Ford P68

Ford P68/P69
	Frank Gardner; Richard Attwood; Denny Hulme
Debut	1968 BOAC 500; Brands Hatch
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0

The Ford P68, also commonly known as the Ford 3L GT or F3L, is a

BOAC 500 race at Brands Hatch in Kent

. It delivered a good pace, but was criticized for instability at high speeds. It did not finish any of the races in which it was entered, due to mechanical and electrical failures.

For the 1969 season the P68 was used as the basis for an aborted, fully open

aerofoil wings

, which were vital to the car's stability at high-speeds. However, these were banned by the European sanctioning body early in the season, thus the P68 was not eligible to race in the respective class any longer.

Background

At the end of the 1967 season the

JWA, decided to go down the Group 4 Sports Car route and began work on updating the GT40, Alan Mann Racing decided to build a brand new prototype car around Ford's recently introduced 3.0L DFV V8 Formula One

engine.

Raising sponsorship from

Burmah-Castrol and Goodyear, AMR procured the services of leading Ford aerodynamicist Len Bailey

, who had designed much of the GT40's bodywork, to work on their new car.

Design

The car was built to

Group 6 regulations, with an open two-seat bodywork design. This was perhaps rather liberally interpreted, with only a small hatch in the otherwise enveloping roof being left open to the elements.^[3] The hatch also allowed the driver to see the centrally mounted rear-view mirror

.

One major advantage of the open prototype regulations was that they permitted a much lower roofline than otherwise would have been possible. Bailey used this to create an extremely low, long, curvaceous, aerodynamically efficient design. With a

Frank Gardner has criticised Bailey's pursuit of aerodynamic efficiency at the expense of driver comfort.^[4] In order to keep the P68 on the road, Bailey incorporated a patented, vortex-generating tail scoop, intended to create downforce without adding to drag. However, although the car has since been shown to produce moderate downforce at speed, this is mostly over the front wheels.^[2] The resultant high-speed instability led to both John Surtees and Jack Brabham refusing to drive the car.^[2]^[5] Over the following months the P68 sprouted ever larger rear spoilers

, and small chin spoilers, in an effort to stabilise the car.

Underneath the curvaceous bodywork, the chassis was a riveted, aluminium monocoque, with steel bulkheads onto which the suspension components were mounted.^[3] The DFV engine was supported in an aluminium cradle behind the driver. Unlike the Lotus 49 for which the DFV had been designed, the engine was not used as a structural chassis member. In contrast, the suspension layout was almost a direct copy of contemporary F1 practice. Contemporary observers commented on the oversized front hub components, potentially allowing the car to be converted to four-wheel drive at some point.^[3] The radiator was mounted in the nose, although later enhancements to cooling resulted in a wider opening being incorporated from mid-season. Fuel was stored in two deformable cells, one in each sill.

Following poor results, during the winter of 1968 Len Bailey adapted the P68's monocoque to fully exploit the open-roof regulations. A fully open

aerofoil wings.^[5] However, following several accidents with similar systems during Formula One races, the wings were swiftly banned by the FIA early in the season. Without wings, AMR judged that the car would require a complete redesign to be competitive with the dominant Porsches

and therefore, lacking funds, the P68/P69 project was abandoned.

Race history

The first batch of cars was ready for the European season-opening

BOAC 500 race, at Brands Hatch on 7 April 1968. Even this early in its career, the P68 had started to grow spoilers and air dams at its front and rear. Two cars were entered, for Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, and Jochen Rindt and Mike Spence.^[6] However, the two cars were relatively untested, with one actually being brand new, and teething troubles beset the weekend. Although initially slow during practice, gradual tuning and tweaking meant that by the end of qualifying McLaren had managed to put in a lap fast enough to take second place on the grid, splitting the works Porsche 907s

. Unfortunately, the Rindt/Spence car had suffered an engine mount failure and failed to qualify. Spence, something of a Brands Hatch specialist, was substituted into the lead car for the race, and was at the wheel, leading the race, when a rubber joint in the transmission failed, putting the car out. Although neither car had finished, the pace and performance while running looked to be promising better for the future.

This promise was never to be fulfilled. With Mike Spence's death during practice for the

Zeltweg

race.

Ford P68 at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010

Problems playing this file? See media help.

For 1969 AMR intended to replace the P68 with its sister car, the P69. However, by the time of the 1969 BOAC 500 race only one P69 was ready. After trying the P69, prior to qualifying, Jack Brabham flatly refused to drive the car in anger so unstable did he find it. That left only a year-old P68 to carry the AMR flag, in the hands of Hulme and Gardner. A large, high-mounted wing was attached directly to the tops of the rear suspension towers, which went some way to reducing rear-end lift at speed, but again an engine failure stopped the car before the end of the race. The final competition outing for the Ford 3L prototype was at the AMOC Martini Trophy meeting at Silverstone. But driver Gardner never even made the grid, as rain during practice soaked the cars electrics, making it unable to start.

Complete World Championship for Makes results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrants	Chassis	Class	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Points	WEMCP
1968	Alan Mann Racing	P68	Group 6		DAY	SEB	BHC	MNZ	TFO	SPA	NÜR	WGN	ZEL	LMS	0	-
				Bruce McLaren			29
				Mike Spence			29
				Jochen Rindt			DNS
				Denny Hulme			PO
				Frank Gardner				49	35	36			DNA
				Richard Attwood				49					DNA
				Chris Irwin				DNS
				Pedro Rodríguez				DNS
				Hubert Hahne					35	36
1969	Alan Mann Racing	P69	Group 6		DAY	SEB	BHC	MNZ	TFO	SPA	NÜR	LMS	WGN	ORC	0	-
				Jack Brabham			DNS
				Frank Gardner			DNS
		P68		Frank Gardner			32
				Denny Hulme			32
				Masten Gregory			PO

Complete entries summary

Yr.	Event	Circuit	Drivers	Notes
1968	BOAC 500	Brands Hatch	Bruce McLaren Denny Hulme	DNF. Hulme replaced by Spence for race. Transmission failure.
	BOAC 500	Brands Hatch	Mike Spence Jochen Rindt	DNS. Engine mount failed in practice.
	1000km Nürburgring	Nürburgring	Frank Gardner Richard Attwood	DNF. Brake failure.
	1000km Nürburgring	Nürburgring	Chris Irwin Pedro Rodríguez	DNS. Car written off in practice.
	RAC TT	Oulton Park	Richard Attwood	DNF. Differential failure.
	AMOC 500	Silverstone	Frank Gardner	DNF. Engine failure.
	1000km Spa	Spa-Francorchamps	Frank Gardner Hubert Hahne	Pole position, DNF. Electrical failure.
	500km Zeltweg	Zeltweg	Frank Gardner Richard Attwood	DNA.
	500km Zeltweg	Zeltweg	n/d	DNA.
1969	BOAC 500	Brands Hatch	Denny Hulme Masten Gregory	P68, DNF. Gregory replaced by Gardner for race. Oil pressure.
	BOAC 500	Brands Hatch	Frank Gardner Jack Brabham	P69, DNS. Withdrawn.
	AMOC 300	Silverstone	Frank Gardner	DNS. Wet electrics.

References

ISBN 978-0967225203
.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Ford F3L". www.Ultimatecarpage.com. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Taylor, Ron (1968). "Prototype Parade No. 276: Ford 3L Proto". Model Cars. 5 (7): 322–323. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

^ Taylor, S. (2008) Lunch with... Frank Garner. Motor Sport, 84/3, p. 84-92

^ ^a ^b ^c Anon. (1970). "Ford P69". Model Cars. 7 (1): 41–43. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

^ "RAC Sports Car Championship 1968". www.WSPR-Racing.com. Retrieved 2007-02-23.

^ Series of photos Archived 2010-01-14 at the Wayback Machine at 20832.com

External links

four Ford 3L GT photos from VSRN archived at Wayback Machine

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ford_P68&oldid=1165012845"

[1] ISBN 978-0967225203
.

[ultimatecar-2] "Ford F3L". www.Ultimatecarpage.com. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

[MCP68-3] Taylor, Ron (1968). "Prototype Parade No. 276: Ford 3L Proto". Model Cars. 5 (7): 322–323. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

[gardner-4] Taylor, S. (2008) Lunch with... Frank Garner. Motor Sport, 84/3, p. 84-92

[MCP69-5] Anon. (1970). "Ford P69". Model Cars. 7 (1): 41–43. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

[BOACres-6] "RAC Sports Car Championship 1968". www.WSPR-Racing.com. Retrieved 2007-02-23.

[7] Series of photos Archived 2010-01-14 at the Wayback Machine at 20832.com

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