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

[RTH]

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

[driftwood]

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

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...?

[driftwood]

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

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?

[driftwood]

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?

[Jeremy Jackson]

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?

[allenbrown]

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

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

[allenbrown]

Yes please!

[Jeremy Jackson]

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

http://www.racingsportscars.com/phot...-25-photo.html

(car no. 40)

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

And again...

[Jeremy Jackson]

and during practice

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

[driftwood]

blackgate racing was this John travis race team?

[Jeremy Jackson]

Yes it was

[driftwood]

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

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.

[Pete Fenelon]

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!

[driftwood]

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

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.

[driftwood]

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

[RTH]

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.

[RTH]

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.

[Dan Rear]

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 !

[Jeremy Jackson]

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?