1972 March 722 Austin Turbo

Between 1975 and 1985 the 'up to 1600cc' single seater class in British Hillclimbing was particularly competitive. Top line competitors, such as Martin Bolsover, used the class as a stepping stone to the big single seater class. Most entrants used Formula 3 and Formula 2 cars of the era with a Ford derived BDA or FVC engine and a Hewland gearbox. Some were successful, but perhaps none more so than Rob Oldaker and Andy Smith with their home built March Austin Turbo. These characters were respected design engineers working for Austin and British Leyland and the project received official support and authorised technical input from Austin, as the detailed history file reveals.With over 20 class wins and one National Hillclimb championship and several top three championship positions notched up by 1980, the duo even managed to be the first in the 'Supercharged Shelsley Special' class to break the 30 second climb at Shelsley Walsh, with Andy Smith recording an amazing 29.27 secs in August 1980. (a record not broken until 24 years later!)The car is based on a March 722, purchased by Oldaker and Smith from Adrian Reynard in 1973, that had raced in F2 and was then fitted with a very highly modified Austin Mini short stroke engine of 1140cc to comply with the 1600cc unsupercharged class rules. This engine featured a Garret T04 turbocharger, without waste-gate, set at 1.7 bar with coolant stabilised inlet temperature control. Running on a methanol mix and an 8.3/1 compression ratio the engine was highly modified and was coupled to a straight cut, close ratio gearbox, a Salisbury LSD with Jack Knight low ratio final drive gear, and a competition clutch. Weighing in at less than 365 kgs (!) and giving close to 240 bhp, it was extremely quick and also handled and stopped superbly.Offered today in complete "barn find' order, the car has not turned a wheel since the Autumn of 1985 and will need a complete restoration before use. Sadly the car was retired with a rod through the block, which is still the case today, but all parts are still readily available and relatively cheap to buy. This represents complete English eccentricity at its best and an exciting project to restore...or maybe turn back in to a F2 car!