March 73B - 74B - 75B - 76B - 77B

[David McKinney]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

There is a NZ registration document for this car, from that time [as all cars even off road had to be registered with authorities] that confirms the plate.

Without wishing to throw a spanner in the works, or to doubt the validity of this car's claimed identity, your statement ain't necessarily so. As a f'rinstance, the NZ registration papers for my Lotus VI "proved" its c/no to be 6018, which even back then I knew wasn't a proper Lotus number, but presumably one dreamed up just to get the car through Customs. It was only many years later, when I discovered where on the chassis the real Lotus number was stamped, that I discovered its true identity

[Chris Townsend]

Allen

Still have some gaps in Canadian results for 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and
Players series 1975-76 [Qualifying races only]
Have been through all Canadian magazines [CMB and Canadian Track and Traffic] thanks to Rob. Really need to settle down with a 1971-1979 set of Competition Press for the winter.

Leighton, thanks for the colour on the Cooper car. We probably have three yellow gel coats in the original build then. And for the info on GV in 1975. I get a bit muddled about who ran him when in Atlantic. It looks, I think
1974 Ec. Canada [March 74B]
1975 Self run with a bit of help from Ec Canada
1976 Self run with a lot of help from Shierson?
1977 Ec Canada

Chris

[driftwood]

on race -cars.com 76B #6 is for sale have u seen that ? quoted as villeneuve car

[Leighton Irwin]

Chris: After all these years I could easily be wrong but I think GV was run by EC in 76 & 77. I left the series in mid 76 but am pretty sure Gilles ran out of EC. His only year as an independent was 75.

[Bryan Miller]

David,

Except in the case of 75B-8 and other cars that have been imported from NZ including more than a few Ralt RT4's of late , you don't have to dream that number up when it is on a chassis plate firmly rivetted to the lhs of tub just rearward of the dash panel and in full view , you dream up numbers when there is nothing visible.
Bryan.

[allenbrown]

Reading the 1977 Road Racing Annual, it's clear that Kris Harrison's Ecurie Canada employed Villeneuve to drive their car for 1974. Villeneuve crashed the car and left the team. In 1975, he got Skiroule backing and did his own thing, with his own car. For 1976, Harrison and Villeneuve patched up their differences and, with Ray Wardell joining as racing manager, Ecurie Canada provided a pair of 76Bs for Villeneuve.

So there should be only one ex-Villeneuve 75B but it wouldn't be ex-Ecurie Canada unless EC decided for some reason to buy GV's 1975 car from him when he joined their team for 1976. As they had two new 76Bs, I don't see why they'd have done that. I don't know who EC's drivers were in 1975.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Ecurie Canada 1975 Craig Hill and Bertil Roos plus Depailler at Trois Rivieres

So, evidence suggests that an Ecurie Canada 75B [which we know Schroeder's car to have been] is unlikely to have been Villeneuve's. As the Roos car is a known quantity recently, and Depailler's car is also known in 1976 this suggests it might have been Craig Hill's car

Chris

[murray.smith]

So happy to see that my note on my 75B has stirred up a mass of comment. When I got the car from Oppenheimer it was clearly stated
as being ex GV and was painted in Skiroule Green, which means nothing I know. I am certainly not claiming it to be anything..but I am interested in ding out the back ground. When I talked to Dorsey he told me that one way to find out if it was his car was to check the bulkheads which were Ti.in his day.
I have and they are not.
The next step is to get hold of Joe Hish and se if he has more paperwork,he is an old pal and is out of racing cince a big crash in a Group C Intrepid at Daytona..it looked horrible I must say as I was in the same race. Now recovered he may be able to shed some light. In answer to another note yes I was at Interpublic but dug them out of the hole in British Motorsports rather than getting them into thatpit.
More when I get hold of Hish.

[Bryan Miller]

Murray,

Does your car have a cast or fabricated rear crossmember , also what is the number on the FT200 ?

Bryan Miller.

[Bryan Miller]

Paul Lawrences book The lone Furrow advises that Ray Mallock initially purchased the ex James Hunt March 712 from Lord Hesketh , and Robin Herd said it could easily be updated to 73B spec. which it was , a little later a part exchange deal was done with March and they traded the old tub for the tub that had been used to make the bucks for the fibreglass panels for the 73B , it was covered in fibreglass resin , however all that was needed was to clean it up and they then had a brand new 73B tub to go with all the other 73B panels etc. pages 100/101.

Bryan.

[allenbrown]

Bryan

This is a useful addition to the history of 712M-05. Does the book give any clue to when the tub was swapped? Autosport describes the car as a 712M/73B as late as Mallory in July.

Allen

[Bryan Miller]

If I had a good guess Autosport may have reported it as such because they had put the 712M plate on the 73B tub , the book does not indicate any time frame.

Bryan.

[Chris Townsend]

At a guess I'd say the car would have needed a new tub after the startline accident at the British GP meeting [14 July 73]. The A/S comment about the car being 712/73B is at the next meeting the car appears, suggesting that they had put the old plate onto the new tub.

Chris

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by Bryan Miller

... 1 page only of 74B sales ...
74B-5 M.Coarasa Midnight Blue 4 Dec 1973

I am still perplexed by this car. Miguel Coarasa drove a 1300cc ex-F3 Martini in French hillclimbs in 1972 and then a F2 March in 1973 but there's no sign of him in 1974. Has anyone seen any results for Coarasa in 1974? Do I recall that someone had spoken to him about this car?

I am trying to eliminate the possibility that this car changed hands before the start of the 1974 season and was Régis Péchaire's dark coloured '742' that season. Péchaire's car was described once, by Auto Course, as a 74B.

Allen

[allenbrown]

Aha, here it is:

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

Rafa - do you know much about Spanish hillclimb championship? I'm trying to find if Miguel Coarasa appears with a March 74B in 1974.

Rafa hasn't been back to 10 Tenths since then. Chris, did you here back from him offline on this query?

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Allen

I did hear back privately from Rafa and Coarasa told him that he used the car in Spanish hillclimbs...
However, I believe Marcus Mussa might be able to contact Coarasa as he is now Monaco resident...

Chris

[allenbrown]

See this thread on TNF about John Bowtell's "March 73B" - actually a 71 car so presumably one of the lost 712Ms.

John also had a "77P" from John Bright.

[murray.smith]

I have been preoccupied with moving house, including March
I will try and contact Joe Hish and also check details on gearbox and
chassis requested so that we can perhaps resolve the mystery of the duplicate plates on the NZ car

[jgwingnut]

I was one of the works mechanics at March in 1971 and looked after 712-5 that season. If you go to my web site there are some photos and words you may find interesting www.jonathangreaves.com
Jon

[driftwood]

I must say "wingnut" that is an interesting website you have
I will pass this onto the usa man who has the march drawings
there is also a man doing a mike buettler webpage or book who would be interested in yr stories
I cant recall his name but i will stumble across it later
You mention the Fittipaldi f6
my friend has 1 but i will not upset him with your tales!!

Look forward to reading more tales

[jgwingnut]

The story of Mike Beuttler is being put together by a Frenchman by the name of Philippe Vogel. He has left a message in my Guest Book. I am just finishing off part two of my memories; it will be on the site in the next few weeks. I hope your friend doesn’t get to upset about F6. The car in its original set up looked fantastic and was well engineered, it was one of those cars that just didn’t work.
Jon

[driftwood]

Thats the man Vogel
My friend is big Emo fan has had 3 Fitti cars and when Emo comes to Goodwood he comes over to see him

[jgwingnut]

A point of interest about March differences. the 712 was an enormously successful car but March changed the suspension to a wide track configuration in 1972, you would think to improve performance. Unfortunately this was not the case. I was a mechanic on the F2 team that year and we did a direct comparison at Silverstone in 71 and it made no difference at all. I can only think it was a marketing ploy. But I cant imagine March doing anything like that?

[driftwood]

also for 72 the F2 went form 1600 to 2 litre possible that they thought extra bhp would mean the wings work and maybe a WT format may be needed
i cannot think March would stoop so low as to provide parts under false pretences!!
yr Ronnie P 722#5 car is alive in Oz
i knew the owner and he has now sold the car to another guy

[Chris Townsend]

Just to correct Drifty's claim...
722-5 was not Ronnie Peterson's car, it was used by Niki Lauda in the 1972 European championship.

Chris