March 722 - 732 - 742 - 752

[allenbrown]

Roman

When you talked to Adriano Parlamento, did you ever discuss his March F2 car? He raced in in French hillclimbs in 1975 (when it was called a 742), in 1976 (whne it was called a 732 or a 722) and in 1977 (when it was called a 742 or a 732).

Allen

[Andrew Fellowes]

I 've searched this thread for Mieusset and seen that he had a 742 so I'll add this in the hope I am not repeating what has already been said.


Sport Auto No.128 Setembre 1972

Course De Cote de Chamrousse
1. Mieusset (March 722) en 7' 44" along with a great photo,

[allenbrown]

I'm still struggling to account for all the March 742s in French hillclimbs. The original cars to arrive (March/April 1974) were:

A Blue one - Jimmy Mieusset
A White one - Pierre Maublanc then sold a few weeks later to Philippe Hesnault
A White one - Hervé Bayard
A darker one - Régis Péchaire
An orange one - delivered 20 April to Maublanc replacing his white one.
(also Jean Lapierre had a '742' which was a 732 updated)

Echappement says of Maublanc's new car (following a comment about Martin being sceptical of his chances because his engine was so new)

Pierre Maublanc, possesseur depuis le veille d'une toute nouvelle March 742 orange ne l'etait pas moins. C'est la dernière version de la 742 avec le capot rallongé et plus plat, l'aileron arrière plus en porte-Ã*-faux et une meilleur équilibre des masses avec le radiators d'eau et d'huile sur les côtés. (from Echappement June 1974 p138, report on Tonnerre 21 April 1974).

So he had a 742 that arrived the day before with a longer nose, new wing and side radiators. But it's orange and there are no orange 742s unaccounted for.

Anyone know what sort of changes the factory made to the 742 early in 1974? How important were they to perforrmance and could it have made sense for Maublanc to buy a second car so soon?

Allen

[driftwood]

Jimmy M car was sold at goodwood auction last year restored in 98 with BDG
732 & 742 under the body look the same but front wishbones are different angles but tub uprights etc are the same
rear wing basket and oil tank is different
742 had long and short noses for high speed circuits they fitted the longer nose " Rasta" nose
MRS selling car so soon? was he the agent? maybe sold off a car due to impatient customer "wants"?

[allenbrown]

Yes, I saw it and wasn't at all sure it was the Mieusset car. The history was all wrong after Mieusset as his original 1974/75 car went to Fredy Roland for 1976/77 and nowhere near Roland Solomon.

When did the 742s move from nose rad to side rads? The Hesnault car has a short nose and a water pipe running down the outside of the car. How big a change is it?

[driftwood]

car has papers for Jimmy M
car raced on the hills not on circuits
if the car has front rad that may be a hillclimb mod
maybe running 1 rad instead of 2 rear side rads to save weight etc

[allenbrown]

Yes indeed, winner of Ampus, Montelimar-Colombier, Angoulème, La Bouille, Espalion, Cacharat, Chamrousse, Haut-Cantal, Treffort, Nîmes-Collias and Buisson de Cadouin in 1974 and of Ampus, Bachellerie, Nîmes-Lédenon, Sainte-Baume, Saint-Antonin, Abreschwiller, Montaigu, Le Pin, Corcoue, Echelette, St-Hyppolite, Glouneaux, Eymoutiers, Beaujolais, Chamrousse, Mont-Dore, Haut-Cantal, Venaco, Poissons and Saint-Gouéno in 1975. Quite a successful car!

I don't doubt that 742-13 was Mieusset's car as it was blue and was sold to Maublanc but I'm not inclined to believe those FIA papers, especially when they have a mistake as soon as the second owner.

Anyway, returning to my original question, anyone now about the side rad mods made to the works cars early 1974?

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Allen,

I don't think that the works made the kits available for conversion before May. The problem we have with this many 742s in French hillclimbing is not only that the only Orange customer 742, that intended for Moser, goes elsewhere, but that we simply can't accomodate them all in the build list.

Two possibilities are U2 if there was a second development car, or more likely, the Harper cars returned via the works in May to a ready secondary market. Whilst chassis 23 crops up in UK Atlantic in 1975 neither of the Quester cars appears again, and indeed 25 may have been destroyed. But 29 was in FRance owned by Lionel Degardin in 2005. What had it been doing in the interim?



Chris

[allenbrown]

The Moser car was orange/white so I'd have expected to see sidepods one colour and nose the other. Maublanc's is plain orange. And, as you've said, you can account for the Moser car later.

Alternatively, have you made sense of all the cars that went to Obermoser? Could one of those have come to France for the start of the season? The problem with that theory is that all five cars (Maublanc's first car, Mieusset's, Bayard's, Péchaire's and Lapierre's 732/742 are said at Ampus in March to be supplied (or looked after maybe) by Maublanc.

Maublanc, Mieusset and Bayard typically bought new kit so I'd be confident that theirs were new and account for the three Maublanc invoiced cars. Péchaire typically had second-hand cars so his '742' could be an updated 732. However, Maublanc's second car appears to be brand new as well.

More 742s end up on the French hill later: Max Mamers' 742-19 and Adriano Parlamento's '742' (or 732 or even 722) both arrive in 1975; Jacques Terrien, Rémy Gillis, Romain Feitler in Belgium and André Chevalley in Switzerland in 1976. All these cars seem to be additional to the original five cars listed above. So that's 11 742s plus at least three 732s and what appear to be five 722s by the end of 1976!

Allen

[Leighton Irwin]

I can't help with exact dates for the switch but Bruce Jensen's March 74B delivered in March was was front rad. The Ecurie Canada cars were side rad and the first race was in late May if my feeble memory is correct. The Dave Morris car was front rad as was Bobby Brown's. The others I cannot remember but think the Shierson cars were side.
One thing I do remember was that the driveshafts were a weak point as they were on the 722 and 732 cars. For Schubenacatie we got the stronger(?) F2 driveshafts and quickly destroyed same. I think the FA cars had more torque than the F2 cars but not as much HP.

[Chris Townsend]

Seems as though French hillclimbing turned into a one make championship!
Sadly, there are no Obermoser cars to spare. He's consigned three, of which one must be the Team Obermoser car of Ertl at Hockeheim 7 April, and the other two [both white] the cars of Vonlanthen, who we know had a spare. This creates its own problems because Amweg appears with 742 at the same race, and as a Swiss you'd expect him to buy through Obermoser.
To accomodate him I'm reduced to employing the one Trivatello consigned chassis that F1R never notes, and nobody else records - namely chassis 7 but this doesn't help with an excess of French climbers. And sadly, Team Harper doesn't jetison its Marches until after Pau [May 5] so the secondary market is no use to you either!

One other theory about why Maublanc's car is orange. It was a works prototype car used by Stuck at Barcelona and then replaced by chassis 17
This doesn't help with Pechaire though

Chris

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Seems as though French hillclimbing turned into a one make championship!

Only because I haven't mentioned the six Brabhams, five F2 Chevrons, two F2 GRDs, two F2 Lotuses, two F2-capacity Martinis, a F2 McLaren, five F2-spec Pygmées, an F2 Surtees and two old F2 Tecnos. And that's just in 1975. They didn't all appear at the same event of course but there were no cheap wins in 1975.

Could Amweg have had one of the Swiss 732s upgraded? Or doesn't it add up even if we throw in the 732s?

Allen

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by Michael Oliver

Hi Chris

I'm sure you've already got this but just in case:

722/41 was advertised by David Lambe AS 18/10/73 p57 as ex-Williamson/Patsy McGarrity.

I can add to this. Auto Ireland August 1974 p25 says that big Tom O'Leary bought David Lambe's March 72B at the Mondello 28 July meeting to replace the Brabham BT40 that he totally in practice.

Allen

[Msport Services]

[quote=Simon Hadfield]And the Kazato 722 from Gerry Wainwright to Jim Bennet and myself (raced once at Brands superprix) and then to Jim in Colorado. The car was in quite superb condition when it came to us.

722-8 is now getting a fresh BD (last season's motor went south after lodging a rock between the cam pulleys) and will resurface at Road America in July for the Brian Redman Challenge. The car has been returned to its original Orient Watches livery as Kazato last raced it in 1972

[allenbrown]

A story in Autosport 6 May 1976 p56 says Ken Gibson of Measham Car Auctions has bought "the ex-Ronnie Peterson" March 722 for Robin Darlington to drive. It will have a BRM twin-cam in it.

However ... Peterson's car was 722-17 according to F1R and we have that car in South Africa through 1976.

Allen