Since the early days of Grand Prix racing many attempts were made to enter the Formula One and pre-war Grand Prix era. The period 1885 – 2021 contains over 650 Unraced projects. Every now and then new projects appear on the surface. To share with you all the stories i decided to summarize the stories per year. Don’t you worry, all the stories will be researched and eventually published. This is the summarized overview of the 1974 season.
Bizzarrini – Cosworth
Giotto Bizzarrini, who will turn 93 in June, is an Italian automobile engineer who started his career with Alfa Romeo. In 1957, he moved to Ferrari when he became controller of experimental Sports a GT car development. He is probably best known for his involvement with the Ferrari 250 GTO. After the “Ferrari night of long knives”, he and four other Ferrari engineers established ATS (Automobili Turismo e Sport). They build a Formula 1 car and several GT sports cars. During the sixties, he continued designing sports car. Between 1965 and 1968, he produced the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada.
It’s said that in 1973 the first rumours appeared of the Bizzarrini Formula 1 car. After the Motor show in Turin 1974, Giotto Bizzarrini brought up the news that he was working on his own Formula One car. It didn’t took long before he showed the world the design of the car. It had similarities with the Ferrari at that time. However, it was just a scratch. Nothing was heard of it afterwards. After a few years later when a photo appeared with a half-build monocoque of the Bizzarrini.
Dywa-Cosworth 1974
Dywa is a name that appears a couple of times in my Archive. In 1974 Dydo Monguzzi made it’s second attempt to create a Formula One car. The plan was to fit the car with a Cosworth engine. The typical kit car for those days inclusive with the Hewland. Ex-Ferrari team manager Romolo Tavoni was involved with the project. Who praised, in the media, the build quality. Eventually the car would end up as a F5000 spec and race a couple of races in 1975.
Portuguese futuristic F1 Design
In the 1970s the Formula One saw an increase in fatal accidents. Especially in the early 1970s, several drivers were injured or died due to horrifying crashes. In 1974, some Portuguese design appeared in a magazine of a futuristic designed Formula One car. The car was focused on better protection of the drivers. A group of journalists and designers were behind the design. Perhaps the most interesting is the closed cockpit, which we see these days more often in single seater series.
Hawke – Cosworth
Hawke Racing Cars was established by David Lazenby and was active in the early 70s in the Formula Ford. During the 70s, Hawke Racing Cars focused on the higher Formulae series like Formula 3 and even the Formula one. Because it is the 1970s and anyone seemed to be able to start a Formula One team. British Air Ferries sponsored the team. Some young designer named Adrian Reynard was asked to design both the F3 and F1 car. The F3 car, as far as I could figure out, did race. Though it is unknown what happened with the Formula One project.
Bizzarrini – Cosworth 
Dywa – Cosworth
Hezemans Grand Prix
Who doesn’t know the Hezemans family? Back in the 1970s Toine Hezemans basically raced in anything he could. He created cars, tuned them, went even faster and had the lifestyle everyone would love to. The best story is the fact he changed the times during the qualification so Boy hayje
could race in Zandvoort. Back in 1974 there were some rumours that Toine Hezemans purchased some Williams FW07, was to develop the car, tune it, and have it debuted in the Formula One. Probably the Dutch Grand Prix. The plan was cancelled when the realisation came of the costs. This is one of the stories that’s on my to do list. However, due to covid-19 im unable still to dive into it.
Maki F101
In 1974 a new team appeared in the paddock during the British Grand Prix, it was the Japanese Maki team. The team appeared with the Maki F101 with Howden Ganley behind the wheel. The car looked very bulky and unreliable. They did not manage to qualify for the British Grand Prix. The next Grand Prix would be in Germany. Howden Ganley however would injure his legs badly, and Maki decided to send the car back to Japan to have it repaired. It is the official story of course.
Marinho – Cosworth
Marinho was a Portuguese attempt to appear on the grid in the 1970s as the first all Portuguese team. Bravo Marinho established the team; engineer José Megre and mechanic João Pereira. The team was in 1974 involved with the BIP Lola 2 sportscar project. At that time, there were already speculations of a move towards the Formula One. Their aim was to debut in 1975 in the Formula One at that time. However, they moved forwards to 1976. When they lost their sponsor BIP they continued working on their Formula One dream. Their plan now was to debut in 1977 during the Belgium Grand Prix. It was one of the Cosworth kit-cars from those days.
Veridge – Cosworth
There is not much known about this South-African attempt to debut in the Formula One. Andre Verwey was behind or involved with this project. The car would be powered by a Cosworth engine while it was planned to debut in 1974. It could be as well that the car was intended for the South African F1 series. In 1975, Andre did two races with a March 722 powered by Ford. I’m in a lead at the moment to figure out more.
