Just to illustrate how complicated this question is - My March 86-A 38 (Cart #353 - Chassis #1465) was built as a 1989 ARS Indy Light Buick Wildcat MK-II. It competed in ARS in 1990 (Rookie of the Year), 1991 (Winner: Cleveland & Laguna Seca, 2nd in Championship), and in 1992 (Winner: Vancouver). In it's three competitive years, it had 11 total podium finishes
So - basically -- a 1986 March F-3000 car was most likely built in 1988 on a 1985 Chassis, then sold in 1989 and shipped to the United States as an ARS car, which competed over the following three year period of 1990-1992.
March didn't really ever spend much effort to record these ARS cars as they were really just happy to be cleaning out the shop from all the extra parts before they went out of business. If you have a MK-II you at least have a chance to put some history back on your car though, as just a few were built and raced. If you have an MK-1 you have a big job ahead of you. At least you have a few numbers left in your cockpit that will be your only chance to figure it out. USAC and ARS didn't think the records were important enough to keep it seems, but the teams themselves often kept really good records of chassis #'s that ran on race day as well as on test days. Even the drivers themselves seem to have kept some records that often include chassis numbers. You might be surprised how willing to help some of these guys are when they know you are trying to restore the history on your car.
Andy at marcharchives.com is a private car collector who maintains a database that attempts to work out the original chassis numbers. The fact that yours is listed in your car as #11 would make me think that it was one of the first 11 86A ARS Wildcats that March built on the 85-B frame. I would guess that yours is actually March Chassis # 2010 and is an MK-1, and that might be a good place to start. Get ahold of Andy at
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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]Kennesaw, GA 30144[/SIZE][/FONT]
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Wow - even I'm comfussed after writting all this mess....... lol ....
Wishing you a great adventure in your search !!
Robert Joki