ownership - I applied the SELUS decals etc myself.

The whole Valour thing was a mystery - not anything I would want to comment on in print

Richard, Valour Racing... go on let us know what you heard! I gather it was funded very dubiously ........

Thanks Richard,

I knew the 1988 pics were during your ownership, just that this thread sowed a seed of doubt on Blackgate's 1986 car.

Anyone remember that great song lyric from american singer Jimmy Dean in 1961 :-

" Kinda wide at the shoulder, and narrow at the hip, and everbody knew you didn't give no lip to big John ".

The 80's were strange days indeed in West Kingsdown.

One of my earliest racing heroes was Nick W. I had a home-made clipboard with Black & Gold on one side, and All Car Equipe Green and Yellow on the other. Very tasteful !!!

I expect you remember what happened to him.

Yes, heard the rumours, but never sure the exact whys and wherefores. Can you advise without any personal risk !!

Well its a matter of public record he was discovered face down in Raynham marshes with 2 bullet holes in the back of his head.

See http://www.bernardomahoney.com/rrmurders/articles/noyetfs.shtml and http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/noye.html. for mention of Nick Whiting's death.

Didn't know Charlie Whiting was his brother!

Nice people!

a man of yr postion should know these things allen shame on u!!:laugh:

charlie was nick`s mechanic for a while then he worked at bernies f1 race team and then his current role from there:cool:
re valour and the march 76s perhaps less said the better those that need to know know!:banghead:

Googling for West Kingsdown and bullion (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22West+Kingsdown%22+bullion) is quite fun too!

The whole Valour racing disappearance also involved the father of a young FF driver by the name of Emily Newman, their engine tuner and a promising FF2000 driver. This would have been around 1987 early 1988. Shame as Emily and her brother were very good in karting.

If you thought Valour F3 team was well funded you should have seen the karting "side". They were the only family with a small army of mechanics and an huge truck!

From what I remeber -8 years was the sentence...

tis amazing what lengths some will go to for motor racing
have any of u read a book called The Laundry Men
an eye opener !
i can think of half a dozen others that have done similar things and been done for it too
however we are all digressing from the real issue here
and no one has yet answered my question about the Argyle march 75/76 i posted 3 pages or so back!!

Sometimes the stories behind the teams and there 'colourful' owners are more interesting than the racing.

Originally posted by driftwood
... and no one has yet answered my question about the Argyle march 75/76 i posted 3 pages or so back!!

Ok, I'll go for it -

The Argyle car was a 74S. I've seen chassis 06 quoted, but further than the Autosport advert, I don't know for definite. I thought I's read that bits were used in a MN Specail Saloon/GT car in the late 70s/early 80s, but don't quote me on it...

Duplicate post...

Nordic u could be right
perhaps some brave or foolish party can start a seperate thread on this theme:rolleyes:

well done JJ for sticking yr neck out
all those who could be bothered to answer:o :p

Originally posted by Jeremy Jackson
Ok, I'll go for it -

The Argyle car was a 74S. I've seen chassis 06 quoted, but further than the Autosport advert, I don't know for definite. I thought I's read that bits were used in a MN Specail Saloon/GT car in the late 70s/early 80s, but don't quote me on it...

The Jimmy Robertson Skoda 3.4 GA rings a bell as being based on a 74S ???

There is an advert in this week's Autosport for "March 75S chassis 3". Said to ex French hillclimb champion chassis.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, for me!), I've stopped actually purchasing said magazine, so can't recall the complete advert. e-mail address had the surname Marcais (Not Flavien though).

if u dont buy that magazine how do u know of the ad or are u a WHSmith shelf reader?
yes it said french champ car 03 chassis
i was going to mail him for price info
if the $$ is right could consider a ready to run car instead of spending hrs restoring 1 !

Originally posted by driftwood
if u dont buy that magazine how do u know of the ad or are u a WHSmith shelf reader?


Well, I've been buying it for 30-odd years, but I'm not paying for something I don't like the quality/content of.

but are u a secret whsmith shelf reader- the public have a right to know !!!
yes i buy intermitantly the magazine as they have lost the plot ( bit like F1 really)

I've been a shelf-reader for about 25 years, occasionally buying it too. I've even stopped shelf-reading now though !!

Originally posted by Dan Rear
The Jimmy Robertson Skoda 3.4 GA rings a bell as being based on a 74S ???

Anyone else remember the above ? Nice looker, sponsored by 'Robertsons of Cardenden' as I recall.

i saw this car in person many times and i read old AS recently with some race results in it around 80-82
if it wasnt march could it be chevron b 23 ish as richard simss bought all Ga stiff from cosworth and raced a car in thundersports
i think he was matey with Jimmy

Browsing some 1976 Autosports, I noticed that Guy Edwards had an Interserie outing that June in a car described as "Jack Kallay's March 75S" the one Lepp used that year. This is a new one on me, I didn't know that Kallay was involved with this team, anyone else remember this?

Interserie June 1976, that was at Zolder? Well I think I have full results, and Edwards isn't there... Just to confirm we're talking about the same event, this was the race where Richard Sutherland lost his life in a B23, and Raymond's B31 won?

was jack kalley involved in Hi-Line racing ensign in aurora later

JJ, yes that's the meeting. I'll check on the Kallay/Edwards 75S issue at home later.

DW, thats the same chap, I presume. I'd never heard of him prior to the Hi-Line Ensign with Lees in 78, and yet the way he was described in the press of the time, it seemed he was a well known 'backer/philanthropist' chap, a sort of Teddy Yip in a way.

Jack Kallay was the Alfa dealer in B'ham, wasn't he?

is u askin or tellin us?? !!!;P

Wasn't Mario Deliotti the Alfa Dealer? Jack Kallay was near Birmingham (Lichfield, or somewhere else in Staffs?), Advertsing Displays or something? Bit vague here I know, but I think he was one of the guys who attempted to rescue Shadow in 1980 with Teddy Yip?

yup that name is associated with hi line ensign aurora team as well

Neither askin or tellin. Being wrong.

Yes, it was Mario Deliotti. It was a long time ago and the side of Brum I rarely went.

Allen

PS Drifty could never post on TNF now. They've installed a spellchecker!

Originally posted by Jeremy Jackson
Interserie June 1976, that was at Zolder? Well I think I have full results, and Edwards isn't there... Just to confirm we're talking about the same event, this was the race where Richard Sutherland lost his life in a B23, and Raymond's B31 won?

Jeremy, I checked and it is the Zolder meeting, same weekend in 76 as Le Mans would you believe. Edwards in the March 75S, apparently Jack Kallay's, started in 1st heat, ran 2nd, then gradually dropped back with a problem. Finished 7th in 1st heat, didn't start the 2nd.

Paul Watson wrote the A/S article, and from memory, he knew his stuff, so I assume Edwards was there in that car, and that the Kallay bit is correct.

Bridgestone motorsport (http://ms.bridgestone.co.jp/en/point/32_1975_en.html)
Go to bottom left of page and search (http://ms.bridgestone.co.jp/)
I'm sure most of you know about this, but Bridgestone have an archive of motorsport results. I can't find the header page, my japanese is pretty poor!, but just tpye in the car or race you want and the result springs up. Plenty of March's raced over there.

Dan,

Thanks for the Zolder info. My results obviously aren't as full as I thought...

The Argyle 74s is owned by Peter bloore of raceparts in the UK he has owned it for some 20 years or so. I have a 75s with a dfv in it chassis no 75S T1 which I purchased from Richard Simms some years ago. It is under going a complete restoration, Many of the photos that I have seen of supposed 75s, are in fact modified sports 2000 tubs with 75s bodywork. I hope this might fill in a couple of gaps.

Ryan Hodges UK

Welcome Ryan. Do you recall what Richard had been doing with your 75S before you bought it? Do you have any pictures of the car in the condition you bought it - they might help us add it to the jigsaw.

Thanks

Allen

Hi Allen,
He bought the car when it was crashed by Norman Hodgson at Donington in 78/79 I believe it was raced by Jimmy Robertson, And was built by Jim Evans, He built 2 skoda's this was the car with a tin roof as they had'nt got any moulds. To make a glass one. Richard never did anything with the car, And I bought it about 2 years ago in its crashed state which is why I am rebuilding it. I have photo's of the tub and all the part's , It has F1 caliper's drive shaft's and front wishbones , and the mounting's on the monocoque for a DFV. As I understand it the T1 on the chassis plate is a DFV type number. Any ideas, Richard thought it was a work's car, because of the way certain things were made. Hope this helps.

Yours Ryan Hodges

Ryan, thats very interesting. I presume the car you have is the one that was first raced by Jimmy Rob in about 1978. For memory it was described then as being based on a 74S, not a 75S. Didn't it have a 3.4 litre GA in it? Again purely from memory, I don't recall any 75S' with DFVs in. The car Edwards had in 76, with a DFV, was described as a 76S.

The pics you've seen of 75S' which you describe as modified S2000s, are they of Japanese cars. If so I think they were 'real' 75s', not modded S2000s. The March S2000s didn't come out until 1981.

According to that wonderful 1970s racing site, Evans, Hodgson and Simms all drove 1970cc FVC Skoda S110/S110RS super saloons. The one Simms (http://www.racing70s.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/racing70s/OtherSaloons/skodaone.htm) drove was as early as 1975 so that can't have been a 75S or even, realistically, a 74S. The car Evans (http://www.racing70s.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/racing70s/OtherSaloons/skodatwo.htm) drove is pictured on the site in 1977. Hodgson (http://www.racing70s.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/racing70s/Fordcars/hodgson.htm)'s is pictured in June 1977. Jimmy Robertson's car, a 3400cc GA V6 Skoda S110RS, is pictured in 1978.

There a significant similarities between the Evans and Hodgson cars.

Allen

Hi Dan,
I don't know if the modified 2000 cars are japanese or not but if you look at the roll hoop the stays come down to the base of the rollhoop which goes over the dash. on
a75s the stays land about 11'' in front of the hoop also there is no hoop over the dash.
The 2000 cars I refer to are cars running as 75s now not cars running in period. Ithink all the dfv engined cars were modified 75s According to classicscars, three dfv cars were built, do you know anything about this.


Yours ryan hodges

The Simms skoda did not appear untill 1979 and was Chevron based Jim Evans did not become Skoda mounted untill '78 having blown all away the previous year in a Mk1 turbo escort

Ryan, I'm sure no 75S' DFVs were built from new. Is yours definitely a 75S, or the ex-Jimmy Robertson 74S that used to be under a Skoda with a 3.4 GA in it. Or is it the 'mysterious' Valour car that IIRC did have a DFV in it when raced in T'sports in the mid-80s...

Hi Dan,
My car was never raced by Richard Simms, As well as racing he dealt in racecars and spares in quite a big way, He bought my car crashed, sold the engine and gearbox, and stored the rest untill I bought it. The problem now is that sadly R ichard passed away a couple of weeks ago.
Jim Evans never drove my car he built it for a customer. As I said earlier my chassis plate definately has 75S-T1 now I suppose it could have been upgraded from a 74S and fitted with a DFV I don't know the answer to that.
I have Alain De Cadenets 1972 Duckhams Le Mans car which was also turned into a special saloon but because there was only one and I have all the original drawings it has been much easier to restore it to it's original spec. I hope this info is of value in working out who has what car

Yours Ryan Hodges

Japanese march group 6 cars are all pukka 73 &74 s cars with modified bodies to suit the long high speed Fuji speedway track :D
S2000 march cars came along in 1980 thru to 84 and are a different car engine gearbox tyre configuration :cool:

Hi,
Doe's anyone know which car Peter Lovett drove at brandshatch in 1991, at the Visage superprix on June 1st and 2nd. I have tried to contact him but he is always to busy to ring back.with regards to fitting a bdg or hart engine and ft200 gearbox to a sports 2000 is just a case of changing engine frames. fitting 75s body and to all intents and purposes you have a 75s. plus of course 10'' and15'' rims. If you look at the rollbar stay mountings they are different on the sports 2 and the 75s. and of course the tub is different also, but from the photo's you can't see this.

Does someone have infos and pics of the March 74-74-75S converted by Mooncraft for Gp.C use?

Many thanks!

i have some pics of march mooncraft cars circa 74-77 but not in bubble top Gp C format

Hey there,

I am interested in pictures of March 75S cars run in 1975.. Especially cars run in Italy with BMW engines. Has anybody got any ?

in fact any pictures no matter what quality of cars running in the Group 6 era.

Thanks

Doug

Sorry re previous quote, first time and all that.. let me qualify my interest, I have no pics of the cars mentioned in the previous posts, but am after some pics of the 75S run in italy and driven by Cosimo, the car was run by Scuderia Versuvio (sorry about spelling) in 75 with a BMW engine.

A bit more specific !!! and to the point. Also does anybody know where the 75S run in 77 in black with swiss flag on airbox originated from ? Was this car one of the Italian Cars ? it ran with a BMW or was it a ford engined car that had the engined changed when sold on..

Cheers

Doug

Doug: The driver name is Cosimo Turizio, he was entered by Scuderia Vesuvio, however I'm not so sure about the car being a 75S, it could be a 73S (look here: http://www.wsprracing.com/wspr/results/wscc/ms1973.html#4), you can eventually try to look for mr. Turizio, in 2003 he raced an Osella in the historic Gp. 6 series....
....I remember an Italian 75S driven by Sterzel and "Gimax" and entered by "Walter Wolf Canadian Racing Team", raced in 1976

I'll try to look for more infos from Autosprint as soon as I can....

went through some mags, I was wrong, Turizio raced also a 75S in 1975-76 hillclimbs and national circuit races....

Hey Fausto.. thanks for that.. If you have any race reports or pictures of Cosimo ion action in the 75S that would be good.. or any other driver in that car .. great.. I haev one pic and a result from an italian magazine.. Cosimo won it with a field mainly made up on Osellas and Lolas .. I think you can e-mail me directly .. not sure how that works .. all new to me !!! cheers Doug

Doug you have a private message from me that's waiting to be opened....please e-mail me to fausto.emme@libero.it

thanks!

:)

Not on the 'Cosimo' matter I'm afraid, but in MAWP's spot in this month's M/Sport, he mentions Mike Coombe. Specifically that MC raced a DFV engined March sportscar in the mid-70s. From dim and distant I recall a Mike Coombe (I presume its the same chap) in a 74S, but think that was a 2-litre car.

Anyone else any ideas ?

I remember two DFV Marches, a 74S, raced by Henton and Brambilla at Paul Ricard 1974, with Elf sponsorship (Coombs connection?) and the Ultramar liveried car, seen in 76 and driven by Guy Edwards....

1000 km Le Castellet, 15 August 1974 - Henton and Brambles drove Mike Coombe's March 74S. It was in the S3.0 class according to Martin Krejci's former site. Time & Two Seats says Coombes had stuffed a DFV "into a tiny 74S" and that it was "extraordinarily problematic". Martin's site also gives its chassis number - 74S/6.

Allen

Just noticed - Martin allocates that same chassis number to:

1. The Mike Coombe entry for Henton at the Nürburgring Interserie race on 17 Jun.
2. The Argyle Engineering 74S at Brands Hatch on 29 Sep, driven by Bob Evans and Richard Lloyd.

Allen

Allen, did that car have many other outings do you know? 74 is a bit early for me, but I don't recall many 74S' out later in Europe. Did it go to the US or Japan after perhaps ?

Sorry Dan, I haven't a clue. When it comes to sports cars, I know little, but Google well - to steal someone else's sig.

Martin's search page is useful for this: http://wsrp.glwb.info/. Enter "March" and "74S" and you'll get a very interesting list.

Allen

great list Allen.. loads of 75S cars and 74S.. but hillclimbing and the national run cars are not in there.. Cosimo's 75S and others.. great none the same and well useful..

I think all the Japanese cars listed in 75S were 74S and 73S with updated bodies.. anybody got any ideas here ? certainly the pics I have seen of so called 75S cars look like 74S cars with some extra streamlining ..

Doug

Dan, The Argyle 74S - DFV was entered at Nurburgring & Ricard by Mike Coombe, and prepared by Kim Argyle, but by Brands, the car was actually entered by Argyle Engineering.

It was advertised for sale by Kim Argyle in Autosport late 1974, and appeared in those pages fairly regularly through to 1984, by various vendors! So I don't know if it actually did race again. The 1984 advert shows it with race no. 48, maybe it did, maybe it was a show car somewhere?

Doug, Martin's brother Roman covers hillclimbs, at

http://isr.cudlici.com/

although it's been over a year since an update, there's still a lot of info in there.

Scrub that intial comment, from the photo in Autosport's Nurburgring report, the entrant I reckon would always have been Argyle Engineering with Mike Coombe Racing (as Martin has it for Brands)

Thanks Jeremy ..

Good list and tells me some of of what I wanted to know ..

The 75S story is a complex one for sure, and the 74S it seems .. they MUST of made more that 5 75S cars .. maybe less 74S than stated in that book !!!

Anyone know where Lepp's 75S Hart car is now ?

Doug

The Lepp 75S appears to have become the 77S of Bobby Brown.

We went through the 75Ss in some detail earlier in this thread and the quantities seemed about right as I recall.

Allen

Allen I read back through the thread, somehow I missed the Lepp bit..

Interesting story though.. how many of the circuit cars were 74S cars with new bodies.. does anybody know the other differences ? there are a few I believe.

Doug

Time for a recap on the March 75S. From a quick scan of the thread, we have the following in 1975:

A. Alroy Racing's first March 75S-Ford

B. Alroy Racing second March 75S-Ford

C. John Lepp's quasi-works March 75S-Hart. Retained 1976. Believed to have become the 77S in 1977.

D. Roger Heavens 75S-BMW first appears in June 1975.

E. Fredy Lienhard "75S"-BMW in Euro hillclimbs.

F. Michel Pignard "75S"-BMW in Euro hillclimbs.

G. Scuderia Vesuvio "75S" for Cosimo Turizio 1975/76

H. "Walter Wolf Canadian Racing Team" March 75S-BMW raced by Stanislao Sterzel and "Gimax" 1976 ... Herbie Muller 1977?

Mystery 75Ss in the 1980s

A. Paul Jackson's 'Valour racing' 75S in Thundersports 1985.

B. Nick Atkins/Richard Hinton "ex-Lepp"/ex-Travis fl. 1986-1988 (not the same as the BRD TS001

75S today

A. Lee Chapman Racing (US) 2004.

B. Silvio Kalb's "ex John Lepp 76S"/"ex-Eugen Strähl" car 2004.

C. Ryan Hodges' "75S T1" ex-Richard Simms, ex-Norman Hodgson, built into a Skoda by Jim Evans c1978

D. March 75S/3 advertised as ex-hillclimb July 2004

E. March 75S "ex-Scudria Versuvio"

Can anyone help assemble these into something more coherent?

Allen

Allen and everyone..

Could these cars be the 75S cars that Alroy ran.. I know that selling car updates are common especially when nothing else but the body and a few other bits have changed.. This would make the numbers add up and if Cabral and Skesting were the owners they could of switched their cars running to another team .. who knows ?

John Sheldon (GB)
"Larama" (ANG) ^
Mario Cabral*
John Sabourin*
March 74S Ford
Paulenco Racing


36 Mike Beuttler (GB)
Colin Andrews (GB) ^
Chris Skeaping (GB) ^
Cyd Williams*
March 74S Ford
Paulenco Racing

From British group 6 round in 1974 at Brands Hatch..

Hi Doug

Yes, distinctly possible. According to this Autosport story, dredged up from earlier in the thread, Alroy could have been the successor the the Paulenco team:

New March 2-litre team - Autosport 27 Feb 1975
"Alroy Racing will be a new name on the 2-litre sports car scene this year. The team has been formed by former Paulenco men Alan Stubbs and Roy Johnson. They will be continuing their association with March and will be running two new 75S models."

So, in March tradition, the two 74S run by Paulenco but owned in some form by Cabral and Andrews, are updated with kits and arrive at Dijon in April 1975:

Dijon WSC 6 Apr
Alroy Racing (Stubbs/Johnson/Cabral) March 75S-Ford
Alroy Racing (Andrews/Stubbs) March 75S-Ford

The Ford engines are an additional clue as the "real" 75S cars that arrive later have Hart and BMW engines.

If this is true, and it looks likely, the first 75S to race would be the Lepp 75S-Hart followed by the Heavens 75S-BMW in June. That ties in with 75S/3 then going to Italy (as the Heavens car may well have done - it may even have been the Heavens car).

The list is now making much more sense.

If only we knew one or two more chassis numbers...

Allen

Allen, this seems to be making sense to me now.. which is great

Chassis 3 was supplied with BMW and so was chassis 5 (the later being sold to Italy and the first to france).. the wolf chassis I am told is chassis 1 .. and also has beemer power

Scola raced a 74S with a BMW and turns up as an entry in a 75S .. again the body kit could be the answer that might explain the cars entered that never raced during 1975 ..

the heavens car could of been one of the two cars sold to italy and run in the UK before being sent over.. does anybody know what colour the Heavens car was ?

All we need is number 2 and 4 ..

Doug

Doug

Do you have any details on the first customer and/or the delivery date of 75S/3 and 75S/5? They may help us identify the Heavens car.

I'll look for pictures of the Heavens car.

Allen

Allen

The 75S/3 was delivered into MRS in France in 75 and the 75S/5 to Italy in the same year .. both had BMW engines fitted, I think 75S/5 was supplied as a roller and the engine was fitted in Italy by the team.

Jeremy, the white car pictured in your earlier message is, I believe the car in the USA now.. the roll bar is not right and the same as the US car.. I think this may of been answered earlier on

Doug

Its quite interesting to see the argyle car i asked about yonks ago was never really pursued and now months later its history/ info come to light !!

was the valour car ever a real 75/6s dfv car or 2 litre built up? there are other queries out there to be answered on this car !!
has anyone asked roger heavens directly about the cars he had or has anyone tracked done Mr Travis ( now in usa? )
doug hart are u the racer from 2lire days about a decade back with a family bathroom business

..and brother of Greg?

David and Driftwood, yes I am part of that family, my big bro is Greg .. I ran a T212 in the early 90s.. I race a modern day 2 litre now.. a Chiron.. great car with all the mod cons and lots of downforce !!!. may come back to Historics next year .. still deciding

Has anyone got a picture of that Valour car ? would like to see it ..

Doug

nicky is the baby of the family ?
i recall him as a cadet come junior in karts when i raced karts@ tilbury then he went into FFords
valour car has anyone found the AS article of the day it was " launched" does it say where the car came from?
it was around 1985/6 it raced then it "disappeared" from racing

I remember being told when the Valour car first appeared that it hadn't raced before....

that rings a bell as i did find 1 AS article not long ago about the car
was it a 76s in thundersports?
how could it be an unraced car in 85 ish was there a car that sat unused like the Otford group 286 dfv lola car ( cancelled order!!??)

Nicky is my cousin, he has hung his helmet up sadly.

I am confused over this Valour car.. Even having read the earlier thread.. The car zooming round the birmingham track in 1986 Thundersports (white) is not a 76S, in fact I reckon it is not a March at all.. is this the Valour car ? the white car pictured early on in this thread (on the grass) is the same car as as I mention racing round birmingham.. I am only confused as I am told the Valour car is Black ..

The white car has wrong diving position (to central), roll bar shape and stays, wing stays, body work front and rear.. and from the grass pictures it seems to have a lot of other details not as a 74/75 or 76S should have ..

I'm fairly sure the black Valour car "disappeared" before 1986 - I only remember it racing at one or perhaps two Brands Hatch meetings in 1985

Pretty sure the Valour car was black, as was the RT30 the team had that year. The white March in T'Sports in 86 was the Travis/BRD car, we think, and was a March, at one time at least !

Looking at the BRD car the only thing in common with a 75S or 76S is the side pods.. The tub is different, the rear end is like a F2 .. 78 or 792, the dash, seating position etc are not the same and very central.. .. it could of used an F2 donor car and that would explain a lot .. thanks for the info as I was thinking the Valour car WAS this car.. so we haev two different cars entirely ..

Blimey this is all complex .. All we need is a picture of that Heavens car to see the colour of it and we should eb able to get the story straight

Doug

dan is correct here valour cars where black mr herbert drove rt30 f3 car
was valour car 75 or 76 s

BRD car was built by john travis he also built 792 replica car is it possible he fited either body to F2 car or used that as base for sports car
i only recall 1 white 75s type car running with hart motor and it was entered as BRD not march

check out the blue and yellow 75S in the USA and tell me what you think ..

Valour car was indeed black, and appeared on programme entry lists (I know that's no guarantee) as a 75S. It ran in 5 Thundersports races in 1985 only.

Dan said earlier ..

.... Didn't Heavens run March 74S' in 1974, for the likes of Cabral, Prado, de Lamare. I guess he must have had some Spanish money/connexions at the time. If so, I wonder whether these cars really were 75S', possibly in fact the previous years cars ?? .....

Did anybody confirm this ? that he ran a 74S in 1974 ..

Autosport's Euro 2-litre report's refer to de Lamare's 74S as "his" but don't say who ran the car. Heavens was running a Lola T294 in the same championship for Javier Juncadella

who drove the valour car paul jackson and hadfield? i think simon did 1 or 2 races for sure in the car
i know jackson was running the team/ engineer on ross cheevers/herberts f3 cars for the 2 f3 years
at the seasons end team was closed down herbert went to eddie jordan team to win f3 c/ship or am i 1 year out?
i recall cheever running prior to herbert but there was not a full budget for him perhaps it was 86 when valour closed down & i stand waiting to be corrected !

I don't know who ran de Lamare in 1974 but it is relavant that his car was BMW-powered, like the Heavens 75S.

Also relevant is a comment on this page (http://www.blenkoglass.com/racing/cars/kinspec.htm) saying that the Kincraft was rebodied with the body of de Lamare's 74S. So does that mean de Lamare's car had just acquired a new body?

Somewhere, I'm sure I saw de Lamare's 74S actually running during 1975 but as I was only looking for 75S references at the time, I didn't write it down. I'm sure it was a UK race, maybe Silverstone?

Allen

Allen

DW, I think the Cheever Valour F3 year was 1985, Herbert being in FF that year. Don't think Cheever ran with them in 86, Herbert did the odd F3 race that year, but I thought that was with Mike Riwe, not Valour, or are they connected ? I can't recall who drove the March in T'Sports in 85, Cheever maybe ??

according to wspr-racing.com

19 Paul Jackson
Rob Wilson / NZ March 75S Ford Valour Racing

Again off the top of my head...
I think Cheever was the 1986 Valour F3 driver (when JH was doing FF2000)

I know its off the march track but f3 valour car was Ralt rt30 85 model so in 86 they would have run car again with the 86 updates but JH didnt have money until 86 with EJR and Rhino flooring sponsored him giving him a leg up he needed
JH was doing FF2000 in the quest having won the 84 FF festival in the Quest 1600 car he was a "works " driver but the 2000 car was a donkey compared to the VD/Royale / reynard cars
my claim to fame is JH taught me to drive karts via the Sisley kart school in 83- he was uk kart champ but i dint relaise that at the time the following year i did my 1st kart race at tilbury
JH had a coming together at the hairpin with a driver and boxing ensued
at the end of the meeting the other drivers father and JH where banned from the track for a year as more rounds followed with no referees !!
And u thought butter wouldnt melt in Johnny`s mouth!

JH was doing FF2000 in the quest having won the 84 FF festival in the Quest 1600
Make that 85 Festival

I stand corrected again !
well done Mr McK
after a while the years all fade into 1 !!
i have that FF festival on video still -cracking racing - maybe relived with the festival now back as kent cars and not zetec this year

I don't know who ran de Lamare in 1974 but it is relavant that his car was BMW-powered, like the Heavens 75S.


But by the time of the BA 1000kms at Bbrands in September, it was propelled by a Smith built Cosworth...

i can see im gonna have to ask roger directly cos u lot are no good at the guessing games anymore!
remind me not to have u in my team for a Charades!

It's a car, or a film or a book ?

Anyway I reckon heavens car was a rebodied 74S as it seems to add up .. so maybe one of the Alroy cars was a real one, or both .. Making the 5 March 75S

Wolf Racing
Lepp's
Pignards
Vesuvio's

and AN Other .. which could be one Alroy (or two if Lepp's had no number) or Heavens .. Or the other Italian car driven by Scola ..

Interesting

SP2 (http://rupert8766.fotopic.net/p3072573.html) Was the Vogue SP2 in any way based on a March 7?S, if not it took a few styling ideas from it.

Vogue was based on Gropa 1970 with 1300 cc motor
Gropa was chevron B8 based chassis
in 1976 it was then modified with march f2 suspension BDG & fg400 fitted raced by Richard Jenvey in Gp 6 as a Vogue
David mercer then owned the car and ran it in thundersports
car was sold to sweden and unused
car is now for sale if yr interested let me know
there is another Vogue floating arond built in the thundersports days but its not the true historic car made by Harriers lester ray and realy should have been labled Harrier

OK Roger Heavens march 74/5 s cars fire me all yr questions i have spoken to see how good his memory is- he chuckled- i will fax him all your questions so best to PM me and i will compile them all and lay them before him

DW, I reckon the Vogue was out before 76, 75 definitely, maybe 74 even.

it was out in the early 70`s with 1300 ford and poss 75 with bdg i made some notes when mr mercer was updating me on the cars history and telling me the 2nd later car is not a vogue but a harrier but lester was involved in the 1st "real" vogue and used the name on mk2 car/ harrier
i do my best to recall all of what was said but i can always ask more questions if u need them
now where are the Heavens march 74/5s questions!

Mr Driftwood

Here you go

Ask Roger if the car was a 75S or a 74S with the factory update of boodywork etc .. also was the Car bought new ? and where did it go to after he sold, even better if he knows the name of who he sold it to etc ..

Does he know where it is now ?

Doug

I drove Jenvey's Vogue at Paul Ricard I think in 76. All I can remember now was not sitting so comfortably as my knees were forced down by a bar. Sane car but didn't talk back to you much and I don't recall much in the way of styling either Nordic. Remember Mazario on the works Alfa V8 that he couldn't POSSIBLY see over the steering wheel of in a straight line, popping past on the curves before the ultra tight right hander on to the start finish straight. I followed him through real tight and he absolutely lit up the two enormous rear tyres, made a wonderful noise and held it on opposite lock for what seemed like an age black markes right up the road .. and was gone. Of course all that sideways stuff negated the low driving position for him. I also remember stopping off on the way back in Pari .....
I also drove a Lester Ray V8 Thundersport post-Vogue for Les Blackburn in one very wet qualifying session at Snettterton. The steering was again this rather lifeless thing, rather like driving a block of wood or an 80s Merc. But it did fly in the wet (cars that are good in the wet, tend to be floppy), something like 3rd quickest. Can't remember what happened in the race.
This forum is great for jogging the old memory box!
Thought this was a March thread.

So did I !! Vogue is a towel rail maker to me :(

vogue has march uprights so its close !
im pleased to hear old drivers pass comment on cars and help keep their memories alive & active
passing questions on 74/5 s cars for answers

I thought Vogue was a wimmins mag!! Great memories from John, I wonder if the year he mentions though was '77 not 76. The 3-litre Alfas were only out occasionally in 76, did the whole year in 77, and won everywhere against minimal 3-litre opposition. A couple of Marches were out in 77, bringing this back on thread, but G6 was pretty dead by then in Europe.

Less of the 'old drivers' dw, take your pants off on the black stuff any day of the ****ing week .....................! (Only joking)

well maybe 10 tenths should be renamed old farts memory lane!
as for taking off my pants u need to catch me first grandad- last 1 to druids ( or shall we make it paddock in case the wheels on yr zimmer frame get a puncture ? ) is a cissy
name yr cars and apoint a man to hold your bus pass so i whip yr ass!
brands this friday any good for u? lets see if if u can get under 51 seconds!

as for womens mags an dtowel rails wasnt Vogue a song by madonna

the vogue version 2 had ralt f2 rear end on it with march f3000 front uprights i think

Bah - 51 seconds? Is that an FF blowing in the wind? Give me 44 seconds in a GT1, maybe I'll get interested.

u did 44 secs in a golf gti- was that the clearways loop?
my f3 will do 44 secs around BH
dont forget G Hill bend has changed ( 1999 ) and now 1.5-2 secs a lap slower
anyway the offer still stands for friday show me how to do it grandad!

i did a 48 in a 125 go kart .. and a 43 in a chiron testing .. back to Marchs please.. or Madonna, whatever takes your fancy ..

Did Roger Heavans release a single once ?

Doug

Doug, "Stairway to Rogers" maybe ....

Driftwood - WONDERFUL offer. Bit short notice.
How about you come to Silverstone on a Member's track day (maybe GP circuit - gears OK?). I'll do lunch and circuit, you do car (what is it?). BTW I'm 6'3".
On the basis I run your actual trousers up the royal flag pole if quicker.
PM us if you like, I'll let you know dates. You are a sport!
(If someone needs to delete these indecent posts - tell me where you put them pls!)
My favourite March was the 742 BMW.

John, mine was 782 Hart ! Did you ever drive any March single seaters ??

No, I didn't Dan. We backed F2 races with the SuperVW circus, so I so wanted to try Stuck's F2 or that wonderful yellow Jabouille french cheese Renault V6 thing (all time fav single seater I think). My experiences with the TOJ led me to think that these F2s were the most marvallous formulae as they balance power and grip in the right quantities, nothing too outrageous or sophisticated but wonderful to drive.
The crowds baying, fircrackers drowning out the engine noise as they entred the Hockenheim stadium on the opening laps etc.
Do you still have a 782? Which engine (Sorry I see now - Hart)? Wonderful cars, almost the best IMHO.
I raced an F3 Tecno much earlier and I thought their F2 was the business too.

Extensive research going on.. full history of Chassis 5 adn 3 to follow :) does anyone know anthing re chassis 2 and 4 ? 1 is known

Doug Hart

Nope, but when you post the histories of 1, 3 and 5, we might be able to derive much more about 2 and 4.

Allen

OK..

Chassis Number 3 was used extensively in Hillclimbs initially by Pignard and then by Flavian Marcais. The car was sold in 2004 and is about to come out to play in Supersports this year with Greg Hart at the wheel. It has it's original BMW M12 Engine and is being run in White as it was delivered.. It was run by MRS for years and pics can be found of this everywhere..

Chassis Number 1 was sold to WWRC (WalterWolf) and run in Italy.. It Always had a BMW as did Chassis 3 and was driven by "Gimax" among others. As far as I can find out it was hillclimbed and raced only in Italy and is currently in a private collection in Italy. It last ran in Yellow and Blue and a picture can be found on the net. It may however been run in Black in 77 .. It was most defiantely run in red and very dark blue during it's Walter Wolf years.

Chassis Number 5s original owner could be one of two, Roger Heavens or Enzo Osella. The car was run in 76 by Cosimo Turizio (He owned the car) in Italy and he got the car from Enzo Osella.. (I believe Cosimo put his BMW engine in it from his 74 Lola T290 or 2) The car was actually stolen in 76 and Cosimo had to pay some Ransom money to get it back !!! He got it back and that weekend he won in Italy and I have cuttings re this from Italian papers, He advertised the car at the end of 76 in Italy and sold it. In 77 he bought an Osella after he sold the car less engine to a guy called "Claudio" he ran it with a 1600 engine before selling it on.. The car was owned by Adriano Palmento, who re fitted a BMW engine, from 1980 to 2002 (Tragically Adriano was killed two days ago on Sunday in Bresica driving a course car) who hillclimbed it very successfully for all those years.. It had the tub replaced in 1988 after a big crash that lost Adriano his teeth... It started a Pearly White colour and ended up red with very odd body work on the front of it. The car was then bought and sold by Luigi Moschetti in 2004/5 .. The car is currently undergoing restoration and will be raced next year in the Supersports championship. It will run a BMW engine as it originally did in 75 and 76..

Thanks to Faustino for helping get all this history together. I have pictures of these cars throughout their history.

So what of 2 and 4 ?

The Alroy cars were most likely 74S cars updated, in 74 Paulenco racing ran two 74S cars and in 75 ran two 75S cars under the new name Alroy Racing, with the same engines. In the March Archives of drawings there is drawings of Paulenco engine frames .. drawn in 75 and obviously part of an update kit. There are only drawings of Hart and BMW engine frames in the listings so it is likely that only Hart and BMW engines were used.

there could be more than 5 75S cars .. but with no records of the original owners on file (thrown away by a cleaning lady in 1980) it is very hard to tell.

And there you have it .. the history so far after 4 months of searching and talking to people around the world. Chassis two and Four I believe would not be Lepp's .. as a works car he may of had no chassis number due to lots of developments parts, the body changed as did other stuff and we all know that Lepp's car ran rings round the other March 75S campaigned in 75.. Mainly down to the HART engine at the time being far superior to a BMW.

Cheers

Doug

Interesting info
i see yr bro has bought the car advertised in AS last year from Marcais
i have not heard back from mr H re lola info i do have a reason to talk to him other matters and can pursue lola info and throw in the march questions
so raise these here or pm
if u look thru AS from 74-76 u will see cars advertised for sale
some 74s cars went to japan for the GC racing
again if you have and questions let me know and i can get "our " man over there to provide some info- it will not surprise me if i get only partial answers cos thats the way it is a si have found out pursing info for my own car but luckily for me i hooked up with the right guys

What Lola stuff ? I drove the T212 for a while .. very nice too, it's shortwheel based way !!!

We are all March nowadays.. I also sell wheels that fit March, Lola and Brabham cars.. split rim types.. soon to be seen on 75S of course ...

All the cars in Japan are 74S cars I think, there is one for sale now out there. We had a 74S for a while, came from Argentina in Marlboro colours .. Greg raced it, good car.. bit heavy.. Sold it on.. no idea where that is now ..

AS has too much info in it really .. we'll be 75S heavy next year in Supersports .. but that should be a lot of fun.. if you have the body moulds then you can push hard !!

D

just a note that sadly Adriano Palemento who owned 75S/5 car from 1980 died last month on a Hillclimb .. driving a March F3 car. He ran the 75S with much success for nearly two decades .. and modified the car throughout, in 1999 it looked nothing like a March 75S and had osella front body, march side pods and strange rear end. (I got the car with some proper bodywork bunged on it and it is now being restored to it;s 1975 spec with a BMW engine as run bu Cosimo Turizio in the same car in Italy 75/76)

Amazingly in 1998 (I think) Adriano was 5th in the EHC !!! against the more hi tech Osella's .. Interesting man it seems and a sad loss to Italian Motorsport.

Hi Doug

Sorry I didn't find you at Brands last weekend. Did you have a chance to find out more about that 76S?

Allen

No nothing more than I knew already

Sylvio blew up on the saturday and packed up, my brother had a mishap with his 75S after an upright broke.. being repaired at the mo.. He will be out again this year.

The 76S looks identical in the most part ..

I met with Cosimo Turizo who gave me pictures of 75S/5 in 1975 with him hillcimbing it .. it was a light metalic blue then. That was the missing link so I am happy there.

I will find out more soon I am sure re 76S etc.. I have met someone who was at March in the 70s.. he may know something ..

Cheers

I am trying to set up a March sports car site and as part of a new site for Retro Wheels.. I am after pictures of 73/74/75/76S cars for this .. I have hundreds already but anything is welcome, especially pics from 77 to NOW .. Please e-mail me any pictures to doug@hydrogendukebox.com with March as the subject please. I have nearly all the pictures that are on the web I am sure .. And I am being helped out by Faustino who has been a great source of information on cars in Italy. Thanks Doug Hart

I am trying to set up a March sports car site and as part of a new site for Retro Wheels.. I am after pictures of 73/74/75/76S cars for this, especially 75S at this moment in time .. I have hundreds already but anything is welcome, especially pics from 77 to NOW .. Please e-mail me any pictures to doug@hydrogendukebox.com with March as the subject please. I have nearly all the pictures that are on the web I am sure .. And I am being helped out by Faustino who has been a great source of information on cars in Italy. Thanks Doug Hart

Silvio Kalb's 76S is for sale in this month's Motor Sport..."76 S 2"

Does anyone know what Museam the Ultramar 76S is in ? cannot find it any more..

Shame Silvio is selling his car. I was hoping to see 2 75S and the 76S this year in Supersports...

Doug,

The Ultramar car was (assume it still is...) in the Rosso Bianco museum at Aschaffenburg.

This album has a photo of it about three-quarters down the page:

http://www.shmoo.com/~bmc/photos/Cars/Rosso%20Bianco%20Museum/

Hello Jeremy

earlier in this thread you mentioned Richard Sutherland and Zolder

I am one of Richards

were you at Zolderthat day, if so what do you know of the accident, also if you have any other sories about his races I would like to know

Regards

Michael

Hello Michael,

No I wasn't there (I was actually just finishing A level exams at the time!) - I only know what I read in the press the following week, which to be honest was very little

Regards

Jeremy

Just received this from Bobby Brown.

Hello Alan:
I recently found some web site with info on March Sportscars etc. It seems there is a big question as to what the car was that I drove in 1977.
From my memory this was in fact the 1975 march that John Lepp drove. It was destroyed in a testing accident at Mallory Park, at that time it was being tested with a 4 cly.Turbo motor in it.
The car went back to March for a new tub and rebuild. At that time the Chassis plate was changed to 1977 by March as an accommodation to Joe Grimaldi who was Doug Sherisions partner at that time. It was also done for me as I had just won the Formula B (Atlantic) SCCA national Championship in Oct. 1976. March were keen on having the car run in the 2 litre part of the Can Am and in as much as it was in fact like a new car with a new chassis, Body, suspension, etc., there was no harm in making it a 1977 car. From my point of view it also would have made the car more valuable upon resale!
I had great success with it and won several races in the 2 litre class with it. Unfortunately the SCCA did not award a separate Championship for the 2 litre class until 1978 or 1979. They were trying to get the single seat Can Am off the ground then and figured that by allowing the 2 litre sports cars in it would help the fields which it did.
I have driven Many 2 litre sports cars since then and am now active with vintage venues here in the US with open wheel cars.
I can honestly say that the March was the best handling and best braking car of all the 2 litre sports cars that I have driven. It wasn't the fastest in the straights as the body created much more downforce than the others and it carried a very big wing for a 2 litre car, it more than made up for the loss of straight line speed with the better handling and brakes.
I hope this clears some issues up for you. I don't know the present owner of the car and I don't think it's been run over here for some time.
Regards,
Bobby Brown

Hello Michael,

No I wasn't there (I was actually just finishing A level exams at the time!) - I only know what I read in the press the following week, which to be honest was very little

Regards

Jeremy

Hi

OK, I was but not really watching the race, I was only 8, I found another link, have pasted below if you are interested, I will email them to fill in the gaps.

Me I just wanted to hear about this from someone else, its difficult to ask these sorts of questions to my family and get a dispassionate response. From the link I got what i needed to know



http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=2381

Cheers

Michael

Hi, Michael,

Yes, to be honest, as the acknowledgements suggest, the note on that link looks like what appeared in Motoring News the week after, which is all I knew of the accident.

Regards

Jeremy

While looking for other things, I spotted a reference to Iain McLaren building a special saloon on a March 73S chassis. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the reference :(

On 22 Nov 1979, Jimmy Robertson advertises a Super Saloon Skoda built on a March 74S chassis and fitted with a 3.4-litre Ford GA V6.

Allen

I think you will find if you read teh AS of the day Mclaren raced march in sports car libre events up north and then you will find an item advising us he built Skoda onto his sports car
highly likely it is the same car 73 74S is same car dfferent body
Does anyone have the march factory records of the sports cars being built and the 1st user?

Allen/drifty, wasn't Ian Mc much more of a Bolton man, rather than Bicester. I don't recall him in any G6 Marches, am I losing the plot? I do recall the Jimmy R Skoda as reportedly based on a 74S, presumably one of the Alroy cars ?

We've been through the Jimmy Robertson Skoda / March chassis discussion on about pages 8 & 9 of this thread with the aid of Ryan Hodges who has the Argyle 74S, but I'm not sure we came to a conclusion...

i was going to look for my sheet on the 74s dfv car it was Simms skoda car and possibly the robertson car
when i tidy up later i will find it and confirm these facts as i went to see the car and took the info history sheet
sounds like Allen will soon be re reading all these pages and compiling a list of info??!!

Thanks jeremy for the info

Allen, your post from Bobby Brown is interesting .. I have already heard that Lepp's 75S was not a 75S at all .. it was a 74S, updated by the Factory ... So Bobby's 77S if Lepps was that 74/75S car .. I assume by the time it was repaired after Mallory it had little left from 1974 or 5 anyway .. (the odd thing re historic racing .. I doubt ANY 75S is original unless mothballed after racing in the 70's .. which noe were it seems)

It makes sense that March would update their works car and let somebody else have it.. There was a road test in Autosport in Dec 74 (... a very advanced bit of marketing for the time .. ), that was a 75S with a BMW in it .. So that