“I went back to England and these phone calls carried on. It seemed to be for real and March were very short of money at that time and I was likely to lose my seat there. Eventually these characters came to England and wanted to meet me and I said, ‘Oh yeah, where do you want to meet?’ and they kept saying ‘Ercort Load, Ercort Load’, which I finally realised was Earls Court Road. I said, ‘Whereabouts in Earls Court Road?’ and they say, ‘Pizzarand’ and eventually I got to meet these guys at Pizzaland.
“They had all the plans and talked a good story. They had four chassis they said, good engines, seven mechanics and had bought the transporter. Then they said ‘We’d like to pay you this much money’. I’m ‘Okay, that sounds good’ and then ask who the other driver is. And they say, No, no; this is all for you’. It’s kind of a dream isn’t it, all this resource and it’s yours; it was too good to be true. But I guess I wasn’t thinking straight.
“The weeks went on and I signed the contract. I should have been suspicious when, as part of the ceremonial carry-on, they gave me a headband like the Kamikaze pilots wore. That was obviously a hint that they expected me to stick my neck out…
“They did have four chassis, genuinely. They asked me to find them a workshop at the last minute and luckily I had one down at Bath Road in Slough, which I’d taken over from Frank Williams. They moved in there so at least I knew where they were and could keep an eye on them. The cars came broken down and we built them up and tested at Goodwood and Silverstone. There were problems with it but it was gradually getting better. But then they began turning up telling me things had been changed when I knew full well they hadn’t been; I suppose trust was starting to break down.
“This went on and on but they wouldn’t enter any of the races — Spain, Monaco, Belgium and France all passed by. I couldn’t understand it and was getting really frustrated. It came to a head and they finally agreed we’d definitely do the British GP at Brands. But before that I said we needed to make certain changes to the car and they agreed. And I have to say, they did do it; in about three weeks they’d completely changed the car around.