Late Bloomer – 1976 March 2-4-0

There are cars, and there are cars. Some come and stay, many come and pass on. A few appear briefly but don’t make it to the grid, and then they disappear. Thanks to historic racing and car collecting fever, however, a number have managed to rise from the ashes. VR has had the good fortune to get behind the wheel of some of these—the Amon, ATS, DeTomaso, Scirocco—all F1 cars that struggled in period and never made the grade even when so much effort went into them.

Historic racing brought them back, and not only did they experience the miracle of resurrection, they got significantly developed, and in historic events over the last few years they all fared better than they did in period. Well, this is the story of another of those “almost lost” cars, the six-wheeled March Grand Prix car, 2-4-0. This car never made it to a grid when it first appeared—and maybe it was never even intended to get onto an F1 grid—but it’s back in no uncertain terms, and again it shows what might have been.