Maki engineering

Maki

Surname	Maki engineering
Companies
Company headquarters	Tokyo , Japan
Team boss	Kenji Mimura
statistics
First Grand Prix	UK 1974
Last Grand Prix	Japan 1976
Race driven	0
Constructors' championship	0
Drivers World Championship	0
Race wins	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
Points	0

Maki Engineering (マ キ エ ン ジ ニ ア リ ン グ), later Maki Racing (マ キ レ ー シ ン グ), was a Japanese Formula 1 team that tried to gain a foothold in the World Championship in 1974 , 1975 and 1976 . Maki was the second Japanese motorsport team after Honda ( 1964 to 1968 ) to compete in Formula 1 with vehicles they had designed themselves. In contrast to Honda, Maki was a purely amateur project. The team was unsuccessful; it had neither the technical nor the financial prerequisites for a Formula 1 commitment at a competitive level. The team's cars were considered to be amateurishly constructed and potentially dangerous vehicles. Apart from one race that did not have world championship status, Maki did not take part in any Grand Prix.

Development history

The initiators of the Maki project were the Japanese engineers Kenji Mimura and Masao Ono. None of them had any experience in the construction of monopostos . In the summer of 1973, they started planning their first Formula 1 car. In the months that followed, the first chassis was built in Japan based on Ono's designs. In December 1973 Maki opened a base in Slough in southern England . It was the workshop of the New Zealand racing driver Howden Ganley , whom Mimura had hired as one of the works drivers for the new team. Three more chassis were created here based on the model of Ono's construction.

On March 15, 1974, Maki presented the team's first Formula 1 car at the Carlton Tower Hotel in London . At the presentation, Mimura stated that the team should be so well established in two years that regular placements in the world championship points would be possible. In addition to the construction of racing cars, it was also planned to develop a separate 3-liter naturally aspirated engine for Formula 1. These plans, however, could not be realized. In the following years, the team suffered from the lack of competitiveness of the emergency vehicles.

After the end of the 1975 season, Masao Ono left the team to design the KE007 for the rival team Kojima . This model was successful; it set the fastest lap time at the Japanese Grand Prix when it was first used. Ono explained that the KE007 should have been the second maki; in his construction he learned from the mistakes of the Maki models. Despite the departure of his partner, Maki founder Mimura continued to pursue the goal of at least competing in the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix with his own car. The Maki F102A was created for this race . After the car had proven to be just as unsuccessful in Japan as its predecessor, Maki stopped racing.

Races

1974

Maki F101B

The first emergency vehicle was the Maki F101 . It was a "conventional kit car" that used numerous components from various suppliers: the engine was a DFV eight-cylinder from Cosworth , the transmission came from Hewland (type FGA), the fuel injection from Lucas , the brakes from Lockheed and the shock absorbers from Koni . The strikingly designed body of the F101 was perceived as very clunky: In its first form it had a very wide front spoiler that was higher than the front tires, a long windshield and wide side pods. On closer inspection of the car, observers began to doubt its competitiveness. Bernie Ecclestone, for example, commented on the F101 in a derogatory way: "The way the Maki monocoque is built, I wouldn't even build a water tank."

On March 23, 1974 Maki undertook the first test drives with the F101 in Goodwood ; a few days later a test at Silverstone followed . Who drove the car is unclear; some sources believe it was the Japanese long-distance rider Shotetsu Hayami . After testing, Maki technicians in Howden Ganley's workshop reworked the body of the F101. In doing so, they implemented numerous instructions from Ganley, which resulted in the structure being given a completely new shape with the exception of the rear spoiler. In this version the car was given the designation F101B.

Maki initially wanted to compete with two cars in the 1974 season. Shotetsu Hayami was to use the second chassis alongside the experienced Howden Ganley. In fact, the team did not succeed in building two ready-to-use vehicles in 1974; Maki then limited himself to running just one car.

Maki first registered for the 1974 Monaco Grand Prix ; however, the report was not accepted. The team then made its debut in July 1974 at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch . The sole driver was Howden Ganley, who had previously been a works driver at BRM and was competing in the World Sports Car Championship for John Wyer’s team this year . 34 vehicles were registered here; However, only 25 cars were allowed to start. Ganley failed to qualify at Brands Hatch. His best lap time was 1.3 seconds over the necessary for the 25th starting position time and 4 seconds on the pole time of Niki Lauda . However, Ganley only covered a few laps because a technical component of the F101 failed early. During training for the 1974 German Grand Prix , Ganley had a serious accident when the suspension broke on the F101. Maki then tried to report former Lotus driver Dave Walker to the Italian Grand Prix ; However, these plans could not be implemented any more than a message from Howden Ganley on the Canadian Grand Prix .

1975

In the background: Maki 101C (starting number 35)

Maki revised the vehicle for the 1975 season; it was now called F101C. The team entered Hiroshi Fushida for the Dutch and Great Britain Grand Prix ; in both attempts Fushida failed to qualify. Then Tony Trimmer took over the car. He also missed the qualification at the world championship races in Germany , Austria and Italy . He was only allowed to start at the Swiss Grand Prix in Dijon-Prenois , which was not part of the World Cup . He finished the race six laps behind in thirteenth and last place. This was the only known racing event apart from training drives for a Maki Formula 1 racing car.

1976

1976 appeared Maki Engineering with funding from the Japanese conglomerate Fujita at the Japanese Grand Prix . The emergency vehicle was the Maki F102A , a one-off “with twisted lines” which, according to observers, was not suitable for racing. They thought the car was poorly designed and manufactured. The entire front section was only attached to the monocoque with a single retaining clip. Overall, the F102 was "even worse than its predecessor". Some team bosses from other racing teams wanted to prevent driver Tony Trimmer from driving the F102A for safety reasons.

During free Friday practice at Fuji Speedway , a gearbox defect occurred after just one lap. In the qualifying training that followed, Trimmer only covered one timed lap. His lap time was over a minute and a half. He was 18 seconds slower than polesitter Mario Andretti ( Team Lotus ) and 13.5 seconds slower than Hans Binder , who finished 26th and last on the grid in the technically inferior Williams FW05 . Trimmer was not qualified in Maki.

The US team Shadow offered Trimmer a short-term assignment in a factory Shadow after missing qualification; Maki did not release Trimmer from his contract.

season	chassis	No.	driver	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1974	Maki F101																			0	-
		25th	H. Ganley										DNQ	DNQ
1975	Maki F101C																			0	-
		35	H. Fushida								DNQ		DNQ
			T. trimmer											DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
1976	Maki F102A																			0	-
		54	T. trimmer																DNQ

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

• David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
• David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
• Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Publishing house Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X .

Web links

Commons : Maki Formula One cars  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• History of Maki Engineering on the website www.f1rejects.com
• Race statistics from Maki Engineering on the website www.racingsportscars.com
• History of Maki Engineering on the website www.research-racing.de
• Image: Tony Trimmer in the Maki F102 1976

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} History of Maki Engineering on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on May 8, 2014).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 158.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Doug Nye: The great book of Formula 1 racing cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 204.
4. ^ ^{A b} David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 143.