With turbo engines dominating Formula 1, teams still running the old 3-liter naturally aspirated engines had to act fast to secure turbo power and avoid falling completely behind. Arrows eventually struck a last-minute engine supply deal with BMW. However, as BMW was already supplying two teams, it agreed to supply Arrows on a semi-official basis, meaning no technical support.
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| ARROWS A7 BMW, Marc Surer Monza, Italian GP 1984 |
Based in Milton Keynes, the British team accepted the deal and relied on Swiss tuner Heini Mader for technical support in setting up the German engines. Another BMW condition was the detuning of the M12/13 L4 Turbos for Arrows, mandating the use of electronic control units that limited power to around 800 hp, compared to the 900 hp engines used by Brabham and ATS with full BMW engineering support. The agreement came into effect with the season already underway, so Dave Wass had to start the season with the old A6 chassis and Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine. It was driven by regulars Marc Surer and Thierry Boutsen.
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| ARROWS A6, Thierry Boutsen Jacarepaguà, Brazilian GP 1984 |
Despite its power disadvantage, the A6 managed to score points twice under Boutsen in its three races. Surer placed seventh in the season opener but then experienced a string of retirements and poor finishes. From the third race in Zolder, Belgium, Boutsen debuted the hastily assembled A7 BMW Turbo. Surer used the same car in the following race before it returned to Boutsen until the ninth race in Dallas when a second A7 was finally ready.
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| ARROWS A7 BMW, Thierry Boutsen Zandvoort, Dutch GP 1984 |
Even with new sponsors, Arrows’ budget was tight and mostly allocated to BMW engine costs. As a result, Wass had little to spend on designing a new car, so the A7 was essentially a lightly modified A6, with the same aluminum monocoque chassis, lacking modern composite materials.
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| ARROWS A7 BMW, Marc Surer Hockenheimring, German GP 1984 |
The only major innovation was the gearbox, based on a Hewland unit but manufactured in-house by Arrows. Unfortunately, it proved highly unreliable. Apart from both drivers scoring points in Austria, the A7 suffered an astonishing 15 retirements due to mechanical failures, collecting just 3 points all season.
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