The CSI introduced new rules regarding engine capacity for the 1972 European Championship for Formula 2 season. The maximum displacement was increased to 2-liters. After deciding that F5000 wasn’t worth the effort, John Surtees created the TS10 for the 1972 European Championship for Formula 2 cars.
A new name appeared in Formula 2 for the 1973 season – the Scott. The car was commissioned by privateer Richard Scott and designed by 26-year old Patrick Head.
In late 1964, the FIA issued the regulations that would govern Formula 1 starting in 1966. The new rules allowed a maximum engine capacity of 3.0 liters or 1.5 liters supercharged. Also in 1964 Leonard Lee announced that Coventry Climax would not continue as an engine provider after 1965. With Coventry Climax’s withdrawal from the sport the British teams, excluding BRM, would require a new engine supplier. Cooper entered an alliance with Maserati for use of its V12 engine. Brabham went for simplicity with Repco of Australia developing SOHC cylinder heads for the aluminum Oldsmobile F85 V8 cylinder block. Lotus signed a short-term deal with BRM to use its new H16 engine. The BRM engine would not be ready until late in the season so Lotus owner Colin Chapman convinced Leonard Lee to provide a 2.o liter upgrade to the Coventry Climax engine for Lotus to use in 1966.
MARCH was formed in 1969. The name being an anagram of the founding partners, Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd. The team, based in Bicester near Oxford., built a Formula 3 car (model number 693) that was raced by Ronnie Peterson. The naming convention adopted by MARCH identified the year of the car with the first two digits and the third identifying the racing class. The 1969 Formula 3 car was 693.
My lifelong passion for motor racing started in North Branford, Connecticut when I was ten. It was the early sixties, when auto racing meant hot rods, drag racing, and the Indianapolis 500. Our neighbour’s teenage son, Freddie, was converting a 1934 Ford Pickup Truck into a hot rod, complete with chopped and channeled body and flat head V8 engine. I spent countless hours in the car while Freddie worked, reading his collection of Hot Rod Magazines, inadvertently expanding my rural Connecticut world.
Early in the sixties, Ford Motor Company became involved in motor racing at multiple levels. Ford partnered with Lotus and invaded the Indianapolis Speedway. The company’s activities were well covered in Hot Rod magazine, and I spent Memorial Day listening to the Indy 500 on the radio. As Ford’s activities expanded into sports prototype racing, my world expanded too, and I soon became aware of places like Sebring, Nurbürgring, and Le Mans.
