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“I liked cars that gave you an edge. Unfortunately, every time I have one of those it seems to go wrong and we still don’t win!”
Despite his victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1970 in a Porsche 917, Richard Attwood did not always have the best of luck during a career that spanned Formula 1 and sportscar racing in the 1960s and early 1970s.
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Perhaps the best example to support his quote is the story of the car Attwood chose first when asked to pick a favorite: the Ford F3L.
World sportscar championship regulations were changed for 1968, prompting a three-liter limit for sports-prototypes. The Ford P68, or F3L as it is better known, is a sleek car designed by Len Bailey and built and raced by Alan Mann Racing.
The Cosworth DFV-powered F3L proved quick, finishing second in qualifying on its debut at the Brands Hatch BOAC 500, but suffered from aerodynamic instability and was unable to finish a single race during the season.
“It has speed but reliability is not good,” confirms Attwood, who does not believe that the famous DFV vibrations are the cause of issues like those in other sportscars. “I rode it twice, at the Nurburgring [with Frank Gardner] where it was totally inappropriate but we still qualified fifth, and the Oulton Park TT.
The non-championship Tourist Trophy attracted 35,000 spectators and a strong field, including Denny Hulme in Sid Taylor’s successful Lola T70, Jo Bonnier’s similar car, David Piper’s Ferrari P3/4 and the Australian ace which is Paul Hawkins in his Ford GT40. Attwood edged them in practice, taking pole 0.4 seconds from Bonnier and more than a second faster than the others. In the first 10 laps of the race, Attwood pulled away from the pack before being hampered by a differential problem.
Attwood continued in the F3L at Oulton Park in 1968 before a broken differential forced him out.
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“Denny is the reigning world champion so it shows how good the car is,” said Attwood, who went on to finish second behind Hulme sharing Piper’s Ferrari. “But then it started steering all over the place.”
Before the problems were resolved, the car evolved into the ugly, underwhelming and unsuccessful P69 of 1969, which appeared only briefly before the project was canned. However, Attwood maintains that the program should have continued.
“I liked it, there’s nothing wrong with that,” insisted the 82-year-old. “They should have persevered but Ford didn’t want to. When you get a car with an advantage the job becomes a different game.”
Apart from the F3L, Attwood also pointed to some of Piper’s cars – “we couldn’t buy a Ferrari 512 so he bought a Porsche 917” – and the Lola T55 he drove in Formula 2 in the second half of 1964 as the best cars ever raced he. Quite impressive as Attwood drove a Lotus 49B to fourth in the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix…
PLUS: Lotus F1 milestones – The 49
Attwood drove many fine cars including era F1 machinery, finishing second for BRM in the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
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