THE 3 LITER PROTOTYPE ERA

By Carlos De Paula

 

In hindsight it is always easy to criticize decisions that went wrong. On the surface, everything was fine with the World Championship of Makes in the configuration it had in 1971, yet, FISA decided to outlaw the 5-liter Group 5 monster machines, and run the championship exclusively with 3-liter prototypes, which would be essentially Grand Prix racers with prototype bodies. While it is true that only a couple of manufacturers, Porsche and Ferrari, had built new generation 5 liter Group 5s, and these would eventually become old, one gets the feeling that the decision was indeed hasty. Perhaps the 5 liters could contest the championship for a couple more years, ably backed up by 3-liter prototypes as had been the case hitherto. By 1971 the prototypes were no longer grid fillers. Alfa Romeo had won three races on merit, Ferrari was often the fastest car (even faster than the 917 and 512s), and even updated Porsche 908s sprang surprises here and there. However, there was nothing that indicated tons of manufacturers were ready to produce a new generation of 3 liter machines either. By very definition, the Group 5s had on their side volume: to qualify for this group, a minimum of 25 machines had to be built. Prototypes, on the other hand, could be singleton machines.

So, when the 1972 World Championship of Makes started, it appeared as if on the first year the contestants would be Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, with updated versions of their 1971 machines, Joakin Bonnier’s team with Cosworth Lolas, the announced Gulf Mirage and a host of Porsche 908s which were still raceworthy. Matra-Simca was inclined to do only Le Mans. So the grids lost a lot of the depth it had during the 5 liter ERA. 2 liter prototypes and GTs such as Porsche 911 and De Tomasos made up most of the grids, which often featured even Group 2 Touring Cars. Growing pains, it was hoped.

 

On the good side, both Ferrari and Alfa Romeo appeared in force, fielding mostly 3 cars per race, and driver strength was solid. In those days, Formula 1 drivers often raced in other categories, for one, to increase their earnings. Additionally, testing was not as frequent as it is today, neither were sponsor commitments, thus drivers were more available for racing. So a large number of the regular Grand Prix drivers contested at least a single race of the World Championship of Makes in 1972: Jacky Ickx, Mario Andretti, Clay Regazzoni, Tim Schenken, Ronnie Peterson, Carlos Pace, Peter Revson, Andrea de Adamich, Nanni Galli, Helmut Marko, Brian Redman, Arturo Merzario, Howden Ganley, Reine Wissel, Francois Cevert, Jean Pierre Beltoise, Graham Hill, Chris Amon, Henri Pescarolo, Derek Bell, Rolf Stommelen, Wilson Fittipaldi Junior.

 

From the onset it became obvious that Ferrari was the class of the field. Alfa Romeo had shown pace and reliability in 1971, but in 1972 it had neither. Only Stommelen qualified close to the Ferraris, which ran away with the races. In some rounds, Wissel and Larrousse showed the Cosworth powered Lolas had promise, but any challenge would never last more than a few laps, plus at least one of the team drivers, Hughes De Fierlandt, was unable to match their professional teammates speed. The Mirages were not ready early in the season, and at any rate were insufficiently fast to make the Ferraris tremble. So the whole championship became a Ferrari festival. The leading pair was Ickx/Andretti, but Schenken/Peterson also won races, and so did Merzario, Munari, Redman, Reggazoni.

 

Alfa Romeo was optimistic at the start of the year, fielding four cars in Buenos Aires, but as the season went on, Chiti’s team became less sure of itself. After losing four straight races to Ferrari, Alfa Romeo did not appear in the home race at Monza and Spa as well, two very fast tracks that favored the Ferraris. The strategy was to return in the roads of Sicily, in the Targa Florio, where Autodelta fielded four cars. Ferrari, on the other hand, entered a single car in the race, with junior driver Merzario and rally driver Sandro Munari. To Alfa’s desperation, it also lost this race, in spite of Helmut Marko’s Herculean efforts. So Alfa ended up racing a couple more times, at the Nurburgring, and at Le Mans, a race which Ferrari was to miss.

 

In the latter race, Matra-Simca fielded four cars, with very strong driver pairings, Pescarolo/Hill, Cevert/Ganley, Beltoise/Amon and Jabouille/Hobbs. Alfa was unable to challenge Matra, which finished 1-2 in the race. Even the Joest Porsche 908 finished in front of the fastest Alfa of Adamich/Vacarella.

 

In Austria, Ferrari entered four cars, but surprisingly, the Cosworth powered Mirage and Lola posted the fastest qualifying times. In the race it was more of the same: Ferrari finished 1-2-3-4, with Carlos Pace and Helmut Marko on the driving strength.

 

So for 1973 it was expected that Ferrari would reproduce the same form, although Matra-Simca was to contest the whole season. The year turned out to be the absolute best of this era, with four manufacturers winning races on merit, and Matra and Ferrari fighting to the end. However, there was no growth in entries, numerically or qualitywise, quite the opposite. Alfa entered only a few races with a single car. Ferrari fielded two cars most of the time, occasionally a third, with Reutemann/Schenken. Whatever remained of Ecurie Bonnier contested a couple of races and soon the 3 liter Lola was gone as well. Mirage fielded 2 cars in certain races, and Matra-Simca fielded two, except at Le Mans, where it entered four cars. If FISA was expecting Grand Prix teams such as Lotus, McLaren, Brabham, et all to prepare prototype versions of their Cosworth racers, the intent failed miserably. The only hope laid in Porsche’s renewed interest, in the form of a Turbo engined Porsche Carrera, which obviously focused on the future, rather the present of sports car racing.

 

Porsche ended up winning twice, at Daytona, with Americans Gregg/Haywood, and at the Targa Florio, with Van Lennep/Muller. This would be the last Targa Florio valid for the World Championship, and the first World Championship victory by a turbo engined car. Matra-Simca won five times, always with the pair Pescarolo/Larrousse, even though Cevert was often the hare in the team. Ferrari won twice, with Ickx/Redman, and Mirage won a single time, in Spa, with Bell/Hailwood. Alfa Romeo was mostly uncompetitive, even though the new 12 cylinder car showed promise. Grand prix drivers still graced the fields, such as Cevert, Beltoise, Reutemann, Ickx, Reggazoni, de Adamich, Stommelen, Pace, Hailwood, Amon, but the depth problem was still there. Races rarely had even ten 3 liter cars, grids were still filled by myriad Porsche 911s and even smaller GTs and touring cars, and the Austrian round had less than 20 starters. The calendar, which had for years remained quite stable, had new, untraditional races replacing the traditional dates.

 

For 1974, Ferrari dropped out, but Alfa Romeo promised a more consistent challenge to Matra-Simca. Things looked good at Monza, when Alfa beat an uncharacteristic unreliable Matra team, finishing 1-2-3. From the second round on, things were back to normal. Matra won everything in sight, including Le Mans for a third time, and Alfa, like in 1972,  failed to enter a few races, when it became obvious that Monza was a flash in the pan. The year was difficult for racing in general, with the worldwide recession brought about by the oil crisis of 1973, and endurance racing was strongly affected. There was no challenger to replace Ferrari, although Mirage appeared to be a solid proposition, not on the same league as Matra. Matra’s leading pair continued to be Pescarolo/Larrousse, but Jarier/Beltoise also won many races, and even Jacky Ickx shared a win for Matra. Porsche continued to develop the Turbo Carrera, which finished second in Le Mans, but the car was not fast enough to beat the Matras overall. The end of the 3-liter formula was near, as Matra announced it was quitting the series at the end of 74. For 1976 the World Championship of Makes would be contested by a new breed of racers, the new Silhouettes, production based race cars such as the Porsche Carrera.   

 

Although Matra was leaving, another French team, Alpine Renault, which had contested the European 2 liter championship the year before, announced it would participate in the championship with a new turbo challenger. However, Autodelta also announced it would pull out, thus killing any opportunity of a relevant championship. Eventually, former Interserie entrant Willy Kauhsen put together a deal to field the Alfas on behalf of the factory, with engineering support from the works. The first race of the championship was a Porsche benefit, with no Group 6 cars fielded at Daytona. The first round of the championship proper took place at Mugello, and although Merzario scored the pole for Alfa, the race was won by rookie Alpine Renault, with Larrousse/Jabouille. However, the Alfas proved superior, in fact winning all seven other rounds, led by Arturo Merzario who won four races. The Mirage challenge vanished, the team having changed hands and lost Gulf sponsorship. In GELO colors, the cars did appear in Germany, and finished second driven by Schenken/Ganley. Reinhold Joest had some support from Porsche, fielding a Turbo engined Porsche 908. Even 2 liter sports cars were becoming rare in the top results, so Porsche Carreras featured strongly in the top 6 of most races. Even a Group 2 BMW finished third in one race, in Spa. So the formula was indeed a failure.

 

In 1976 there would be a World Sports Car Championship, in addition to the World Championship of Makes in which the 3 liter Group 6 cars could race. As it turned out, this championship would last a couple of years only, but at least it would feature the Porsche works team. Porsche had built a new Le Mans challenger, the 936, and the Championship was an ideal ground to develop the car. The opposition would come from Alpine Renault. Which had a strong team of drivers that featured Jabouille, Depailler, Jody Scheckter, Laffitte, Jarier. Alfa Romeo appeared sporadically and there were still odd Porsche 908’s, including Joest’s turbo powered example. This car ended up winning the Nurburgring round, when  the 936 and Alpines failed. From then on,. Porsche won everything. Although Alpine scored most poles, and even Alfa scored one with Brambilla in Salzburg,  at the end of the races the 936 carried race honors. The Mosport round of the championship was so poorly supported that Can Am cars were allowed in to make up the numbers, so the overall winner was Jackie Oliver, in the retired Shadow Chevrolet. A large number of 2 liter Osellas made up the numbers, so it was more o the same. For 1977, Porsche was gone again, having met its objective, which was to develop the 936. Alfa Romeo was back with a full Autodelta works team, but this was overkill. Alfa won everything, so the only interesting battle was between Merzario and Brambilla. Two of the rounds, Estoril and Salzburgring, had fewer than 10 cars on the gird, so FISA finally got the message and changed the status of the series to European level. Group 5, as it turned out, did not save endurance race, and in fact a few 3 liter, and many 2 liter Group 6 cars were contesting the World Championship of Makes until 1981, as we will see in another article.   

 

Amazingly enough, the powers that be in motor racing did not learn from the lesson, and attempted to make “Prototype/Grand Prix cars” again, with the formula the replaced Group C, the 3.5 liter Sports Cars of 1991/1992. Just like in the 70’s, the deal was a complete failure, resulting in the ultimate demise of the World Championship of Makes.