March 2-4-0 to 4 WD – 1977
March's chief designer, Robin Herd discovered "the major fault" of the Tyrrell P34. Although the concept worked as Tyrrell predicted, the drag of the car was almost the same as a Formula 1 traditional because of the prominent rear wheels.
Herd then searched and found the quick fix, use only the front wheel model for all others. Keep the front axle normal as it already does its job well on a classic F1 and create 4 smaller rear drive wheels. To save on research he would use the March Chassis 761 that already existed. The problem was still serious, realize a double engine bridge and a gearbox capable of withstanding 485 ch of the V8 Ford-Cosworth DFV without losing too much power.
A box 5 Hewland DG400 standard was used for each axle, the second screwed on the first, which made it possible to make a Mach 6 wheels in a few hours quite simply. The real problem of 6 wheels was the additional weight generated by the 3rd axle when the base chassis was already too heavy 26 kg !
Although not finished, the 2-4-0 was presented in November 1976, it was a great success with the press and the public. 2-4-0 is taken from a classification system for steam locomotives (from Monsieur Whyte), these old locos had front wheels, drive and rear wheels, on the March it translates into 2-4-0, quite simply.
New Zealand driver Howden Ganley drove the car for the first time at Silverstone and like the staff imagined, a broken box. The March has been ironed in 2 wheel drive and the test ended its course in a tremendous media buzz. March still put the project on standby in relation to the fact that it was still necessary to increase the budget to design a better solution.
In February 1977, after major structural changes on the box, a second test took place at Silverstone, piloted by the Tyrrell P34 pilot's brother, South African Ian Scheckter. The success has always been dazzling and yet March abandoned the project. The chassis of the 2-4-0 has been converted to 4 wheels and despite that he never finished another race.
C & rsquo; is 2 years later than a hill climb driver, Roy Lane, bought a chassis from March 771 and offered a bridge 2-4-0. He will win several races with, thanks to the increased traction of the March. But Roy did not find it reliable enough and a bit mechanically complicated, he quickly ironed it in 4 wheels.
Much later, the 2-4-0/771 of Roy Lane has been restored in the Rothmans version (the 1st version of Herd) and it is now in the Louwman Museum in The Hague, in the Nederlands.
A second “Beta” replica is used in historic races and in salons, as in 2017 at the Rétromobile de Paris.
A beautiful photo of the March 2-4-0 sent by Neortic.
Photos of the Retromobile 2017 in Paris –
Simonnet Credits & Maneval
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