Early 70s Sportscars Set to Stun at Goodwood
(Photo: Jeff Bloxham)
An enticing array of machines that dominated the international sportscar racing scene during the first half of the 1970s will descend on the Goodwood Motor Circuit for the 75th Members’ Meeting on March 18th and 19th. Cars from Alfa Romeo, Chevron, Ferrari, Lola, Matra and Mirage will evoke memories of the factory battles that raged in the World Championship of Makes from 1972 when regulations mandated the use of three-litre engines.
These sensational sports-prototypes, essentially Grand Prix cars with all-enveloping, low-drag bodywork, will provide a visual and aural feast for spectators in a series of high-speed demonstrations during the fourth of the now-annual British Automobile Racing Club retrospectives.
Already confirmed are several of the flat-12 Ferrari 312PBs that were driven to numerous 1000km victories in 1972-’73 by aces Mario Andretti, Jacky Ickx, Arturo Merzario, Sandro Munari, Ronnie Peterson, Brian Redman, Clay Regazzoni and Tim Schenken.
Joining the Scuderia’s screamers will be a gaggle of French-blue Matra MS670s, the wailing V12-powered machines that took a hat-trick of Le Mans 24-Hour wins and dominated the 1974 season, winning all bar one of the 10-races courtesy of Gallic heroes Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jean- Pierre Jarier, Gérard Larrousse and Henri Pescarolo.
Throw in the exquisite V8-engined Alfa Romeo T33s that occasionally gave Ferrari and Matra a fright during those halcyon days thanks to a quality roster of drivers including Andrea de Adamich, Vic Elford, Nanni Galli, Helmut Marko, Peter Revson and Rolf Stommelen, as well as the British-built, Gulf-liveried, Ford Cosworth DFV-motivated Mirages once pedalled by heroes Derek Bell, Howden Ganley, Mike Hailwood and Vern Schuppan, and plucky Chevron B26s and Lola T290s that picked up the period scraps, and it’ll make for an unmissable cocktail of noise and colour.
