Jo Marquart

Respected racing car designer Jo Marquart died in his adopted Norfolk recently, following heart trouble. He was 57 years old.

In the late 1960s Marquart was noted for his work at McLaren, before he went on to Huron, GRD and Modus. Thereafter, he founded Argo Racing Cars in 1977. The Argo JM6 was one of F3’s pace-setters in 1979/80, in the hands of Roberto Guerrero, David Sears, Thierry Tassin and others, Later, the JM16 and JM19 sports car designs found their niche in IMSA’s Camel Lights class during the 1980s.

Martin Schanche and Will Hoy were often the fastest pair in the C2 class of the World Sportscar Championship, setting a string of pole positions and fastest laps with their Zakspeed 1.8 turbo-powered JM19 in 1987.

Marquart made several applications to find work with racing teams in the early 1960s, when he was working for the Scottish Bus Group in Edinburgh, and when he drew a blank he returned to Winterthur, in his native Switzerland. Team Lotus took him on in the mid 1960s, however, and he worked alongside the late Maurice Philippe before teaming up with Robin Herd and Gordon Coppuck at McLaren. There, he was credited with the successful Can-Am-winning M8A and the less successful M9A 4wd F1 car.

Within a couple of years, however, he had resigned from Colnbrook, in order to do what he preferred, working as a designer for small teams.

We extend our sympathies to his family and friends. M L C