Ford P68 also called F3L prototype
Len Bailey, born in 1926, started as a trainee in the Austin car company in 1942. The company was forced to build tanks. After the war, he got his engineer diploma and went on to work for Daimler and later Rover in Coventry. Then he returned to Austin, just before they were integrated in the British Motors Corporation (BMC). In 1956 he decided to go to the USA. The car industry was booming and he got a job at Ford Dearborn. There he got integrated in the team of Roy Lunn and got involved in the design of the racing prototypes.
In 1963 he was ordered by Ford to return to the UK and work at Ford Advanced Vehicles Ltd (FAV) with the mission to create the Ford GT40 working together with Eric Broadley. He was responsible for the chassis and the outlook of the car.
Still in 1966 he left Slough and got to work for the Alan Mann Racing, maybe also ordered by Ford. There he got involved in the construction of different versions of the GT40 and the development of the MKII. In his spare time he created the Honker II for the CanAm. When Ford had two 24h Le Mans victories in the pocket,Ford stopped the GT40 project.
In 1967, the GT40 project and the Slough workplace was bought by John Wyer and he started with the help from oil company Gulf to design the M1 Mirage. At the end of the 1967 season however, the FIA revised the rules for sports car racing; the most advanced Group 6 cars could now only use engines up to 3 Liters in capacity. The M1 had to be degraded again into a GT40.
The Alan Mann Racing got the green light from Ford to make a Gr. 6 prototype using the new V8 Cosworth DFV engine linked the Hewland gear box. The engine was already used in the F1 since 1967. Walter Hayes, board-member from Ford Europe and involved in the DFV project came up with some money. Bailey made a monocoque tub with aluminium plates, based on his Honker design. He designed a typically F1 suspension for the car. The car had an original rear brake system. The disc were mounted ‘in-board’ but was not fixed on the gearbox but on the rear axle.
The result was a beautiful car with some resemblance to the Ferrari P4.
Ford P68 on track in 1968
The P68 also called F3L (Ford 3L) was tested in the wind tunnel at the Imperial College in London in 1967. The presentation was om march 20th 1968. During the first laps the car reached 350 km/h with his 3L engine, 660 kg weight and a Cw-value of 0.27.
Two chassis were made in 1968. The first chassis was the test car and used by Paul Hawkins, Frank Gardner and Mike Spence. They discovered that they had to get used to the performance of the car and that the large front window did not like the vibration of the Cosworth engine. More important was that the low drag car created only a minimum downforce and the long tail had a tendency to lift on high speed.
Alan Mann wanted to race the car during the 6h Brands Hatch in April. He contacted John Surtees and Chris Irwin. Surtees wanted an extra test session. He found the rear of the car too unstable especially at high speed. He wanted to test it again at the Nürburgring, but Cosworth could not provide enough engines. In the end, Surtees stepped out of the project.
Mike Spence was contacted. After the test, he gave some suggestions to Len Bailey in order to modify the rear. When he realised that and constructed a rear spoiler at the very tail end. Spence was now 1’16 faster than the previous tests at Good wood.
So it was in this final configuration that chassis 001 and 002 were at Brands Hatch. The #002 (nr.34), for Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, was finished just in time for the race and the engine was delivered a week before. The #001 (nr.33) was for Jochen Rindt and Mike Spence.
The handling of the car seemed now good, because McLaren qualified second, eight tenths behind the Siffert Porsche 907. The other car had an engine failure. But because Alan Mann had no spare, the car was not able to take part in the race. Spence joined McLaren for the race.
Bruce Mclaren had troubles getting away at the start, some gearbox issues. He raced on and was in the lead at the first pitstops. When Spence took over, he could only do a few laps, transmission gone. It appeared later that the rubbers were too close to the V8 exhaust.
For the history, it was the same day that Jim Clarck was killed in an accident at Hockenheim.
On 19th May was the 1000 km Nürburgring race. This time is the #002 for Frank Gardner and Richard Attwood and the #001 for Chris Irwin and Pedro Rodriguez. In the weeks between these races John Surtees told Irwin not to over-drive the car and to stay in his limits. In the training session, Chris was doing well and got a 4th fastest time on a little wet track. He kept doing good laps when suddenly at the Flugplatz hill, the P68 got airborne, went sideways to the right and crashed on his roof on the other side of the fence between the trees. It appeared he had hit a rabbit, changing the aerodynamics of the car. Irwin was severely injured and had a head trauma. He survived, but his young career was over.
The #002 qualified fifth. Attwood started the race, but was soon in the pits with an opening door in the second lap and a flat tyre in lap3. A few laps later, the DFV engine stopped.
According to some stories, the Alan Mann mechanics destroyed chassis 001. They were convinced that it was a cursed chassis. And maybe yes. Not only Irwin was seriously injured, Mike Spence got killed a few days later, testing at Indianapolis.
One week after the Nürburgring, the #002(nr.9) was entered in the 1000 km Spa. New spoiler like things were added at the rear. Drivers were Frank Gardner and Hubert Hahne. The Australian did a good qualifying and was 4 seconds faster that Jacky Ickx and the ford GT40 on his favourite circuit.
It was a wet race. Gardner came in slowly after the first lap. The rain had come into the engine and the electrics by way of an air-inlet.
The next week, The P69 #002 in the hands of Attwood was at the tourist Trophy. Once again the P68 was the fastest in training. After 10 laps in the race, problems with the differential. Attwood than jumped into the Ferrari 412P of David Piper and finished second.
At the end of July, Frank Gardner was at the wheel of the car in the Martini Trophy at Silverstone. He started the race in the lead and stayed there for 41 laps and got into a battle with the Lola T70 of Hulme. Then he had to retire, no oil pressure anymore.
Ford P68 as a Spyder, the P69
That was the last race. Alan Mann got a letter from Walter Haynes. The budget was used up. However, a new chassis, the #003, was constructed.
Len Bailey went on to design a spyder version, the P69. It was a well-designed race car with a complex mobile aerodynamic system on the rear suspension
The BOAC 500 1969 at Brands Hatch was the first race. Jack Brabham and Frank Gardner would drive it. The P68 #003 was also entered for Denny Hulme and Masten Gregory.
In the training session it was clear that Brabham was not at ease behind the wheel. Gardner did the qualifying, but the engine went. And yet again, no spare engine. The end of the P69.
Denny Hulme started the race in the P68. After 14 laps, no oil pressure.
A month later it was the final race for the P68 #003, the Martini Trophy. The rear wing was like the one on the Spyder. Frank Gardner drove the car to pole-position, 2 seconds faster than the Lola T70 of Brian Redman. Again rain during the race, again water in the electrical system. And worse, in the F1 there were some serious accidents caused by the high rear wings during the Spanish GP. That item got banned by the FIA.
In the weeks after the last race, Ford UK stopped the finances for the Alan Mann Team. The cars and the spare parts were stocked at a Ford concession in Leeds. Alan Mann survived with a financed CanAm project.
Ford UK director Stuart Turner decided to ditch all items of the Alan Mann Ford. Thanks to journalist Doug Nye, all was bought by Tom Wheatcroft, who just had opened his museum in Donington. Because his collection is mostly F1 cars, he sold the P68 to Gavin Bain from New- Zealand. In 2000 it was back in Europe thanks to Belgian historic racer Christophe d’Ansembourg.
The P68 #003 was sold to David Piper. He found the reason for the multiple engine failures of the DFV engine. The engine was developed for the open-air F1 cars. In the closed engine compartment, the front part of the engine got overheated. He kept it until 1997 and sold it to Frenchman Mr.Fabre.
