Dywa

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Dywa is the type designation for several Formula 1 racing cars that the Italian engineer Pietro "Dydo" Monguzzi built in the 1970s. By 1984 Monguzzi made several unsuccessful attempts to register his cars for a Formula 1 race. One example was finally used in 1986 after extensive modifications and with a different name in qualifying for a Formula 3000 race. Dywa is one of the little known projects in motorsport.

The origin

Technician "Dydo" Monguzzi, based in the Lombardy municipality of Canegrate near Milan , earned his living in the 1960s looking after Alfa Romeo , Ferrari and McLaren racing cars , which the motorsport sponsor Marlboro used for exhibitions and advertising purposes. His tasks also included transporting the cars to their respective locations. In his free time, Monguzzi and his brother-in-law Walter began building their own racing cars in their own workshop. They called their company "Dywa", composed of the first syllables of their first names. The first vehicle from their workshop was a car for Formula Monza , an Italian junior class. This vehicle, as well as a Formula 2 car constructed in 1969 , never achieved racing capability.

The Formula 1 trials

After these first attempts, Monguzzi started building a car based on Formula 1 criteria. Between 1973 and 1983 there were a total of four attempts, each of which ended with the presentation of a vehicle documented by the media. It has not been proven whether the “Dywa” project was actually linked to the goal of permanent racing in Formula 1; in any case, Dywa never appeared at a Formula 1 World Championship race. There were only a few missions in their environment.

1974

The first project was presented in 1974. The Dywa 001 was a simple kit car with accessories from Cosworth (engine), Hewland (gearbox) and KONI (chassis). Monguzzi had assembled a bulky, straight monocoque from aluminum sheets , on which an angled, aerodynamically not optimized body sat. The car was very small; With a wheelbase of 2400 mm, it undercut the Brabham BT44, the most compact car of the 1974 Formula 1 season. On the chassis side, there were triangular links at the front and rear. A copy was presented to the public in 1974. Romolo Tavoni , Ferrari Racing Director in the early 1960s, praised the professionalism of the concept in the press. But there was nothing more than this idea; the car did not find its way into Formula 1.

Therefore Monguzzi changed the Dywa 001 in the winter of 1974/75 so that it complied with the regulations of the European Formula 5000 Championship . On the engine side, a 5.0-liter Chevrolet engine was installed. There are two entries in connection with Dywa in the official registration records of the organizers of the British Formula 5000:

  • The first entry relates to the third race of the year on March 31, 1975 at Brands Hatch. Under start no. 51 a “Dywa Chevrolet” was run there, the team that started was “Dydo Monguzzi”, and Luigi-Mimmo Chevasco was registered as the driver . The operation was financed by the Italian shoe manufacturer Rossetti, whose name appeared in several places on the car. Chevasco did not take part in the race itself.
  • A second entry can be found in the entry list for the first race of the Shellsport International Series 1976 on March 21, 1976 in Mallory Park . A car with the name "Dywa 75" was registered, again with an eight-cylinder from Chevrolet. Livio Panzone was to be the driver . The "Dywa" did not take part in this race either; Panzone is listed in the statistics with the entry "did not start".

1979

In 1979 Monguzzi presented another vehicle based on Formula 1 configuration. The car was now called "Dywa 008". Allegedly it was a car that had been designed according to wing-car principles, i.e. it was supposed to create a suction effect through a specially shaped underbody. The nose was pointed; an Italian press release went so far as to compare it with the shape of the Concorde supersonic aircraft . The Dywa did not have side front spoilers; in this respect it resembled the contemporary Brabham BT48 and partially also the Tyrrell 009. The drive technology came from Cosworth and Hewland. The Dywa 008 was officially presented at the Motor Sud exhibition in Salerno in 1979. Allegedly, a sponsor was willing to provide money for an early use of the car at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix. The driver named was Alberto Colombo , who had temporarily raced for ATS and in the team of Arturo Merzario . In fact, nothing came of it.

1980

In 1980 Dywa introduced another racing car. This car is referred to as "Dywa 0010" in individual sources, but other sources only use this designation in connection with a car that was presented and tested in autumn 1983. The car presented in 1980 was probably a considerably revised version of the 008 from 1979. The wheelbase had been lengthened to 2880 mm, possibly in order to have a larger underbody area and thus a better starting position for the ground effect. The side pods were curved and followed the example of the Ligier JS 11, and an early version had a curved rear wing, similar to the conception of the (unsuccessful) Formula 1 car Kauhsen WK 1. After a few short test drives, Monguzzi returned to a traditional, straight rear wing back. The engine was a Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder.

In the spring of 1980 the car was tested at Varese airport . Dydo Monguzzi drove the test laps himself.

Mediated by the Italian Formula 2 champion Mauricio Flammini, the Dywa reported in 1980 for a race according to Formula 1 rules. The occasion was the "Monza Lotteria" race in June 1980. It was not a race for the Formula 1 World Championship, but merely an event as part of the Aurora Series , a British championship in which young drivers with disused formulas -1 cars competed against each other. Most of the races in this series were driven in the British Isles; an exception was the Monza Lotteria in the Royal Park of Monza . Piercarlo Ghinzani was reported as the driver . Indeed, Monguzzi showed up with his car. Ghinzani was the slowest driver in qualifying: he was 22 seconds slower than the next fastest driver, and Emilio de Villota's pole time was 36 seconds short. Monguzzi then withdrew the car because of its lack of competitiveness.

The attempt to find a sponsor for further missions was unsuccessful, so that the Dywa initially remained in the factory for a few years.

1983

Another attempt was made in the fall of 1983. The car, known as the Dywa 010, looked significantly different from its predecessor. In fact, the essential technical components are likely to have been adopted from the previous vehicle; the body, however, was heavily modified. Overall, the car was similar to the Tyrrell 011. The nose was comparatively wide and carried a front wing that spanned the entire width of the car. The radiators were now just in front of the rear tires. The predecessor's long side boxes had been removed; instead, the long flanks of the monocoque dominated. The new side boxes were short and had - at least in the first tests - differently designed openings on each side. The rear wing was held in place by a centrally placed strut. A Cosworth DFV was again installed as a drive; According to newspaper reports, it was the engine that had been in use at Osella until the summer of 1983 and was later replaced by twelve-cylinder naturally aspirated engines from Alfa Romeo. The Dywa was tested twice in October and November 1983 by the Italian racing driver Peo Consonni , an Italian Formula 2000 champion and later participant in the Paris – Dakar rally , on the Monza junior circuit. Several contemporary newspaper articles report that Monguzzi wanted to use the car with Peo Consonni in individual - probably the European - Formula 1 races in the 1984 season. But it didn't come to that. It is most likely that no sponsor could be found who was willing to support the adventure of using a self-built racing car with roots in the 1970s and a naturally aspirated engine that was inferior to the emerging turbo competition in Formula 1.

Dywa in Formula 3000

After the fourth attempt, Monguzzi realized that an own project in Formula 1 could not be realized for a garage owner. Instead, he concentrated on the newly founded Formula 3000 , a junior class that was to replace the Formula 2 European Championship, which was last held in 1984. In view of the fact that Formula 1 was now dominated by turbo engines, Formula 3000 was advertised as a pure naturally aspirated engine class. Old naturally aspirated Formula 1 cars with Cosworth DFV engines were expressly permitted. In fact, only a few teams took advantage of this opportunity; Even in the first year, independent Formula 3000 designs from Lola or March prevailed over the disused Formula 1 models.

1985: a first attempt?

The very first Formula 3000 race took place in March 1985 at Silverstone. Many previous Formula 2 teams had registered, and there were also new competitors who competed at this level for the first time. A car named "Dywa" was announced for this race. According to newspaper reports, a car and a few mechanics were actually on their way to the UK. However, the race transporter is said to have been damaged on the way to Belgium, so that the race could not be carried out. Whether this message is correct is as little to be checked today as the possible name of the team and that of the driver (according to an isolated press release, Guido Daccò was in discussion). In any case, a vehicle with the designation "Dywa" does not appear in the official registration list of the organizer.

1986: A race

A year and a half later, the vehicle appeared in a race for the last time. Under the name Écurie Monaco , the Dywa, ​​now called Monte Carlo 001 , was registered for the Formula 3000 race in Imola. On behalf of Fulvio Ballabio , the owner of Écurie Monaco, Monguzzi made a major overhaul of the Dywa 010. The aerodynamics were modified, there were new side pods, which began approximately at the level of the driver's seat and covered half of the flanks. In addition, the car had a very high, steeply sloping engine cover. The Cosworth DFV was again provided as the engine. The Monte Carlo 001 was first registered for the Trofeo Elio de Angelis , the fifth Formula 3000 race of the 1986 season, which took place at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola . Ballabio himself was the driver. He drove the car in qualifying, but needed almost twice as long as his colleagues for a timed lap and did not qualify for the race. In the final evaluation of the timed practice, Ballabio was 36th and last. It was the last attempt to start a Dywa in an international race. After this failure, Ballabio first interrupted the racing program of the Écurie Monaco.

swell

  • David Hodges: Racing Cars from A to Z after 1945, 1st edition Stuttgart 1994 ( ISBN 3-613-01477-7 )
  • Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, 1st edition Stuttgart 1997
  • Robert Teso: Tanto Giovane eppur già Dywa, article in Autosprint 47/1983, p. 25 (Italian)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistics of the Shellsport International Series 1976 on the website www.silhouet.com (accessed on October 28, 2013).
  2. ↑ Statistics from Lotteria Monza 1980 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on November 17, 2017).
  3. ↑ Il Cittadino , January 5, 1984 edition.
  4. ↑ Auto Sprint No. 47/1983 of November 22, 1983.
  5. ↑ On the Formula 3000 project, cf. Auto Sprint No. 5/1985 (from January 29, 1985).
  6. ^ Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1945 , p. 164.