You Can Own A Tyrrell P34, One Of F1’s Weirdest Cars

The most enduring F1 car designs are the ones that push boundaries, take risks and stretch the regulations as far as possible. Think of Gordon Murray’s Brabham BT46 ‘fan car’, the ground effect Lotus 79, or the trick double diffuser that helped Brawn GP to surprise World Championship glory in 2009.

One of the best remembered of all is the Tyrrell P34, a six-wheeled oddity that ran during 1976 and ’77. The bizarre design was the result of a brilliantly simple idea: by fitting the car with four small wheels at the front, drag could be reduced for greater straight-line speed while the tyres’ contact patch was still effectively the same as that of two larger wheels, mitigating the drop-off in cornering grip.

Tyrrell entered the P34 from the fourth round of 1976, with South African Jody Scheckter and Frenchman Patrick Depailler driving. Despite some occasionally tricky handling, the P34 was immediately quick, with Scheckter driving it to victory at that year’s Swedish Grand Prix. Several more podiums followed, with Tyrrell taking third in the 1976 constructors’ championship and Scheckter and Depailler finishing third and fourth respectively in the drivers’ rankings.

The P34 raced on into 1977, but with less success, and Tyrrell would revert to a conventional four-wheeled setup for 1978. Despite that, the P34 is one of the most enduring F1 car designs of all time. Now, there’s a chance to own one.

The car in question is being auctioned off in Monaco by RM Sotheby’s as part of a collection of racing cars owned by Scheckter, the 1979 World Champion turned sparkling wine producer. Rather than being one of the seven cars produced in the period, it was built during the 2000s around an unused leftover chassis to the exact specifications of the original, including the 3.0-litre Cosworth DFV V8.

It’s widely regarded as an official eighth chassis, and is eligible for historic competition worldwide, with provenance in the form of a win at the 2008 Monterey Historics event at Laguna Seca. Elsewhere in the Scheckter collection is the McLaren M19A with which he made his F1 debut in 1972, and the very Ferrari 312 T4 with which he took the 1979 World Championship.

While the Ferrari is the star of the show with an expected price between £4.45 million and £5.5 million, the Tyrrell is a (slightly) more reasonable way into owning a legendary ’70s F1 car. It’s expected to fetch between £385,000 and £550,000 when the auction takes place on 11 May. Hopefully, it’ll end up where it belongs, out on track going wheel to, erm, wheels with other icons of the era.