Dywa 1980 history

Every few years, Dydo Monguzzi would decide, in spite of the accruing evidence to the contrary, that he was able to design a racing car. Very rarely, one of his creations reached a race track, and they were always a disgrace. This 1980 car was no exception.

Marcus Pye was at Monza to report for Autosport on the Aurora-sponsored British F1 race in June 1980, where he encountered the Dywa. His description cannot be improved: "Three months ago Dido Monguzzi announced to the world that he had completed a new F1 car - does anyone remember his grim F5000 chassis? - that the construction had been easy and furthermore that there were to be four in his team. Testing began last month apparently, with Maurizio Flammini at the wheel, and it was perhaps no coincidence that the gifted concert pianist was in England testing a Toleman Ralt in preference to continuing his association with the project. The Dywa can best be described as a collection of square tubing randomly thrown around an aluminium monocoque-type structure which seems to lack any kind of unitary strength. The box section around the forward roll hoop enclosing the driver's legs is attached by two rivets on one side and one on the other, while the front brake pipes were unattached to the front 'bulkhead' and chafed on the nosecone. This abysmal creation looked like a relic from an O-level metalwork class and one could only commiserate with poor Piercarlo Ghinzani, who heroically agreed to be harnessed into it, commenting only that the set-up lack professionalism. That the 1977 F3 champion of Europe should have to stoop so low for a drive is a crying shame, and he called it a day having looked every inch a passenger in the self-steering device for all of five laps. Even then oil was spewing all over the rear brake calipers, but mercifully Ghinzani did not have to chance his arm again. Monguzzi got the message, as the driver could only heave it around some 37 secs off the pace, and the ghastly machine was pushed away, never to be seen again." (Autosport 3 Jul 1980 pp32-34 and p6)

It should be noted that Monguzzi built another car for the 1984 season, called the Dywa 010, which had a very narrow monocoque and pullrod front suspension. That is quite definitely not the car used in 1980, which had wide sidepods and rocker-arm front suspension. Several articles have conflated these two designs, concluding the Monguzzi's design ideas were advanced for 1980. They were not.

Please contact Allen Brown (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can add anything to our understanding of Dydo Monguzzi's cars.

These histories last updated on 09 Jul 2017.