X-ray spec: under the skin of the March 701

While Max Mosley was boldly talking up the new March team and signing star drivers left, right and centre, its designer was wondering how to keep egg off his face. Robin Herd tells Keith Howard how he managed it. Just

Chris Amon, Grand Prix of Monaco, Circuit de Monaco, 10 May 1970. (Photo by Bernard Cahier/Getty Images)

Chris Amon was the works March team's lead driver – he managed three podiums but Jackie Stewart would take the 701's first win

Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

By his own admission Robin Herd “vacillated and wavered” over which path to follow after leaving Cosworth in 1969. He could either take Bernie Ecclestone’s shilling and design a car for Jochen Rindt, or he could team up with Max Mosley and others to build a new team from scratch. In the end he chose the latter option and March came into being.

With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, Herd now admits it was the wrong choice: “It would have been much easier and probably much more profitable to go with Bernie. At March we never had sufficient money to make the cars properly. Everything had to be built down to a budget and there was never enough time or facilities. Bernie had the money to do it properly, as he ably demonstrated when he ran Brabham.”

So why did Herd go for the risky, unknown option?

“They were both very attractive propositions, Bernie and Max are both impressive human beings. But I knew Max from university, and it was really that. But it was close.

Jackie Stewart and Chris Amon in March Cosworths, Jack Brabham in a Brabham-Cosworth BT33, South African GP, Kyalami, 7 March 1970. (Photo by GPLibrary/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

March chassis qualified first and second at debut race in South Africa

GPLibrary/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

“Initially we planned to run two cars, with Chris Amon as number one driver. Chris and I had worked together at McLaren; we had got on well and he was obviously a very good driver. What I had in mind to build was, in effect, the 711 that we eventually made for 1971. But on November 27, 1969 — and bear in mind that at this stage all we had was an empty 3000sq ft building and a telephone — Max announced that we had to build an extra car because he had secured a deal with Jackie Stewart to drive one for Ken Tyrrell. In nine weeks Amon and Stewart would be driving the cars at Silverstone and the world’s press would be there to see it happen! As it turned out, we went on to build 701s for about half the world. And there was no way that we could’ve made all the cars we were going to need for the opening race in South Africa if they were to be 711s; we had to build the simplest car we could. The 701 was a stop-gap.

From the archive

“We were lucky that we had a phenomenal group of lads — Phil Kerr, Bob Dance and so on. The facilities they had were so limited and the hours they worked and what they achieved were extraordinary. You have to give them enormous credit. At the end of final practice at Kyalami we were first and second on the grid in our first Formula One race, having been to hell and back in building the cars. That was a great moment.”

An even better one might have followed it.

“We should have won that first race. Jackie disappeared into the distance but Kyalami had long, fast corners that degraded the tyres. Jackie’s Dunlops started to go off at about half-distance and in the end he came in third. But we won three of the first four races — the Race of Champions, the Spanish GP and the International Trophy.”

Jackie Stewart in a March-Cosworth 701, the race winner, Spanish GP, Jarama, 14 April 1970. (Photo by GPLibrary/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Stewart on course for first win in Spain

GPLibrary/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Only the Jarama race counted for the championship and Stewart wouldn’t score a nine-point haul again that season, but March still almost won the constructors’ world title. It ended up just four points behind Ferrari and a further seven adrift of Lotus, despite the fact that Stewart retired from the last two GPs after qualifying second in both.

“Colin Chapman paid us our greatest compliment at Watkins Glen. Jochen had been killed at Monza and we wondered if Lotus would go to America and Mexico. When we were having dinner after the race, Chapman came over and said, The only reason we came was to stop you winning the world title in your first year.’ A backhanded compliment, albeit a sad one.”

 

March 701: X-ray spec

March 701 X-ray spec illustration

Rear-mounted oil tank. Front-mounted radiator, battery and extinguisher

Herd: “701 was fast in a straight line yet had a decent amount of downforce to make it good in the fast corners. But it had two main weaknesses: in slow corners it would understeer in and oversteer out; over bumps it would oscillate up and down. The problem was that it had a high polar moment of inertia and a short wheelbase. It was like trying to rotate a long dumb-bell with your wrists together in the middle, whereas if you move your hands to either end it’s much easier. The high moment of inertia was brought about by having the oil tank way out back, which meant that the radiator, battery and extinguisher had to be way out front to compensate. Because it was difficult to start the turning you got understeer, and once it was going round it didn’t want to stop, hence the oversteer.”

Engine-mounted roll-over bar

An unusual safety feature of 701 was its engine-mounted roll-over bar. “I thought it very important to have the roll-over bar either on the monocoque or the engine, not both. What usually happened was that the engine would become partly detached in an accident and the bar would collapse as a result. Actually, I’d have liked to put it all on the monocoque, because that was the better solution.”

Efficient aero

“What I wanted to do. and I kick myself for not having done, is put Gurney flaps on the front and rear wings. You look at a Gurney and think it’s a brick wall, that it’s going to give an awful lot of drag. But it doesn’t. That would have increased the total downforce on the car enormously, but I never got around to it and that was so stupid.” But 701 was still a surprisingly efficient aero package. “The drag of 701 and 711 were about the same. At Kyalami in 1971, John Love had a 701 from the previous year and during practice Ronnie’s 711 couldn’t overtake him coming down the straight, although, to be fair, we had had various problems with parts arriving late. I’d already left by the prize-giving, so when they announced, ‘Will Robin Herd come and collect… — ‘ I don’t know what it was — a voice from one side shouted. ‘He’s gone back’. To which a voice from the other added, ‘To the drawing board!”

Related article

Rear brakes

Although the cutaway shows the car equipped with outboard rear brakes, these were later moved inboard. Herd was never tempted to do the same at the other end of the car, despite the arrival of the Lotus 72 sporting inboard front discs. “I got lured into using inboard front brakes on the 711 but I knew it was nonsense. There was a fairly erudite document by Alfa Romeo on this which showed that the reduction in unsprung mass didn’t make much difference to the grip of the car. And, of course, there was the inherent danger of having a brakeshaft fail, which happened to the 711 at Brands Hatch. Having seen Jochen killed after just such a failure, that was enough.” But Herd was happy to use inboard discs at the rear something forced on 701 when Firestone announced that the diameter of its rear tyres would be reduced to 13 inches. “The 13-inch tyres did give a substantial saving in unsprung mass. I was happy that the safety risk was far less than at the front.”

Cooling

Crude-looking external pipes, one on either side of the car, take water to and from the front-mounted radiator. Why did Herd use them? “Why not? Firstly it aids the cooling, secondly it keeps the inside of the cockpit cooler. And it made little difference to the car’s drag. It wasn’t elegant, of course, but it was quicker to make that way.”

Fuel tanks

“The amount of fuel consumed in different races in 1970 varied enormously and we didn’t want to build a huge car whose size could only be justified for a couple of races. So we dreamt up these detachable side tanks. It was Peter Wright [then working for Specialised Mouldings] who had the idea of making them aerofoil sections. Essentially it was the first attempt at ground effect on a single-seater. But there just wasn’t time to clean up the front suspension so that there would be an unimpeded airflow, and there was such an unholy mess around the driveshafts that the air also had a job getting out. We thought about putting endplates on the sidepods but didn’t get around to it. It was a shame, really: had we had Bernie’s time and money, the car could have been a 711 with ground effect.”

Weight

701 began the season distinctly overweight. A lightweight chassis was built for Stewart using 20swg instead of 18swg panels, which saved around 20Ib. But Herd found lots of other places to trim off fat once the season was under way. “The thing had to stay together for the press launch so it was built like a brick outhouse. Once we’d done a lap and not fallen to bits, we could gradually take the weight off. It wasn’t frightfully difficult: I think overall we knocked 40 to 50Ib off during the season.” But why was only one 20swg tub ever made? “Because Tyrrell could afford it and we couldn’t. Simple.”

Wheels

‘Designing the Cosworth 4WD car with Keith Duckworth was great. I worked with him for two years, which was a real education. The car was almost a technical design exercise rather than an attempt to win races, and we spent a lot of time looking at how to make the lightest, stiffest and safest wheels. When I came to design the wheels for 701 in the little time available, I thought, ‘Sod it, I’ll follow the same pattern.’ To a layman they look identical. Keith was still not very happy about me leaving when a couple of journalists visited Cosworth and were shown the 4WD car. One of them said. ‘Look, it’s got March wheels on it.’ Keith was incandescent with rage although I think he just about sees the humour of it now.”