March Engineering

March Engineering began operations in 1969, founded by Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd, the company name being an acronym of their initials. Each founder contributed a distinct area of expertise: Mosley handled commercial operations, Rees managed the racing team, Coaker oversaw factory production at Bicester, Oxfordshire, and Herd served as designer. Herd's original Formula One plan had been to build a single-car team around Jochen Rindt, but Rindt became dismayed at the scale of the March programme and chose instead to continue at Team Lotus.

After building a single Formula Three car in 1969, March announced customer cars for Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Three, Formula Ford and Can-Am, alongside running works teams in all three upper categories simultaneously.

The Formula One effort launched prominently in 1970, with the 701 chassis supplied to Tyrrell for Jackie Stewart as a stopgap while Tyrrell developed its own car. The 701 carried distinctive aerofoil-profile fuel tanks at the sides designed by Peter Wright of Specialised Mouldings; Wright had previously been involved with BRM's ground-effect programme and later worked on the Lotus 78. The works team ran cars for Jo Siffert and Chris Amon with STP sponsorship, while a third STP car was entered by Andy Granatelli for Mario Andretti on several occasions. Stewart gave March its first Formula One victory at the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix.

For 1971, Herd produced the 711, which featured aerodynamics by Frank Costin and an unconventional ovoid front wing described as the "tea-tray" wing. Ronnie Peterson finished runner-up in the World Championship that year, taking four second places.

The 1972 season produced three distinct models. The 721 developed from the 711; the experimental 721X used an Alfa Romeo transverse gearbox in a low polar-moment configuration, which proved a disappointment; and the 721G was produced in nine days for customer Mike Beuttler by fitting a Cosworth DFV and larger fuel tanks to the 722 Formula Two chassis. The speed and lightness of the 721G set the template for future March Formula One cars, which through the rest of the decade were essentially scaled-up Formula Two chassis. The German team Eifelland entered a heavily modified 721 with eccentric bodywork by designer Luigi Colani for Rolf Stommelen; John Watson also used the car to make his Formula One debut.

1973 was the low point in Formula One. The four 721G chassis were re-bodied with nose-mounted radiators and re-designated 731s. The works ran an almost unsponsored car for Jean-Pierre Jarier, while Hesketh Racing ran a March for James Hunt that was heavily redeveloped by Harvey Postlethwaite into a consistent points-scorer. Roger Williamson, entered by Tom Wheatcroft, suffered a fatal accident at Zandvoort; David Purley attempted to rescue him from the burning car. 1973 also marked the beginning of a long Formula Two relationship with Paul Rosche at BMW, with the 732 Formula Two car using the BMW unit as standard.

In 1974 the works ran Hans-Joachim Stuck in a Jägermeister-sponsored car and Vittorio Brambilla in a Beta Tools-sponsored entry. Patrick Depailler won the Formula Two championship in an Elf-sponsored March-BMW.

The 1975 season produced two landmarks: Lella Lombardi became the first woman to score a championship point in Formula One at the Spanish Grand Prix, and Brambilla scored March's maiden Formula One victory at the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix, though both races were rain-shortened and points were halved. At the same Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Mark Donohue died following a practice accident in a Penske-owned March.

In 1976, Peterson returned to March — having left the uncompetitive Lotus mid-season — and scored the team's second and final Formula One victory at Monza. The 761 chassis was fast but fragile, running on a small budget with race-by-race sponsorship. Off-season, engineer Wayne Eckersley constructed the March 2-4-0 to Robin Herd's design — a rear end with four driven 16-inch wheels, unlike the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 which used small front wheels. Tested at Silverstone by Howden Ganley and Ian Scheckter in early 1977, the project was abandoned in favour of conventional development; the 2-4-0 was later licensed by Scalextric and became one of their most popular models.

A token 1977 Formula One effort with Rothmans sponsorship for Alex Ribeiro and Ian Scheckter achieved nothing notable. At the end of that season March sold its Formula One assets and FOCA membership to ATS; Herd was retained as a consultant and Mosley departed to focus on FOCA matters.

From 1978, March concentrated on Formula Two, running a works BMW team. Bruno Giacomelli took the Formula Two title in the dominant 782 in 1978. Marc Surer won for the works in 1979. In 1982, Corrado Fabi took March's last Formula Two title. March also assisted in production of the Group 4 and Group 5 racing versions of the BMW M1 sports car, which ran in the one-make Procar series supporting many Formula One events.

March made a poorly resourced return to Formula One in 1981, building cars for RAM Racing that were described as heavy, insufficiently stiff copies of the Williams FW07. Eliseo Salazar drove initially before Derek Daly took over. A major Rothmans sponsorship arrived in 1982 too late for Herd or Adrian Reynard, working as chief engineer, to improve performance. By 1983, the RAM team began building its own cars and March exited Formula One again.

The Formula One FW07 copy proved a failure, yet when developed into the 81C IndyCar with George Bignotti's direct involvement it was immediately successful. Cosworth-powered Marches won the Indianapolis 500 five straight times between 1983 and 1987; the 86C won back-to-back in 1986 and 1987. At one point 30 out of 33 starters at Indianapolis were in March cars.

In sportscar racing, March built a line of Group C and IMSA GTP prototypes descended from an unsuccessful BMW M1C project; fitted with Porsche or Chevrolet engines, these achieved considerable success in America. The biggest result was victory at the 1984 24 Hours of Daytona.

The new Formula 3000 in 1985 gave March further success, with Christian Danner becoming the first champion in a March chassis, followed by Ivan Capelli in 1986 and Stefano Modena in 1987.

March began a new Formula One programme in 1987 with the Ford-engined 871, sponsored by Japanese real estate company Leyton House and driven by Capelli. In August 1987, Adrian Newey joined March and designed the March-Judd 881 for Capelli and Maurício Gugelmin. The 881 scored 22 points in 1988, including a second place at the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix. The car led the Japanese Grand Prix briefly when Capelli passed Alain Prost's McLaren-Honda on lap 16 after Prost missed a gear at the chicane — the first time since 1983 that a naturally aspirated car had led a Grand Prix. The 881's aerodynamics and ultra-slim monocoque were widely copied by the grid in 1989 and launched Newey as a star designer.

In April 1987, March went public as March Group plc, initially valued at £14.5 million. In early 1989, Akira Akagi's Leyton House bought March Racing including both the Formula One operation and Formula 3000 production facilities.

The Formula One team raced as Leyton House Racing in 1990 and 1991 with Ilmor V10 power. At the 1990 French Grand Prix, Capelli and Gugelmin attempted to complete the race on a single set of tyres; engine problems eliminated Gugelmin and slowed Capelli, allowing Alain Prost to pass with three laps remaining. By the end of 1991, Akagi was embroiled in the Fuji Bank scandal and Leyton House withdrew. Ken Marrable bought the team, which resumed the March name for 1992 but with little funding; the operation closed while attempting to organise a 1993 project.

A series of buyouts saw March divest its racing interests. After a management buyout, March and Ralt were sold to Andrew Fitton and Steve Ward in the early 1990s. Fitton wound March up; Ward continued Ralt at a lower level. In the late 1990s the engineering assets — over 30,000 drawings and design rights for customer cars and works Formula One cars from the 1970s, produced at the Murdock Road facility — were sold to Andy Gilberg and made available through marchives.com.

In May 2009, March Racing Organisation Ltd applied to compete in the 2010 Formula One season under a budget cap then under consideration, but the entry consisted of the name alone; no factory or team existed.

March cars followed a scheme where the first two digits corresponded to the year (69–91) and the third digit or letter indicated the formula. Formula One cars ran 701–781, 811–821, 871–881; from 1989, the Formula One cars took a CG prefix after Leyton House team manager Cesare Gariboldi, who died in a road accident in 1989: CG891, CG901, CG911. During 1972 three distinct Formula One cars appeared — 721, 721X and 721G. IndyCar chassis ran 81C–89C; IMSA GTP and Group C cars ran 80G–87G.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.