Jo Marquart, who died aged 57, was one of the few racing car designers of
the old school who adapted his skills to embrace the technical demands of
successive eras
Born in the German-speaking part of Switzerland,
Jo’s passion for cars was
all-consuming. He never
doubted that he would forge his career designing them.
He came to Britain in 1962 as a mechanical engineer, taking work with Scottish Omnibuses. While there, be helped a club racer friend, but a full-time job in the sport eluded him. The break came via a design post at Hawker Siddeley, for, with the aviation giants name on his CV, Lotus took him on.
In racing at last, Jo worked under the late
Maurice Phillippe.
Hailed as a brilliant young man by Colin Chapman, he moved to Mclaren as
chief designer.
Much of the evolution of the all-conquering M8 CanAm cars was down to Jo, but he went on to Huron, a company which did not have the resources to develop his advanced designs.
When Mike Warner formed GRD with ex-I.otus
colleagues, he recruited Jo. His subsequent family of single-seaters and
sportscars were stylish and quick, and established the company overnight in
1972.
Britain’s Tony Brise and Roger Williamson were
GRD’s stars, but March steamrollercd through 1973, and GRD sales slumped.
Brise also put Modus Cars on the map (winning a Formula-Atlantic
Cbampionship In 1975) when Jo started the venture with property man Teddy
Savory.
Marquart and race engineer Derek ‘Nick’ Jordan decided to go it alone
in 1977 taking over the ex GRD/Modus factory to start Anglia Cars (now Argo
Racing Cars ltd.), building Argo F3/Atlantic/Super Vee chassis.
The F3 JM1 was competitive immediately, while the FSV JM2 won the Robert
Bosch series in the USA in 1978. Argo’s finest hour in single-seaters came in
1980 when Roberto Guerrero drove the splendid JM6 to five wins and third overall
In the Vandervell British F3 series. Subsequent successes came mainly in
sportscar racing. Jim Downing’s team won the first three IMSA Camel Light
titles in JM16 and JM19 chassis, while Martin Schanche’s Zakspeed Fl
turbo-powered car was regarded as the best-handling Group C2 car in the World
Championship. Where
most would have made their fortune maximising the potential of a winning
concept, Jo was always looking to the next car. He could never say no to a
project. When FSV
driver Bill Alsup asked him to build an Indycar, for example, he responded with
relish. Jo knocked that
up for five bob and a book of Green Shield Stamps’, recalls close associate
and race engineer Gordon Horn. 'I enjoyed Jo’s company, and
he found me an Argo JM6 when I helped start the Toyota F3 class in 1986.
He also came to the rescue when I wrecked my second JM6, in 1987,
building a monocoque for far less than one would have cost new. Jo
was like that, far too generous'.
With an IMSA World Sports Car on the stocks and
single-seater deals in the pipeline,
Argo had weathered the storm. Jo was looking forward to good days.
But the stress of keeping Argo afloat took its toll. Following hospital tests, Jo weakened and died at home. ‘I’m not a quitter’, were his last words. My dear friend, we all knew that. You will be fondly remembered.
To Jo’s supportive wife Jackie, beloved girls Kate and Rezi, his mother and friends, AUTOSPORT extends its heartfelt sympathies. Jo was cremated in Norwich.