Hopefully you guys are still enjoying these so I will add some more
Speaking personally, I'm loving them
Don't get me wrong - I think an RT4 is about as good looking as a racing car can get - but it soon became 'Formula RT4'...up until then, the shapes just weren't different, they were quite different.
A casual observer could have been excused for not being able to tell a Lotus from a Brabham from a Cooper a decade earlier - but a Modus was distinctive from a March from a RT1 from a Chevron.
Keep 'em coming!!
Great photos, the side on ones in post #244 are sharp! Would you be prepared to sell a print of the last one?
Keep them coming.
No problem Howard.
Email me at cammick339@gmail.com
Cheers, Ross
You can autograph it Howard and send it back to Ross. I remember that car with the louvre rear cover and oil tank out the back.Originally Posted by Howard Wood
She was a spare parts special all right. The rear cover was a modified 753 (F3) one, the oil tank mounted on part of the old style 742 (F2) "Monster Bracket" while the single pole rear wing was from Ron Dennis' Project 4 parts bin. The cockpit and nose were 761 (F1) made from a mould I flopped over some film cars John and I were involved with.
After much research by the guys at oldracingcars.com it appears the tub started life as a Brian Henton 732 F2 car which he crashed in 1973 (again) and sent back to March to exchange for a new one as part of their "swap-a-crate" scheme. March then rebuilt the tub and re-plated it as 742-U1, the pre production mule.
John bought it via Dave Price Racing from Val Muscetti who had run it in F/ Atlantic, ShellSport etc in the UK with a variety of engines. Practically a new car!
Val Musetti later found a new pastime as a BBC stunt driver, a job which included crashing IIRC an Aston DB6 on Midsomer Murders, just a bit of useless information.
Funny how some drivers end up doing that stuff.
Val was a stunt man who took up motor racing, and still runs a company doing stunt work for the entertainment industry. Also still runs the family restuarant
Last edited by 928; 11-19-2013 at 08:10 PM.
We are getting well off topic but Val Muscetti's credits include the first Italian Job movie. He was the guy who did the tunnel barrel rolls in the Minis.
Well not quite Howard - Val actually raced Atlantics, in fact in 1975 ran a March 742 in the British series - called something like 'Southern Organs', which is not what some might first think...
Muscetti had two "74" Marches at the time which only added to the confusion over the provenance of "our" car. He also ran them in a number of configurations/ classes and you can't help but assume there was a bit of interchanging of parts.
At one point he ran a 3 Litre V6 Ford/Cosworth GAA engine in the "other" car too. The engine frames on our car were really hacked about which suggests something other than an Atlantic spec BDA had been installed at some stage.
We bought the car as a rolling chassis less engine and set about updating it in the usual way, ie updated bodywork, wings and wheels. As purchased the car had 752 bodywork, "Monster Bracket" rear wing assembly and Melmag wheels. I sent some photos of the car as purchased to Chris at oldracingcars.com which helped them to identify the history.
Last edited by Howard Wood; 11-19-2013 at 11:58 PM.
Here's a final bunch of photos from 1977 - mainly Baypark. These are all I'll post for 1977 as I'm keen to start on going through my 1978 negatives.
I'm still looking for photos or information about the B49 Chevron that Graeme Lawrence ran in Malaysia in Rothmans colours in 1979, We are rebuilding it for a customer to run in the Atlantic/Pacific series next year.
Barry L
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