Six wheels in Formula One - March 761 2-4-0

Tyrell were the first to explore the concept of six wheels with their P34 / P34B designed by Derek Gardner which was raced in 1976 and 1977 – the front wheels being replaced with four, much smaller wheels. The thinking was that this would clean the air flow over the car. The P34 won its fourth race – Jody Scheckter in Sweden ‘76 – with team mate Patrick Depailler second – but that was its only race win. Jody did score four second places, a feat also equalled by Depailler. The revolutionary car secured Tyrell third place in the '76 Constructors Championship with 71 points – not far behind Champions Ferrari, 83 points and McLaren 74 points. The update for 1977, the P34B, was less successful, blighted with a number of retirements and no wins to its credit.

March’s Robin Herd thought that there would be greater gains by removing the much larger rear wheels, cleaning the air flow at the rear of the car and over the wing. It was designated the 2-4-0 following the Whyte notation method used to classify steam locomotives. March co-owner, Max Moseley encouraged the development – March were short of funds, and he was convinced that such an unusual design would spark a lot of interest from potential sponsors. However, because of the shortage of funds, this led to the project being shelved after a couple of test sessions with Howden Ganley and Ian Scheckter (Jody's brother) behind the wheel.

That was not the end of the story though. Four times British Hillclimb Champion Roy Lane thought the concept might work on the hills. During the thirties, some hillclimbers raced with double rear wheels which gave greater traction. Roy was in dialogue with Howden to get feedback on how the car drove (one of the test sessions was at a very wet Silverstone). Robin Herd then loaned the unique transmission to Roy which he mated to a 771(1) chassis – a car that had been used by Ian Scheckter in the final three GP’s of ’77 – racing in the famous Rothmans livery. It was used in practice twice and retired from the Canadian GP at Mosport Park. Roy’s powerplant was again a Cosworth 3 Litre – Roy was rumoured to own the engine that powered Bruce McLaren to his victory at the 1968 Spa GP - the McLaren Team's first win – engine block 803 but re-serialled by the RAC as 905. Roy was not only a fast racer, he was also a highly competent engineer.

It was a great start for the six wheeler in its blue and silver Guyson Beadblast livery – it won on its British Hillclimb debut, Round 1 at Wiscombe Park, on the 1st April 1979. The conditions that weekend no doubt helped because the competitors had to contend with torrential rain. The 2-4-0 then won again the following weekend in the BARC Championship at Prescott. It looked like Roy may have made a very shrewd move. However, the car only won one further event, another BARC event at Gurston Down. A couple of British Championship second places at Prescott and Barbon Manor were the only other highlights. With Roy failing to qualify for Round 6 at Shelsley Walsh, he abandoned the concept and fitted a conventional rear end to complete the season with the 771 (1) chassis. The main problem was keeping the transmission lubricated. The car had competed in a total of 10 rounds of the British and BARC Championships.

That appeared to be the end of the road for the concept.....other than to appear as a very popular Scalextric car in the early eighties!

The story of the 2-4-0 was to continue though. Fast forward to 2012, and a March six wheeler re-appears for a special celebration! It was joined by examples of the other F1 six wheelers at Goodwood FOS in 2012. A Tyrell P34 (2) ('77 B spec) and the Williams FW08B from 1982 which had a similar layout to the March. The Williams was tested, but in 1983, the FIA banned six wheelers along with 4 wheel drive so it was never raced.

The March however, was not the car that Roy Lane used in 1979. Historic race car restorer Anthony “Taff” Smith had discovered the March as a “bag of bits” in Rotherham, and set about re-building it. The chassis was a March 761 (Roy Lane was using the 771 chassis). The car made its public debut at the 2012 FOS being driven by Anthony’s son, Jeremy, securing 8th place in the Shoot Out with a 52.13s. The car appeared in the memorable Beta Utensili livery that Vittorio Brambilla – nicknamed the Monza Gorilla because of his aggressive driving style - carried on his car when he scored his only F1 win in Austria 1975 (famously he crashed as he passed the chequered flag in the shortened, rain affected race and completed the slow down lap with the nose cone hanging off!).

It made further appearances at the 2014 and 2015 FOS as well as competing in some HSCC Derek Bell Formula Libre races. However, although the Smith’s were making progress with the car’s development, further progress was likely to be limited, and when they received an offer from a Swiss collector, they decided to sell. The funds were then put into their next restoration project – a Marlboro liveried Penske PC22(1) - ex Indy car which was tested by Fittipaldi / Unser and driven to an 11th place finish by Stefan Johansson in the ’93 Indy 500.

Who knows when this unique piece of six wheel race car history will be seen again?