The designers of the modern high-tech F1 cars can only fantasize about the freedom accorded to Formula One designers during the 1970’s. With minimal regulations and aerodynamics still in its infancy, every designer aspired to developing an innovative concept that could give him a head start on the opposition. Tyrrell boosted mechanical grip with his six wheel car, while other teams focused on the downforce effects of a fan (Brabham BT46) or venturi tunnels (Lotus 79) but the most imaginative designer ever to have a car grace the F1 paddock must be Luigi Colani, artist, industrial and king of the design world.
Colani had a background in aerodynamics, studying it in Paris in the early 1950’s, and considered himself an expert. He had worked for Alfa Romeo and was now in the mood to design a F1 car. By accident, he saw in the newspapers the plans from Eiffeland and the March 721 car. That plan came from Guenther Hennerici, owner of the German caravan company Eifelland an mad on motor sport. He had in 1970 an advertising budget of two million Deutsche Marks that he was spending funding Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams and drivers. He started sponsoring the career of Hannelore Werner, a young German driver who was also his girlfriend. She had started in the Formula Vé and moved up to F3. He was in that year also the sponsor of Rolf Stommelen and the Brabham BT 30, of Bernd Terbeack and the Brabham BT32C and Helmut Gall and the March 702. He also helped Stommelen in the second Brabham works F1 car. In 1971 he offered financial support to Stommelen in the F1 Surtees team, Hannelore Werner in the F2 with a March 712 but also Dieter Quester (March BMW) and Hans Stuck (and Stommelen) in their new Brabham BT36.But you could also find a lot of involvement from Eiffelland in the F3. But the 1971 season did not bring much results for Stommelen and the relationship between John Surtees and Stommelen deteriorated during the year. So Hennerici decided that maybe his advertising money would be better spent running his own German team for the 1972 season. (more on Rolf Stommelen here)
Time was running out to build a car from the ground up. There were serious talks between Ford Germany, designer Jo Karasek (ex McNamara) and Eiffelland. So Hennerici bought a March 712 chassis and Team Eifelland was born. There were also four new March 723 F3 bought, which became the base for the Eifelland E21. Colani offered his services to design them some new bodywork and 100 hours later his space age design was a reality. Colani’s vision of speed in motion was similar to his design philosophy which was, “The earth is round, all the heavenly bodies are round; they all move on round or elliptical orbits…..Why should I join the straying mass who want to make everything angular? I am going to pursue Galileo Galilei’s philosophy: my world is also round.”
His innovative external shell was smooth, sleek and curved. It had a swooping, one piece rear wing and a one piece front wing and a cockpit that was curved to funnel air around to the engine. Colani chose to put a single rear view mirror, elevated on a stalk, directly in front of the driver. Not surprisingly driver Rolf Stommelen described the mirror as “taking a bit of getting used to.” After seeing the design, Works March driver Ronnie Peterson called them “Team Dream”.
Unfortunately the car struggled with overheating during their initial testing, even in the icy conditions at Hockenheim. In the first race at Kyalami, the team found out that the revolutionary outer body kind was suffocating the Cosworth engine. This caused them, piece by piece, to replace Colani’s outer shell with much of the original March bodywork. By the time they arrived at the third race of the season in Spain almost all of Colani’s innovative ideas were gone. Only the bizarre rear-view mirror still remained…making the car look as it were a submarine, rather than a terrestrial machine. But here, Rolf Stommelen was P06 after the first qualification and P17 on the grid. He went off track in lap 15 of the race.
The Eifelland was reasonably reliable, having only one mechanical failure in its nine race career and finishing 10th twice (Monaco and Brands Hatch). Compared to some of the other privateer attempts they look like they could have been successful, especially as there were races when they even managed to beat Lauda and Peterson who were driving for the March “works” team.
Hennerici was running into financial difficulties even before the first race of the season when three of his factories were destroyed in a fire. Before the Austrian Grand Prix he had sold his caravan company and with the new owner having no interest in motor racing, the car was given to Stommelen in lieu of his pay. Rolf had no sponsoring of his own, so a P15 in Austria ended his involvement.
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The car finished its life in the hands of John Watson and the Hexagon team when he made his Formula 1 debut driving at the non-championship round at Phoenix Park in Dublin, where he set the joint fastest lap and a new lap record. Unfortunately he was forced to retire on lap fourteen. The car had then already his normal March 721 looks. John Watson later said, “Colani suffered a lot of derision from within F1, but I wouldn’t knock him, however. He’s an individualist, a lateral thinker, a risk taker – something that F1 lacks today and is all the poorer for it. The current regulations read like a form from the Inland Revenue.”
