For days I've been looking forward to a special track day, but now I'm standing here in Assen, with damp feet on a wet and cold September day in front of the March 832, which Fritz Gebhardt has made available to me today for a few laps. Normally I enjoy driving in the rain, but now I have the opportunity to pilot a Formula 2 from 1983, and I would have liked to put it through its paces under the best conditions.
I followed that Formula 2 generation with wide eyes back then at Hockenheimring or the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I have many memories specifically of the Nordschleife. Most of the time, I annoyed my father until we finally drove to «Pflanzgarten Zwei,» known as the «jump hill.» At the Nürburgring, it took a little longer to see the cars for the first time after the start. From the start, you first heard the track announcer and somehow, with these memories, I still have Kalli Hufstadt's voice in my ear, excitedly reporting from Breidscheid about the field coming flying down from Wehrseifen to the Breidscheid Bridge. Then you heard the field flying at full throttle through the Kesselchen area up towards the Carousel. Then the sound faded a bit before the forests spat out the sound of the four-cylinder engines again, and you could guess the areas Wippermann, Brünnchen by the sound that they would soon be there. Another indicator that they were coming soon was the goosebumps that developed on me until the cars eventually came flying down the hill with an infernal sound and disappeared again through today's «Bellof – S.» You waited almost five minutes, and after a few seconds, it was all over again.
Tight cockpit in the March 832-4 Formula 2
It can't go that fast today. I want to enjoy the March Formula 2 a little longer than I did back then driving through the Pflanzgarten. The rain is pattering on the asphalt, and the standing water doesn't bode well. Then «Peps,» who was already one of my engine men back in his Audi days, lets the engine run up to oil pressure and turns on the ignition. A powerful rumble at low revs booms from the huge exhaust pipe of the four-cylinder BMW engine. Then it's time, and I can board the cockpit. This is really tight: not just in the seating area, but especially in the leg and foot area. My legs just barely fit, as there is a transverse bulkhead installed in the knee area, through which I also had to thread my feet. I don't really need to buckle up; I'm already sitting firmly... Then comes the signal that I can drive out. I engage first gear, a somewhat rough affair, the gears greeting me. Then I roll out of the pit and inspect the pit lane more like a lake, there's so much water. Then I accelerate carefully out of the pit lane and am actually amazed by the traction the car offers me. There's a lot of water, and it flashes through my mind whether this is such a good idea to drive this machine here, where there's nothing at stake. But I don't want to miss this opportunity to drive a Formula 2 from the 80s.
Weather-related limit
The limit is found quite quickly, tire temperature won't be much of a factor today - with this water level! I enter the long right-hander here in Assen and the March makes itself known quite early with a gentle push of the front axle through the corner, only to become a bit erratic with the rear axle at the exit when I get on the gas. Even in the rain, there's still a reasonable amount of traction out of the slow corners, but the more speed there is and the more I want to accelerate, the rear wheels just spin helplessly. However, I can't accelerate fully down the straight to the end either; there's just too much water. When braking, the front wheels lock up immediately, and I have to ease off the brake pedal slightly to get the wheels rolling again so I can steer into the corner.
Thrilling moments in the March 832-4 Formula 2
Moments like these always get your pulse racing, because you lose important meters for braking while the wheels are locked and you're just sliding instead of slowing down. This makes me miss the turn-in point by two or three meters before I can bring the car to the apex. At that point, I'm already back on the gas, and the March is understeering again. However, before its rear end gets squirrely, I change direction in the chicane. It accepts this well at first, but then exhibits a slight loss of grip and a related drift before it understeers again, as long as I'm not too heavy on the gas. After exiting the corner, I apply more throttle. The 832 initially pulls away well, but then shows its wild side again with a loss of grip and power oversteer. With spinning wheels, I try to pick up speed in the wet and move further to the right on the start/finish straight, where there's a bit less water. Then, I brake for Turn 1, where I try not to lock the front wheels on the low-grip limit. The heel-toe technique works very well with the closely spaced pedals, so I give a burst of heel-toe for every gear change. Then I steer into the first right-hand turn and have to be delicate with the throttle, because any throttle input that's too much leads to more understeer, causing me to lose the line to the outside.
March 832-4 Formula 2: Abrupt Transitions
The transition from understeer to oversteer happens quite abruptly again, and I have to be quick with counter-steering to avoid losing the car. However, I can control the drift well and steer the March into the second right-hander with a slight slide. But once again, the wheels lock up when I brake, and I take the corner wide.
Since that costs him a bit of speed, he starts off understeering again in the long right-hand turn. The turn tightens up a bit toward the end, and where the radius of the turn decreases, the rear end breaks loose again. He quickly countersteers, stabilizes the car, and then hits the brakes for the tight left-hand hairpin in the first section of the track. Once again, he first slides over the front axle, only to quickly transition into power oversteer. You can’t afford to take even a brief «break» here. The BMW engine’s 280 hp, combined with heavy rain, demands your full concentration. Then I experience hydroplaning on the straight, and with a heavy heart, I decide to call it a day and head for the pits at the end of the lap. I would have loved to have gone for a race right then, but on a test drive where nothing is at stake, there’s no need to take unnecessary risks that could potentially result in losing such a great car. So I got to experience a car that, to a certain extent, drives in a controllable manner with understeer under these difficult conditions, but can also get pretty wild when accelerating. But these were also conditions under which, in a race, the safety car would almost certainly have been in front of me, or the red flag would have been waved to halt the race. Nevertheless, it was an interesting trip down memory lane, and I enjoyed the sound of the four-cylinder BMW engine behind me. That sound I used to love hearing in my early years when the Formula 2 field flew over the Nordschleife and headed toward Pflanzgarten. I would have loved to feel the downforce in dry conditions and see what it’s like in fast corners, but for now it remains a dream—as it probably always will be—to take a corner or two at full throttle or even enjoy a lap of the Nordschleife. But it’s also important to still have dreams in life. Maybe another chance will come along, and until then, it’s all about continuing to dream of the cars of my heroes from back then.
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