A LOST CAUSE // JAKE YORATH LOOKS AT THE FORD 3L

Take that swooping shape. Follow the line over the headlights, the luscious form of that coupe top. Follow the pinch of the engine cover, down the deck and to that spoiler, and then remember it all. Not bad, the Ford P68. Actually, it’s better known as the Ford 3L. I remember it mainly because I had a Matchbox toy of it; a beautiful shape, with chipped edges and wheels that, by the time I got hold of it second hand, didn’t really go round like they should. It took me quite a while to meet a real one. They’re pretty rare- there were only three, ever, and now there are two running examples that remain.

I met David Piper’s, and it doesn’t disappoint. It was a bit crap as a race car. Drivers said it was unstable at high speed, to the extent that John Surtees and Jack Brabham both refused to drive it, and it broke down... every single time it raced. Between the P68 coupe, and the sole P69 spyder that followed, it never finished a race. Of the 8 events that were entered, an awful lot of things went wrong. Engine failure (Silverstone ’68), transmission failure (Brands Hatch ’68), engine mount failure (Brands Hatch ’68) and, in the final ever race at Silverstone in 1969, the car was withdrawn because of wet electrics. An apt end, some might say. Apt in that it rains more at Silverstone than anywhere on record (that may be a lie, but I doubt it) but apt also because, sadly, the 3L was a damp squib. Sum total of it’s career (remember, of course, that this car was introduced off the back of the stunningly effective Mark IV, arguably the best Ford ever made); one pole position. It’s not like all the drivers were unknowns, or half wits either. In it’s first event, the listed drivers were Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Mike Spence and (soon to be Formula One world champion) Jochen Rindt.
 The car was built by Alan Mann Racing, who knew a thing or two about saloon cars, having run all kinds of Fords before becoming a Ford factory team in 1964.  It was penned by design legend Len Bailey, who’d done the GT40. “Ah,” I hear you say, “didn’t the GT40 have high speed stability issues too?” Yes. Maybe someone should’ve told Len. The car was built for the new Group 6 regulations, which called for lightweight, 3 litre sports cars (it was the same class that brought Porsche’s 908 and Ferrari’s stunning 312P/PB to the party), rather than “production” based 5 litre cars, which provided a new home for the GT40. The late sixties provided some pretty sexy race cars, didn’t it?  It had a drag coefficient of just 0.27 (meaning it was slippery), the frontal area of a mouse, and a top speed of 350 KM/H- or, in other words, far too much speed and far too little downforce. Bailey created a special tail, designed to create a vortex and therefore downforce over the back; he was wrong, most of the downforce ended up over the front. As the car evolved, the spoilers got bigger, and the drivers got no less scared of it.  It did have the legendary DFV engine, but that was no consolation. It wasn’t used as a stressed member like it was designed for, but in an aluminium frame- which broke on occasion. 

Eventually, they gave up with it, after the P69 was designed with hydraulic wings that got banned by the FIA.  So the story ended, and the car went into the history books as stunning, but not all that great at actually doing what it should.  A bit like Jessica Alba, really.

Editorial/Photo: Jake Yorath // 03.02.2009