An Alfa engine in a McLaren!

Andrea de Adamich’s McLaren M14D Alfa Romeo is being prepared for racing (photo above), before the 1970 Austrian Grand Prix, run at the Osterreichring, in Zeltweg.

Like the McLaren M7D before it, the M14D was an order from Alfa Romeo’s racing department (Autodelta), an M14 modified to accommodate the 3.0-litre V8 engine from the Alfa Romeo T33 (active in endurance racing).

Unlike the M14A powered by a Cosworth V8 and driven by Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Denny Hulme and Peter Gethin, which achieved three podium finishes in Hulme’s hands, the one with the Alfa Romeo engine and driven by Andrea de Adamich could do no better than an 8th place obtained at Monza.

This marked the end of their collaboration between McLaren and Alfa Romeo, and Autodelta took its engines to March in 1971, without any more success, and decided to concentrate on endurance racing.