1978 March 782 BMW Formula 2

One of the three 1978 March run BMW Junior Team works cars.

Raced by Marc Surer to 2nd in the European Formula 2 Championship with pole positions at Hockenheim and Mendoza, overall victory at Mendoza and heat wins at Hockenheim.

Bought from a long term collection by the current owner and meticulously restored to 1978 specification.

Race winner in Historic Formula 2 and the car which claimed 3rd overall at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The ultimate competitor for Historic Formula 2 racing, arguably one of the finest F2 cars which would not be out of place within the best collections.

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Price: £POA

Chassis Number: 782-8

BMW in Formula 2 & Paul Rosche

BMW’s involvement in Formula 2 dates back to 1967 when the Bavarian manufacturer fielded two Lola T100s for team drivers Jo Siffert and Hubert Hahne. Designer Ludovic Apfelbeck had developed a version of the production M10 engine with his own radial valve layout principle.

Utilising the standard M10 cylinder block, as found in the 2002 road car, to comply with the Formula 2 regulations, Apfelbeck’s initial principle was developed by young engineer Paul Rosche. Dubbed the M12/1, the new engine retained the diametral valve layout which made them distinctive with eight long inlet trumpets and double exhausts extending from the four cylinder engine. Many special materials were used, from magnesium and aluminium alloys, titanium and high grade aeronautical steels.

Rosche’s new engine was became powerful with development, reported to make as much as 252bhp in 1600cc form. The M12/1 took European Formula 2 podiums and full points scores in its first season, with BMW just missing out on the European title in 1969. Further success followed in 1970 but in 1971, BMW drew back from its Formula 2 activities.

It wasn’t until 1973 that the marque returned to Formula 2. Having recently formed the BMW Motorsport division in 1972, a new 2-litre development of the M12 engine was supplied to the works March team for drivers Jean-Pierre Jarier and Jean-Pierre Beltoise to race with STP sponsorship. The season was a triumph, with BMW powering March and Jarier to victory in the European Championship.

The c.300bhp BMW M12 became known as the engine to have in Formula 2, taking the titles in 1974 with March and 1975 with Martini. 1976 and 1977 saw Renault’s CH1B V6 engine take the top honours, however the championship would return to German hands in 1978.

March had continually developed their chassis design through their works team, while selling customer examples to many teams in the Formula 2 series with success. Their 1977 car, the 772, had taken three victories with Bruno Giacomelli and he would be one of the two March works drivers for 1978.

Joining him in the March works team was Marc Surer and for 1978, thanks to BMW backing, they would be the BMW Junior Team. March’s latest development in F2, the 782, saw a big improvement in aerodynamics. A large front splitter, open bottom side pods and an effective rear wing brought considerable downforce. When paired with the latest BMW M12/7 engines and a lightweight Hewland FT200 gearbox, it proved a dominant combination.

The BMW Junior Team, liveried in the distinctive BMW Motorsport stripes, was the primary focus at March that season, with them having no Formula 1 involvement. The works March-BMWs took 7 wins and the European title of 1978.

This car, March 782-8

Built for the 1978 European Formula 2 season, chassis number 8 was one of the three team cars retained by March Engineering for the BMW Junior Team. Financed by BMW, along with a supply of top spec M12/7 engines, the BMW team operations were handled by March from their facility in Bicester, England.

The BMW Junior Team was a new concept by Jochen Neerpasch to bring promising young drivers under the manufacturer’s wing and nurture them into full factory drivers at the highest levels of motorsport. The initiative was thought up in 1977 and the 1978 European Formula 2 season was the first year in full effect.

Neerpasch selected three drivers for the Formula 2 campaign. Bruno Giacomelli, who had helped develop the 782, was put forward by March.

Marc Surer, a protege of Neerpasch who had been racing in touring cars with BMW took the second seat, and the third was occupied by Manfred Winkelhock.

782-8 was Marc Surer’s car and the European F2 calendar got underway at Thruxton in March, with the works 782s showing the greatest pace. Surer qualified 782-8 in 3rd place and took 2nd in the race behind team-mate Giacomelli, who suffered a rear puncture on the last lap but made it across the line ahead of Surer.

The first round in mainland Europe came at the beginning of April at Hockenheim for the Deutschland Trophy. Surer only qualified in 12th place with 782-8 while his team-mate was on pole position. In the first heat, a poor start compounded Surer’s challenge, however he made swift progress when he did get going and by the fifth lap was in 4th position. Surer rose further to take 2nd in the first heat.

Lining up 2nd for the second heat, it was an all BMW Junior Team front row. This time, Surer made the best start and led the field away. Giacomelli found his way past and held the position to the finish to make it another works team 1-2, with fastest lap going to Surer. On aggregate, the results were the same with Surer and 782-8 taking 2nd.

The end of April saw the Eifelrennen on the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Surer set a time for 6th place on the grid on the infamous circuit. Front row man Rosberg suffered suspension failure on the warm-up, and away from the start it was a seven car battle for the lead.

Surer and 782-8 climbed to 2nd on the third lap, but then spun at high speed approaching Pflanzgarten. Miraculously, he avoided everything and restarted in 6th place, before taking another pair of positions to finish in 4th place.

From the high speeds of the Nordschleife, the Formula 2 series moved to the tight streets of Pau in mid May. Here, Surer was only 15th in qualifying, but found the extra pace to thread his way to a 3rd place finish. After Pau came Mugello and Surer was right on the pace during qualifying, setting the 3rd best time. In the 42 lap race, he ran right on the tail of Daly in the lead, finishing 2nd, just 0.4 seconds behind the winner and one place ahead of his team-mate Giacomelli.

At Vallelunga on the first weekend in June, Surer and 782-8 retained the same qualifying form, once again setting the 3rd fastest time. At the start of the race, Piero Necchi slid into Surer, pushing him into Ingo Hoffmann in turn. Surer recovered from the contact, but only finished in 9th position.

Rouen saw 782-8 and Surer line up back on the 4th row in 8th place after the very wet qualifying sessions. In the race, he climbed the order to 3rd place, before losing and regaining the position by the finish. At the end of June came the Donington 50,000 and a packed entry which included Nigel Mansell, having his first Formula 2 experience. Surer and 782-8 set the 6th fastest time in practice, so they lined up on the 3rd row in the first of two 40 lap heats.

The heats proved eventful, with a first lap coming together at the Craner Curves taking out three of the leading contenders. Surer had a spin, but recovered to take a 3rd place finish. Starting the second heat in 3rd position, Surer made the best of difficult conditions as rain fell while everyone had slick tyres fitted.

Surer took a dominant win over the field, with a margin of five seconds at the flag. On aggregate, with total race finishing times added together, Surer was classified in 3rd place, his sixth podium finish in 782-8 from eight rounds.

Round 9 was held at Nogaro in July and Surer again set the 6th fastest time in qualifying. In the race, the two BMW Junior Team cars of Giacomelli and Surer dominated, taking a 1-2 some thirteen seconds ahead of Derek Daly’s Chevron. At the very fast, lakeside circuit of Enna-Pergusa, Surer only set the 16th fastest time in practice, and his race was a short one. He retired on the 5th lap after contact.

The penultimate round of the championship was held at Misano in late September in high heat. Surer and 782-8 took 6th position in qualifying, and showed a stronger race pace, climbing the order to finish 2nd behind his team-mate Giacomelli. With the star BMW pair of Giacomelli and Surer far ahead of the rest of the field in the European Championship, there wasn’t huge pressure on the team at the last round.

Held at Hockenheim, the Preis von Baden-Württemburg und Hessen signalled the end of the Formula 2 season in Europe. Surer and 782-8 took their first pole position of the year, and lined up at the front of the field for the first of the two heats. After a close 20 laps, Surer finished the first heat in 3rd place.

In the second contest, Surer made the best start and took the lead ahead of Giacomelli. With others fighting behind, he retained the advantage to win the second heat.

In the aggregate results, Giacomelli had done enough to win overall, with Surer classified 2nd, cementing his and 782-8’s runner-up position in the European Formula 2 Championship and put Surer as a favourite for the 1979 season. Winkelhock in the third BMW Junior Team entry took third place, making it a 1-2-3 for the works team.

With the European races completed, a pair of races were organised in Argentina as the Temporada series, and thanks to heavy financing by the hosts, it encouraged a large part of the European contingent to make the journey. The first of these races was held on the 5th November at Mendoza in the west of the country at the foot of the Andes mountain range.

The teams unwittingly became entangled in a local political dispute between Argentina and neighbouring Chile on arrival, but the situation was resolved and racing was able to take place. With all of the equipment and tyres having been sent out by air freight, only two sets of tyres were to each driver. The Mendoza circuit was found to be very abrasive and conditions were hot, so tyre wear was a factor for all.

Surer, driving 782-8, got to grips with the circuit the best and set the pole position time in qualifying. Away from the start and into the first corner, on cold tyres, Surer got sideways and banged wheels with Alberto Colombo’s similar March. Somehow, both carried on without damage, and Surer didn’t look back. He won the 50 lap race with a huge margin of nearly 30 seconds.

The second and final round of the Temporada was held at Buenos Aires the following week. The works March/BMW Junior Team duo of Giacomelli and Surer set the fastest times in qualifying, separated by just 0.01 seconds.

However, in warm-up ahead of the race, both Surer and Giacomelli suffered tyre failure. The rear tyres climbed off the wheel rims on both cars, at the same corner, within minutes of each other, and left the cars with too much damage to make the race.

Post-Works

Photos of the crashed cars show them with broken fibreglass side pods, minus rear wing and with bent exhausts, but by no means destroyed. Upon the return to England, March was already well underway with the development of the 792 for 1979, and it’s thought that 782-8 remained at their Bicester HQ, stripped of its engine.

It’s possible that the car, with its tub number 8M36 and gearbox number FT200-1144 may have gone to Douglas & Gavin Racing of Stourport-on-Severn who had bought a large amount of March’s stock in 1979.

From them, it may have been the car bought by Martin Mansell, who prepared it to race in the British Formula Atlantic Championship with a Cosworth BDA engine. Mansell’s friend Duncan Bain took a half share in the project and by May 1981, the car was complete once more. Mansell campaigned it in Formula Atlantic through the 1981 season, and for 1982 Bain bought Mansell out.

Bain then raced the 782 in Atlantic trim during the 1982 season, with it showing two distinctive horizontal slots in the nose. Having taken a number of 4th, 5th and 6th places, Bain finished the season with 5th place in the British Formula Atlantic Championship.

In early 1983, Bain sold his Atlantic car to David Newall. Running the car in Staggers Jeans livery, Newall also raced it in the British Formula Atlantic Championship, competing through 1983. With the series cancelled for 1984, Newall sold the car to a French hillclimber, with it going to Geoff Richardson en-route for rebuild of the Cosworth BDA engine.

Having thought to have been used on the hills of France, the car with monocoque 8M36 (782-8) entered the collection of Jean-Jacques Strub where it remained until 2019, when it was bought from the Strub family by the current owner and returned to England.

When bought from the Strub family, the car wore bodywork painted in Royal blue over turquoise sporting the HOMAG branding on its side pods, that of a company that Jean-Jacques Strub was associated with. The car was without engine but showed signs of having previously been fitted with a Cosworth BD series engine.

It was recalled by the family that a previous engine had been swapped by Strub with a German engine builder for a BMW M12/7 engine. Also accompanying the car was the Hewland gearbox, numbered FT200-11X4 where X is a number obscured by a hole, however it is believed that it is the original gearbox, number FT200-1144.

Other parts included a distinctive nose which features a smaller than usual radiator intake and two horizontal slots above it, along with a set of four spoke Dymag wheels, both of which are like that used by Mansell and Bain.

A full restoration was then undertaken to return 782-8 to its 1978 works BMW Junior Team standard. With Retro Track & Air carrying out the work to the monocoque, 8M36.

The original ‘super-formed’ front bulkhead, intermediate and rear cast magnesium bulkheads were all retained within the restored monocoque, with many unique works features having been identified and kept in place during the restoration.

New wishbones were fabricated and all other critical components were inspected and crack detected. A new fuel cell was fitted at this time, valid until February 2025. The BMW M12/7 engine was built by Lester Owen and the restoration was completed in 2020, with 782-8 back in the Polifac BMW Junior Team livery, a new FIA HTP was granted that year and remains valid until December 2030.

Following the completion of the restoration, 782-8 drew media attention at its first shakedown at Donington Park, gaining coverage in Autosport Magazine. Having had a successful test, the current owner then raced 782-8 in selected Historic F2 rounds through 2021, claiming a victory at the Oulton Park Gold Cup.

In 2022, Goodwood held a celebration of 50 years of BMW M at the Festival of Speed. 782-8 was invited to attend as part of the M celebration, and also to compete in the timed hillclimb. With Ben Mitchell behind the wheel, 782-8 outperformed the array of cutting edge manufacturer offerings when it set 2nd fastest time in the qualifying shoot-out, only behind the McMurtry Spierling.

In the Sunday finale, 782-8 went a further second fastest, completing a 45.64 second run to take 3rd in the final classification, pipped to 2nd by just 0.1 seconds by works Porsche effort with their new electric Cayman GT4.

Following the Goodwood showing which garnered much attention and praise, 782-8 went to the HSCC Brands Hatch Superprix for a Historic Formula 2 double header. After being slowed by water pump impeller issues, the current owner retired 782-8.

In late August 2022, 782-8 raced at the Silverstone Classic in Historic Formula 2. The current owner set 2nd fastest time in qualifying, with a time that would have been 8th in the Historic Formula 1 session, illustrating just how fast these Formula 2 cars are. 782-8 took a strong 2nd place finish in the first race although retired from the second race after going off-song.

Following the Silverstone Classic, the M12/7 engine went for diagnosis and rebuild with Lester Owen, where it was found a timing gear had begun to delaminate. With the engine freshly rebuilt and refitted in 782-8, the current owner raced at the Dijon Motors Cup finale of the Historic Formula 2 season, taking victory in the second race.

As it sits today, just 175 miles have been put on the engine since the September 2022 rebuild. The fuel cell, fitted during restoration in 2020, remains valid until 2025, and the FIA HTP is valid until December 2030. 782-8 is accompanied by two sets of spare wheels and tyres, a new nose and mounting frame, and numerous original components which were replaced during the restoration.

Correspondence with Marc Surer by the current owner recalled how his car remained fitted with the same monocoque throughout the season, whereas many others received new monocoques during the year. By virtue of remaining matched with what’s likely to be the original gearbox, it suggests that 782-8 has remained largely complete through its life.

Presented in immaculate condition following the Retro Track & Air restoration and continued care since, 782-8 represents the height of Formula 2 racing at a works level in the iconic BMW Motorsport livery.

Driven in period by Marc Surer to 2nd in the European Formula 2 Championship with heat victories, a pole position, a fastest lap and an overall victory during the Temporada series, 782-8 also is arguably the most competitive car for going racing to win in Historic Formula 2 today. A stunning package with high performance and superior levels of downforce compared with its opposition.