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

[Dan Rear]

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 !

[Jeremy Jackson]

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.

[driftwood]

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
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

[driftwood]

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 !!

[allenbrown]

Hi drifty

772 dfv can am car!?

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

Allen

[driftwood]

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

" 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

[Dan Rear]

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.

[Jeremy Jackson]

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.

[Dan Rear]

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 ??

[allenbrown]

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

Allen

[Jeremy Jackson]

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

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

.. 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.

[allenbrown]

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.

[driftwood]

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

[james_williams]

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

[james_williams]

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.

[james_williams]

Last thing......promise.

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

[Dan Rear]

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 !

[james_williams]

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.

[Jeremy Jackson]

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!)

[Dan Rear]

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 ?

[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 ???

[james_williams]

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?

[driftwood]

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

[Jeremy Jackson]

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!)