FEATURE : THE HENTON MARCH 782
Mark Charteris and his March 782
Bringing F2 history back to the track
The March 782 Formula 2 car raced by British privateer Brian ‘ Superhen ’ Henton in 1978 has returned to UK tracks this summer in the hands of Mark Charteris . This weekend , car and driver should be among the pacesetters in the Formula 2 Classic Interseries , which has its first UK date of the season with a double-header . Paul Lawrence reports .
Henton ’ s 782 , chassis 23 , was used by the hard charging Derby racer in the 1978 European Formula 2 Championship with a Hart engine but lack of budget tended to thwart Henton ’ s natural pace . Now , after more than 30 years in South Africa , the car has come back to the UK and been totally rebuilt by model expert Richard Evans . Charteris has been a leading Historic F2 racer for several seasons after stepping up from Clubmans to a March 742 . But he has always wanted a 782 , which is widely regarded as the optimum car for Historic F2 .
The March went to South America at the end of the 1978 season for Henton to race in the Temporada
series in Toleman colours , as he was joining the Toleman F2 team for ‘ 79 in their Ralt RT2 . Charteris has had the car restored in Toleman livery . It didn ’ t race in Europe in those colours but it did race in South America .
“ It always ran in a white livery with F & S properties on it ,” says Charteris . “ Then towards the end of 1978 it suffered a massive accident at Hockenheim when Eddie Cheever crashed into it . The insurers insisted on the tub being repaired , which it was and then it was all rebuilt . It then went down to South America at the end of the season because Brian was going to drive for Toleman in European F2 the following season . They wanted two cars down there and
so they put the March in the Toleman colours for the Temporada series .
“ Obviously the Toleman livery is more attractive then plain white . So we faithfully recreated all the stickers and had them all made , so that it should be exactly as it was when Henton raced it at Buenos Aires and Mendoza .
“ Brian kept the car after the South America trip and hired it out in 1979 to Boy Hayje and then , as I understand it , a guy called Evan Boddy bought it in South Africa . It went down to South Africa without its Hart engine but with the gearbox , and they put a Mazda rotary engine in it as they did in those days . It then ended up with the Scribante family and they put it into Lucky Strike colours with a Mazda
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