Bottom post of the previous page:
Indeed it was.... the 201 was originally used in F2 in 1982, running a V6 2 litre engine. That RA260E engine used in F2 was in fact the basis of the F1 engine.... the F1 version was based on the 2 litre F2 engine destroked to 1.5 litres, so.physically the same size. Obviously the F1 engine was a turbo so would have had to had all the turbo hardware, intercoolers etc, not to mention a larger fuel tank. I dare say the 201 F2 chassis would have been modified to cope with the extra weight and of course power. But in all essence it started life as an F2 car.
I will add that it was not an unusual process and this would be farfrom the first of that ideology. In fact the March 721G F1 car was IIRC a very hurriedly produced (to replace the 721X F1 car which was a disaster) The 721G F1 car used a March 722 chassis, modified to take a DFV in place of the much more compact 4 cylinder Ford BDA plus the heavier duty transmission that required. Plus the larger fuel tank required for a GP. I said it was produced in a hurry.... the story goes that the car received the G suffix as being G for Guinness. The car was built from an F2 chassis in days and was in March eyes worthy of being in the Guinness Book of Records. Given the car was quite nimble and an improvement over the purpose designed F1 car, March produced another 4 721G's for the other drivers, including Peterson and Lauda.
For a period of years the philosophy of March F1 cars were in fact based an upgraded F2 chassis. Actually the first F2 (772) derived 721G (721G/1) built for Mike Beutler to use in 1972 went on to be relabelled a March 731 (731/3) the following year and was used by David Purely in the Lec Refrigeration colours at the 1973 Monaco GP! Another (721G/3) became 731/3 and was sold to Hesketh to run James Hunt at Monaco
1973.
F2 cars repurposed as F1 cars was not new when Honda did it with the 201.
