Eagle MkIII: greatest sports car prototype? 'You couldn't outdrive it'

Like many seminal competition machines, the MkIII first evolved as a solution to the issues of its predecessor, the HF89/90. Once Gurney’s team got its teeth into developing performance, the car became almost unstoppable.

Juan Manuel Fangio II, who took the MkIII to consecutive drivers’ titles in ’92 and ‘93, has gone on record complaining about how temperamental the HF89 was performance-wise, making its set-up sweet spot very narrow.

John Ward got to work on the chassis for the replacement, whilst Japanese engineer Hiro Fujimori addressed the aerodynamics and Drino Miller developed the power unit.

Key to helping remedy the previous car’s lack of stability was the aero aspect. In contrast to most of the rival GTP cars, whose underfloor was one piece, Ward decided to develop a front diffuser acting as a separate part of the MkIII, thus redirecting air and producing huge downforce.

It wasn’t just the front end which was trick – Fujimori developed a dual-element rear wing several races after its introduction in late 1991, meaning the downforce the car produced leapt from over 6,500lbs to a staggering 10,000lbs.

More disbelief was generated by what was in the back – the power was provided by a production-based, four cylinder, 2.1 litre and highly-boosted engine to pump out 800bhp, at a time when most competitors were using V8, V10 and V12 units.

“When we came down for the start, and I had all these big cars in front of me, and I couldn’t see through them, I couldn’t see around them.” he remembers.

“I lost my perception of where I was on the racetrack, something I had never experienced, hit a kerb and went sideways – that was the end of my race.”

“I thought ‘Dan’s gonna fire me!’ [But] he was awesome, a driver’s owner – he understood what it was like, that was really important.”

It was just as well, because Jones needed a few races to get a grip on the beast that was the MkIII – before he suddenly started reeling off poles and race wins.

“You had to have faith and that took a little getting used to,” he says. “Indy Lights was the most downforce that I’ve ever experienced, so I was trying to get used to how hard you could push the Eagle.

“When I set the track record at Laguna Seca, I was out there in practice and just told myself, ‘I’m gonna get through Turn 4, and I’m gonna run wide open, I’m not lifting!

“I lifted a little less every lap, and it eventually it did it. Wow. The harder you went, physically, mentally, if you just got up on the steering wheel muscled it into the turn – it performed.”

It wasn’t just maintaining speed where you had to hold your nerve:

“You passed the 100 marker before you brake – I mean, that’s amazing”

“The other thing that kind of took me a little while to get used to was the carbon brakes,” he says.

“You step on the pedal, and nothing happens for 100 feet. You think ‘Oh my god, I’m in big trouble, this thing isn’t gonna stop!’ And then all of a sudden, it’s like somebody threw the parachute out.

“So you have to build up to that confidence of how deep you can brake. When you drive somewhere like Watkins Glen and you drive up to the 100 marker, or maybe past it, before you brake – I mean, that’s amazing.”

Jones, of a larger build than Fangio, was able to muscle the immensely physical car to a large number of poles, and between them they started cleaning up the wins.

Dismore managed to get back to the pits relatively unscathed, but victory chances were now looking bleak.

Things were became worse when Moran vomited in the cockpit mid-stint, something the team neglected to tell Jones as he started his next run.

“I got in and I asked the crew, ‘What is that smell in this car?’” he told Toyota in 2019. “They said, ‘Oh, Rocky puked all over’. I looked at my hands and I had stuff all over me.

“I ended up driving about 13-and-a-half hours of that race! But I was young and was just like ‘Alright!’ It didn’t phase me.”

Come sunrise and the Jones/Moran/Dismore MkIII was closing back up on the leading Jaguar, until a rear axle issue then required a 74-minute pitstop – now it really did look like it was all over.

Fate thought otherwise in this up-and-down race though – first the Jones Jaguar’s engine failed, before Bell’s Nissan croaked too with 1hr 40min remaining – the Eagle MkIII of PJ and co cruised to a famous Daytona victory.

“It was a rollercoaster, even this morning,” he said post-race. “One time we’re 30 laps down, the next time we have a chance of winning, then we’re three laps down again!”

As Jones says now, once the dual element rear wing was introduced “it was all over” for the competition in ’93 – Fangio would take six wins on the trot to take the IMSA title again that year, and Jones would claim another pair of victories in a golden era for Gurney’s team.

The American can only look upon that early phase of his career with fondness.

“You look at those times now, where you’re fast, you’re dominating and you’re doing things right – those great moments like Daytona, taking the pole at Laguna Seca, setting the lap record at Lime Rock – it’s all right up there.”