March 701

Here's a car that I photographed in the pit garage at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010 where it took part in the Grand Prix Masters F1 Cars 1966-1985 race.

It's Gunther Alth's 1970 March 701, and is chassis #9, the car that was bought by German touring car driver Hubert Hahne and entered for the 1970 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim where he failed to qualify for the race, recording a time over 7½ seconds slower than the pole position man Jackie Ickx in his Ferrari. Hahne later sued March, claiming that they had sold him a defective car, and when the March team passed through Germany after the Austrian Grand Prix its cars and equipment were impounded by the German police. Max Mosley, co-owner of March Engineering negotiated the release of cars and equipment by offering an observed test of this car against another March 701 customer car. In that test at Silverstone Ronnie Peterson drove both cars and set a time 2 seconds faster in Hahne's car. Hahne dropped his action and retired from competitive racing. In the 1971 season the car was driven by Jean-Pierre Jarier in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but started in last position on the grid and was not classified as a finisher..