The Jägermeister-March-BMW 772p is supposed to be the fourth car I get to drive on this incredible day. While one is usually happy to drive a Formula 1 car at all, Ecki and Oliver Schimpf keep raising the bar for me day after day. After the March Formula 1, I was able to push the throttle in the BMW 320 Group 5 and a 3.0 CSL. Now I'm sliding into the 1977 March Formula 2. I buckle the leg straps and slide deep into the cockpit. However, I can't buckle myself in the narrow cockpit. Timo Rumpf-keil, who has just climbed out of the Jägermeister-Gruppe C-Porsche 962, comes to my aid and buckles me in. In front of me, „Strietzel“ Stuck is making himself comfortable again in his Formula 1 March, which I was already allowed to drive earlier.
Strietzel starts the Formula 1, and I take a direct sniff of Ford Cosworth while standing right behind him. That's racing! I also switch on the main switch, ignition, the fuel pumps, press the starter button, and the two-liter BMW engine immediately barks to life. First gear engaged, and I roll out of the pit lane at low revs. That's working well already, I think to myself. How often do you see race cars stalling half a dozen times before leaving the pit lane at full revs. But the BMW engine starts smoothly.
I follow the „Long“ out of the pit lane. It's almost like the movie „Rush.“ Except the emotions are manifold higher than in the cinema. The sound also resonates more with me than any cinema Dolby Surround sound. Nevertheless, it sometimes has more of the flair of a „Rush“ movie than of reality – in front of me in a Formula 1 car is one of my old heroes, and I'm following him in a March Formula 2. He won races with cars like this to become „King of Hockenheim.“ Jochen Mass drove a 772p BMW like this and won the „Jim Clark Memorial Race“ in Hockenheim and the Eifel race at the Nürburgring in 1977 – enough history this car can tell me. But for now, I'll first listen to its mechanics. Visually, it's very close to the March Formula 1 car in front of me. The front is almost identical, and the rear wing has similar dimensions. Right from the first few meters, I'm surprised at how harmoniously this car is designed – calm under braking, the gearbox shifts smoothly, the engine has a good torque curve, the March handles well in corners and also has good traction. At first glance, or for the first impression, it's a dream car.
The Formula 1 March already showed other peculiarities earlier. While I Striezel follow, and his line confirms that for me. Of course, I can also get the much lighter Formula 2 into the corners more easily, I'm much better at the apex, on the throttle earlier and sometimes harder, while I'm still „turning“ the car at the apex. But woe betide us at the corner exit! Then Hans in front of me quickly gets pretty small and pulls away with his 480 Cosworth horsepower. But on the next braking, I can catch up again. On the second lap, he even moves aside after the first corner and lets me go. In the past, there were one or two races in which Formula 2 cars competed in a Grand Prix, as for example on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, where Jacky Ickx was sensationally third fastest in training in the F2 Matra in 1967! Slowly I know why that used to be possible. The F2-March is incredibly agile in the corners, its 330 hp output can be used brilliantly, and you're on the throttle early in the corner. I quickly get „into“ the car, and my pace gets faster from lap to lap. I am particularly impressed by the driveability of the BMW engine – no „spluttering or spitting“ at low revs. It pulls well from low down, has a powerful sound, and still pushes well at the top end. I can brake deeper and deeper into the corners, with the car remaining neutral and practically inviting me to accelerate quickly. Even under load, it still follows the cornering line well and thus doesn't lose my intended line. Understeer only occurs slightly, but a quick weight transfer, and the direction is restored, and it's cheerful acceleration all the way.
I'm enjoying my laps here in Oschersleben, but the desire for a lap on the Nordschleife is growing stronger and stronger. As a child, I followed many races at the Ring; now I'd like to experience what my heroes did. Nevertheless, I realize that even back then, it wasn't „easy going“ to drive at the front. The performance density was high! Many Formula 1 drivers of that era supplemented their income in Formula 2 and raced against F2 youngsters. Many later Formula 1 drivers cut their teeth in Formula 2 and recommended themselves for higher tasks in Formula 1. I would have loved to have raced during that time. They are still great cars to drive, personally more challenging for me than modern cars with paddle shifters, traction control, ABS, and all the bells and whistles that make driving easier. Many are fast today who wouldn't have been able to keep up back then. The tracks and cars of that era were indeed real challenges; even though the car feels so easy to me here today. But on tracks with more trees than guardrails, you first had to push the car to its limits and drive it really fast and without mistakes…
But I quickly brush aside the daydreaming and enjoy the laps in Oschersleben one more time, letting the March really turn up the heat on the back straight and enjoying the inline four-cylinder BMW sound. Then I brake for the chicane and dive into the right-hand turn. I'm quickly back on the gas, keeping the car as far to the right inside edge as possible before switching into the left-hand turn. The centrifugal forces tug at the helmet, and it's quickly maneuvered, remaining planted, allowing me to get back on the gas quickly to use the speed all the way to the next fast right-hand turn. A short brake and entering the fast right, that too it does cleanly and gives me a good feeling. I really can't find any negative points that normally show up with every car. One is quite fidgety in fast passages, another is reluctant to be steered through tight corners. Here I have a car that really handles everything well. It's not for nothing that March was so successful, especially in combination with BMW engines, a true „dream team.“ I'm happy to be able to dream for a few laps of what it must have been like back then with this March Formula 2. Now I know: simply impressive.
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Photos: Christian Wilkens