Eifelland March E21
.JPG)
The Eifelland-March E21 - also Eifelland Type 21 - was a Formula 1 racing car that the Eifelland Caravans team developed and built in 1972 and used in several races at the world championship that same year .
The Eifelland-March E21 was based on a March 721 that Günther Hennerici , the owner of the team, bought in 1971 . Hennerici commissioned the German designer Luigi Colani to design a new body for the vehicle. This structure only showed curved lines and the car proved to be difficult to drive from the start. When the first test drives were due, it quickly became clear that the March chassis was not compatible with the Colani body. The car was driven by Rolf Stommelen , who had been with Hennerici since 1970 and had already competed for the team in the Formula 2 European Championship .
For the debut at the South African Grand Prix , the March rear and front wings had to be fitted so that the car received sufficient contact pressure. The curved edge of the cockpit remained, but had to be rebuilt several times until the middle of the season because the engine was not getting enough cooling. An important detail of the car, which was officially launched as the Eifelland Type 21, was the powerful central rear-view mirror that was mounted just in front of the steering edge. Rolf Stommelen called this mirror at least getting used to.
Great successes could not be achieved with the vehicle, but Stommelen reached the finish line six in eight starts. When Hennerici sold his caravan business in the summer of 1972 and apparently lost interest in motorsport, the end of the team was in sight. The Austrian Grand Prix was the Eifelland team's last race in the Formula 1 World Championship.
literature
- David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).