1986 March 86C Indianapolis

1986 March 86C Indianapolis
High Bid Of $1,550,000
RM Auction
Monterey, CA. 2014
Chassis no. 86C-13
Engine no. DFX255
700 hp, 2,650 cc turbocharged Cosworth DFX V-8 engine with mechanical fuel injection, five-speed manual transaxle, four-wheel independent suspension with coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers, and four-wheel ventilated disc brakes. Wheelbase: 111 in.
•Winner of the 1986 Indianapolis 500
•Winner of the 1986 CART IndyCar Championship
•Driven by Indianapolis Speedway Hall of Famer Bobby Rahal
•Equipped with its original Indy 500-winning Cosworth DFX V-8
•One private owner since; first public offering in 24 years
•One of March’s five consecutive Indy 500-winning cars
•Groundbreaking Adrian Newey design
JIM TRUEMAN & BOBBY RAHAL
History’s greatest race cars are sometimes not merely defined by race wins, rarity, or their constructor’s pedigree. The merit of such cars often draws on the importance of the people who built and raced them and the way in which they wove the threads of history into one thrilling race.
In many ways, the story of 86C-13 is that of team owner Jim Trueman, a former race car driver who found his greatest success as principal of the Truesports team he founded in 1982. Trueman initially drove in the Can-Am Series during the 1970s, where he met a young Denison University graduate, Bobby Rahal. The two men struck up a friendship, and Trueman offered Rahal mentoring advice and occasional assistance. After Trueman lent Rahal $500 for entry fees to Watkins Glen, the younger driver was convinced he might never be able to sufficiently repay the man who had shown him such generosity, but that day would eventually come.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a new British race car constructor, March Engineering, appeared in 1969. March, an acronym for founders Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker, and Robin Herd, initially launched an ambitious attempt to field cars in no less than five different racing series. After finding only modest Formula One success during the 1970s, March would return in 1981 with a copy of Williams’ FW07 car. Although the new March faired poorly in F1 use, the platform provided a promising basis for the company’s entry into IndyCar racing. As the 1981 March 81C improved and steadily capitalized on the Indy circuit’s combination of oval tracks and road courses, March went on to supply the Indianapolis 500-winning car five straight times between 1983 and 1987, which was an unprecedented success.
Much of March’s chassis improvements can be attributed to a young engineer named Adrian Newey, who was assigned by Robin Herd in 1984 to develop the car in direct conjunction with the Truesports team and their promising young driver, Bobby Rahal. In 1982, Trueman had hired his old friend to be the principal driver for his new IndyCar team, and Rahal did not disappoint, handily capturing Rookie of the Year honors. After consulting with Truesports in 1984, Newey struck up a close working relationship with Rahal, which soon blossomed into a strong friendship, and their combined efforts on the car were assuredly central to Rahal’s 3rd place finish for the 1984 championship.
Ironically, Newey was hired away from Truesports after 1985 in a move engineered by Herd to market newer versions of the car to better financed teams, despite the fact that Budweiser had signed on to back Jim Trueman’s Truesports team. He eventually went on to great acclaim as a principal engineer with the successful Williams F1 team in the early 1990s and then the dominant Red Bull team of recent years. Despite Newey’s departure, the 1986 March chassis was still based in his 1985 design, and the tuning for Truesports was now assumed by Grant Newbury and team manager Steve Horne, who remained an ever-beneficial contributor to the car’s growth.
Truesports fielded three March 86C chassis in 1986, with each being powered by the turbocharged Cosworth DFX engine. Bobby Rahal took the checkered flag in six out of the season’s seventeen races (at Indianapolis, Toronto, the Mid-Ohio 200, Sanair, the Michigan 250, and the Laguna Seca 300 KM), earning him the 1986 CART Championship. Chassis number 86C-13 was used in most of these wins, but none of them was loaded with more drama than the season’s third contest at the Indianapolis 500, which was one of the storied event’s most thrilling episodes.
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Robert Myrick Photography