The March 811 is a Formula One car built by March Engineering and used by RAM Racing in the 1981 Formula One World Championship. Designed by Robin Herd, Gordon Coppuck, and Adrian Reynard, it was powered by the traditional Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine. It initially used Michelin tyres, but eventually switched to Avon tyres at the 1981 French Grand Prix. It was March's first Formula One car since 1977.
Background
The March 811 was designed on behalf of RAM Racing.
RAM Racing was a British racing team that had been involved in various motorsport classes since 1975. In the second half of the 1970s, the team's focus was on the Aurora AFX Formula One Series, an all-British championship run under Formula One regulations. RAM won the championship title of this series in the 1980 season. In the Formula 1 World Championship, on the other hand, RAM initially only competed sporadically. In 1976, 1977, and 1980 it used race cars from other manufacturers such as Brabham, March and Williams, which were purchased or rented, as a pure customer team at selected Grand Prix events. After RAM with the racer Emilio de Villota won the Aurora Series in 1980, team manager John Macdonald decided to take part in the Formula 1 World Championship regularly from 1981. Unlike in the Aurora series, the use of customer chassis was no longer permitted; rather, each team had to construct its own racing car. In the autumn, however, RAM did not have the logistical and technical requirements for the construction of a Formula 1 car.
The team, therefore, linked up with British racing car designer Robin Herd, who had been one of the founders of March Engineering in 1969 and was still one of the owners of the established racing car manufacturer. Herd and RAM founded the company March Grand Prix in the autumn of 1980, which was legally and organizationally independent and had nothing to do with March Engineering. No technology transfer with March Engineering, where Formula 2 cars were still being manufactured, took place. The cars were eventually assembled at March Engines, another independent company also owned by Robin Herd.
For reasons of better publicity, the car that Herd designed for RAM was given the type designation "March", and the model designation 811 also followed the nomenclature customary at March Engineering, according to which the first two digits documented the year of manufacture and the third digit the racing formula for whom the car was intended. In motorsport literature, the March 811 (just like its successor 821) is not seen as a member of the traditional March family; rather, it is occasionally described as "March who was no March".
RAM Racing reported under the name March Racing Team for the races of the 1981 Formula 1 season.
Construction: "March builds a Williams"
Conceptually, the March 811 was a copy of the Williams FW07, which in turn was heavily based on the Lotus 79. Observers emphasized this in the formulation: "March is building a Williams." Over the course of the year, the basic construction was "tinkered with". One after the other three designers worked on the car, pursuing different philosophies. Robin Herd, the author of the design, was followed for a few weeks by Gordon Coppuck, who was replaced by Adrian Reynard in the early summer of 1981.
The 811 was considered a very simply constructed car, had an aluminum monocoque and sheet piling made of magnesium. Robin Herd used internal torsion bar springs front and rear. The drive was a naturally aspirated Cosworth (DFV) engine, which was connected to a five-speed gearbox from Hewland (type FGA). The brakes came from AP, the tyres initially from Michelin, and later, from the French Grand Prix onwards, from Avon. Observers got the impression that the Avon tyres improved the handling of the 811.
Since Herd, unlike Patrick Head at Williams, did not use expensive but lightweight plastics for the 811, the weight of the first three chassis was 632 kg, well above the minimum permissible weight. Coppuck tried to reduce weight by using thinner aluminum sheets. This increased the torsional flexibility of the 811: the monocoque of chassis 04 and 05 warped when driving. Only the sixth chassis, which made its debut at the British Grand Prix, reached the minimum weight of 580 kg.