Enrique Marco
An exciting day spent on Thursday the 9th in Mobility City with Emilio de Villota. The former pilot of F1 revealed his beginnings in the top automobile category and the curious acquisition of this Lyncar 006/01 Cosworth Formula 1 from 1974. It is a unique single-seater that is now on display at the Mobility Museum. One of the pioneers of F1 in Spain, De Villota told the details of this collector's item that is part of the exhibition “The Superclass” along with other racing cars, top-level classics and the most current supercars.
There are stories with a high romantic content, like the one De Villota told when purchasing this Formula 1 back in 1976. It was on a trip to England in which he initially They were planning to buy an F2 from Ron Dennis, but which ended with the acquisition of this unique example, handcrafted by Lyncar Engineering Ltd in 1974 and equipped with an engine Ford cosworth V8 3.0 with 480 HP. All this and much more was revealed by the veteran ex-pilot to those attending the talk held in Mobility Museum.
The arrival of Emilio de Villota to Zaragoza to talk about Lyncar F1 is due to the fact that for a few weeks This car is part of the exhibition “The Superclase that changed the species”. This is renewed periodically and has jewels such as the Lamborghini Miura P400 SV of the late Ben Heiderich, another driver and relevant man in the automobile sector, and whose family attended this meeting with De Villota.
EMILIO DE VILLOTA AND THE LYNCAR F1
José Luis Rodrigo, general director of Fundación Ibercaja, thanked the former driver for his presence at Mobility City and highlighted him as “pioneer of this sport in our country, when F1 was practically unknown in Spain”. Also, it was “the first team with a Spanish license registered in the F1 championship”. After that, the guest asked the attendees to travel back 47 years, because F1 back then had nothing to do with today. And he advanced that he was going to tell “a slightly romantic story” and, without a doubt, quite bizarre.
By then Emilio de Villota had already been competing for 6 seasons with touring cars and single-seaters, being runner-up in Spain in '75 with a Ford Capri RS 2600. The time had come to take another step, and the initial idea was acquire a March F2 from “The Project Three”, in Woking. the refusal of his manager, Ron Dennis (who would shortly later rise to fame by directing McLaren), to sell him the car, alleging that another buyer had gone ahead when Emilio himself and members of his team had flown to the United Kingdom for such a mission. , a new alternative emerged in the most curious way.
An advertisement in the magazine Motorsport was putting up for sale this F1 that had been driven by New Zealander John Nicholson (in 1974 and 1975 at the British F1 GP). And in the mid-70s, while the spectacular fights between Niki Lauda y James Hunt In the World Championship, the participation of artisanal cars in the hands of private teams was not uncommon. Like, for example, this Lyncar than Martin Slater (who would later work at Brabham or Lola) built it in 1974 as a unique piece. In addition, it was equipped with the most common engine of the time, the Ford Cosworth V8 3.0 with 480 HP, not insignificant power to move only 500 kilos.
VICTORY WITH THE LYNCAR
Neither the first visit nor the test at Silverstone of this Lyncar 006/01 Cosworth was very conventional, but the truth is that, for the same price that they had planned to invest in the March F2 -6.000 pounds- they took this authentic Formula 1 car. He quickly entered the 1976 Shellsport International Series, a British “free formula” championship with F1, F5000, F2 and F Atlantic cars.
In his first season he achieved two fifth places, and already in the '77 contest, on March 13, He obtained his first victory at the Mallory Park circuit. Emilio remembered with images of that race the tough fight that he fought with a great driver -Keith Holland- whom overtook in a daring maneuver on the last lap. That car, with the same decoration from its sponsors Iberia, Banco Ibérico and Medinabi, is the one currently on display at the Mobility Museum.
Later, Emilio de Villota's automobile career would continue for 20 more years. He jumped into the F1 world championship with another car, a McLaren M23, with which would finish in 13th position in the 1977 Spanish GP. Three years later, in 1980, he would be proclaimed winner of the British F1 Championship, driving the Williams FW07. The following year he would achieve two victories in the World Endurance Championship, in Great Britain and Italy, sharing the wheel of the Lola T600 with the British Guy Edwards. In the mid-80s, I would go up to the podium of the mythical 24 Hours of Le Mans with a spectacular Porsche 956. It would still remain active well into the 90s, with various passenger cars such as BMW M3 or Porsche 968.
AT THE WAX MUSEUM
And as for the Lyncar F1, At the end of the 70s it was taken to the Madrid Wax Museum, where it would remain exposed for more than three decades. Finally, the family helped Emilio de Villota recover it in 2017, but not without bizarre situations when it came to getting it out of that place. That same year, SMC Motorsport was in charge of restoring it and the Ideasport firm was responsible for decorating it just as it looked in Emilio's first victory at Mallory Park in 1977.
After a very entertaining narration of those events, Cristina García, general director of Sports of the Government of Aragon, took the floor to affirm that she was surprised by a “perfect summary of an exciting story”. She also showed her admiration for the guest by recognizing him as “the pioneer of F1 in Spain”, which currently gives so much joy to fans of this sport.
Finally, the general director of Sports of the Government of Aragon wanted to highlight Mobility City as “one of the jewels in the crown of the city and the community, which positions us very well in terms of mobility at a European level”.
Photographs by Chus Marchador and Enrique Marco.
