If we were better organised here at Ti, I’d have written this last month, on the 45th anniversary of the one and only Grand Prix victory scored by the Tyrrell-Ford Project 34. But in fact the date passed me by completely. Indeed it was only because I had dinner last night with a mate of Jody Scheckter, who won that race, that the idea came to me at all. Mea culpa.
But as one of presumably not many people lucky enough to have driven this much misunderstood six-wheeled Formula 1 car, I thought I might take the opportunity to talk a little about the car and perhaps correct a few misconceptions that have grown up around it over time.
Certainly when journalists gathered at Ken Tyrrell’s house in West Clandon in the spring of 1976 to attend the launch of his new Formula 1 racing car some thought they were witnessing no more than the unveiling of an elaborate practical joke. At the rear the car was normal enough, but at the other end someone appeared to have fitted the wheels from a 1959 Mini and doubled their number to make up the shortfall. Indeed the car was so experimental it never even received a model designation like all the ‘00’ Tyrrells that came before and after.
