Arrows A1

[deimh]

Hi all

Arrows produced six Arrows A1 cars, which are generally referred to as chassis 1 through 6 in period race reports / magazines.

However, the monocoques were not stamped 1 through 6. Instead Arrows used just three “carnet plates” at the 1978/9 Grand Prix across the six monocoques, swapping them around when cars were either damaged beyond repair (e.g. Patrese at Zandvoort and Argentina) or sold off to Clowes (who purchased three cars for Keegan, Bettridge and Zunino).

The carnet plates used by Arrows at GPs had the nomenclature along the lines of 78-1A, 78-2A and 78-3A. In addition to these three carnet plates used by Arrows, when the first of the three A1 was sold off to Clowes (late 1978 / early 1978) Arrows would have affixed a different carnet / chassis plate to this particular car at this point.

I was wondering whether any of you happened to record the actual chassis plate (i.e. what would have in effect been the carnet plate) of an Arrows A1 at any of the races in period, or have any period race reports (e.g. from Motoring News, Autosport, etc.) giving the carnet plate number (i.e. citing one of the 78-xA numbers).

It would be especially interesting to find this information for the any of the first eight GPs that the A1 ran in (i.e. Austrian through South African GPs), but I would be equally interested in all the other Grand Prix and Aurora AFX Championship races that the A1 participated in.

Can anyone please help?

Thanks
Dave