| Nationality: | British | GP Entries: | 8 |
| Years in F1: | 1974 | DNQ/DNPQ: | 2 |
| Team Principal: | Peter Agg | Best Result: | 10th, Austria / Belgium, 1974 |
PROFILE
Ron T adapts McLaren to F5000-winning Trojan
Throughout the 1990s and into this decade, with the financial struggles and eventual demise of teams like Brabham, Lotus, Prost, Arrows, and various minnow Italian and English outfits, and with team ownership being described as joining the 'Piranha Club', it is easy to forget that Formula One has always been a tough arena to enter, in whichever decade. It has never been easy to set up your own team, find sponsors and finance, hire good drivers, obtain good equipment, and, since the 1970s, to design and build your own car. Let alone be competitive once you hit the tracks. If you set out purposely with a limited budget in mind, then inevitably your goals have to be modest. So it was with the Trojan team, which graced the Grand Prix field briefly in 1974. Thanks to Leigh Wilkins and other sources, we can trace the history of the Trojan company. Formed under the chairmanship of Peter Agg in a factory in Croydon in southern London in the early 1970s, Trojan first came to prominence building customer McLaren M8E Can-Am sports cars. They also had plans to build F5000 versions of the McLaren M19 and M21 Formula 2 single-seaters.
But when McLaren pulled out of Can-Am, the Trojan customer build program came to an end. Undaunted, Agg decided to go it alone. He brought in the legendary Ron Tauranac, who had left Brabham after Bernie Ecclestone took over the team. Tauranac had been the brains behind the cars that won the 1966 and 1967 World Championships, and his surname was the 'T' in the 'BT' designations of all Brabham cars up to that point and into the future. He was commissioned to use the McLaren M21 as the basis for Trojan's own F5000 car, the T101. The T101 duly appeared in March 1973, and the Tauranac Midas touch was evident. In the North American F5000 championship, Jody Scheckter used the car to take the title, whilst in the European series both Bob Evans and Keith Holland utilised the T101 to good effect. For 1974, Tauranac designed the T102 F5000 car from scratch, the chassis of which in turn became the basis for the T103 F1 car, the machine with which Trojan made its F1 assault. With only limited funds available, and with Agg keen to restrict the team's budget, the aim was to produce a low-cost, conventional machine.
Makes the grid on debut, but Monaco smash a setback
That it certainly was. The T103 was basically a T102 fitted with Firestone tyres, and a 3-litre V8 Cosworth DFV engine driven through a Hewland DG300 gearbox. It featured completely orthodox suspension geometry, and it had twin radiators embedded in the broad nose section. Sponsors of the F1 effort included the British branch of Suzuki, and also Homelite, while the names of Ferodo, Champion and Duckhams also appeared on the car. Australian driver Tim Schenken was hired to drive, bringing with him good credentials including a third place in Austria in 1971 for Brabham. It was a seemingly solid package, and Tauranac put his reputation on the line by having the team entered as 'Trojan-Tauranac Racing'. But 'low-cost' equals 'not at the cutting edge', and in truth it was unrealistic to expect too much by way of results. And so it proved. Entered for the first time in the 4th round of the 1974 World Championship at the Spanish GP at Jarama, Schenken qualified 26th and last, beating Guy Edwards' Lola to the last grid slot by 0.07s. Though the Aussie spun off towards the end of the race, he was still classified, 8 laps down, in 14th, having recorded the 16th fastest lap of the race.
In Belgium the Trojan qualified 23rd, splitting the floundering Brabhams of Rikky Von Opel and Carlos Reutemann, and to the car's credit it was ahead of the likes of Jochen Mass, Graham Hill and Vittorio Brambilla. A good effort in the race too saw Schenken come home 10th out of 18 classified finishers, two laps down on Emerson Fittipaldi's victorious McLaren, but seven seconds ahead of John Watson's privately-entered Brabham. So after two races, the T103 had performed respectably and solidly, although it was clear that it was by no means a world-beater. But from there on the good work started to become undone. At Monaco, Schenken qualified 24th out of 27 starters, but then got entangled in the massive first lap melee that also accounted for Brambilla's March, Jean-Pierre Beltoise's BRM, Brian Redman's Shadow, Carlos Pace's Surtees, Denny Hulme's McLaren and Arturo Merzario's Iso Marlboro, the Australian being unable to avoid the collision that took out more midfielders than tail-enders. It was touch-and-go whether or not the car could be readied for Sweden, but in the end their entry for Anderstorp was rejected at any rate.
Getting more and more competitive until it all ends
So it was onto Zandvoort in Holland for round 8, but there Schenken was off the pace. His time, 4.34s off Niki Lauda's pole effort, was only 26th fastest when just 25 were allowed to start. With Francois Migault's BRM in 25th, the Trojan missed the grid by 0.31s, and was joined by Gijs van Lennep's Iso Marlboro on the sidelines come race day. After skipping the French GP, at Brands Hatch the T103 appeared with a new raised front wing and modified airbox. In a very close qualifying session, Schenken was only 2.7s off pole, but even that was only good enough for 25th and last on the grid. That put the Trojan ahead of nine entrants who failed to qualify, including the likes of Derek Bell, Lella Lombardi and Vern Schuppan. But in the race, after Peter Gethin and James Hunt had retired early, Schenken found himself up to 23rd place when suspension problems struck after only 6 laps, and the Trojan was forced out. The, at the Nurburgring for the German GP, the T103 proved to be a difficult machine to tame, and with a time that was 28.3 seconds off the pole and only 28th quickest, for the second time Agg's team had a DNQ next to its name.
Yet if the twists and turns of the Nordschleife had caught Tauranac's design out, on faster tracks the car came into its own. At the Österreichring, with local hero Lauda on pole, Schenken was only 2.03s behind, in a fabulous 19th on the grid, ahead of Hill, Brambilla, Jacky Ickx and Jean-Pierre Jarier. A less convincing performance in the race saw the Australian fall four laps adrift to finish an eventual 10th, but the following race at Monza showed that the Austria performance was no fluke. In Italy, Schenken was 20th in qualifying, this time only 2.56s behind Lauda. More to the point, he was just 0.09s slower than 1967 World Champ Hulme, again faster than twice champion Hill, and this time also faster than the talented Tom Pryce. When gearbox problems hit after 15 laps, the Trojan had climbed to 12th, and not merely through attrition. But just as the team seemed to be getting competitive, budget limits took their toll, and in a flash the Trojan F1 team was no more. With its conservative approach one wonders what the aim of the team had been. With proper funding and development, the T103 may have just proven to be a consistent midfield competitor.
TEAM SUMMARY
| Nbr | Grand Prix | Car 1 | Car 2 |
|
1974 Drivers: Tim Schenken |
|||
| 1 | Spanish GP, Jarama | 14 | |
| 2 | Belgian GP, Nivelles | 10 | |
| 3 | Monaco GP, Monte Carlo | DNF | |
| 4 | Netherlands GP, Zandvoort | DNQ | |
| 5 | British GP, Brands Hatch | DNF | |
| 6 | German GP, Nurburgring | DNQ | |
| 7 | Austrian GP, Österreichring | 10 | |
| 8 | Italian GP, Monza | DNF | |
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