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Tiff
Needell in the SA3C at Silverstone in 1982.
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F1 technician
Gary Anderson built the first Ansons in 1976 but lack of money saw him pull
out some 18 months later. In 1980 Anson Cars was formed by Anderson together
with fellow F1 man Bob Simpson and ex-Rolls Royce employee Jeff Hills. For
the next six years they took on the famous names of F3 such as March, Ralt
and Chevron but they never really gained more than a toehold. Their greatest
success was winning the German F3 Championship in 1983 with Franz Konrad
whilst Tommy Byrne came 6th in the 1984 European Championship. Of course
a few years further down the road Gary Anderson would achieve fame as a
F1 designer, most notably with Jordan. |
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The
SA1 with its unusual full width nose.
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The
original SA1 was built in 1975 and was based on a Brabham BT38, it
was raced in formule libre by Anderson with some success.
For 1976 an entirely new car also called the SA1 was designed and
built. It's F3 debut came in an end of September BP round at Silverstone.
A new SA1 was constructed for 1976 and was raced initially by Tiff
Needell and then by Dick Parsons. The car was sponsored by Unipart,
it ran competitively and led several races even though victory eluded
the new team.. It had a distinctive shape with its low full-width
nose and slab sided monocoque. |
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The
Anson A2 on its announcement.
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Gary
Anderson in the rain with the SA2.
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Gary
Anderson testing the SA2.
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The
SA2 was designed for a mooted Unipart F3 Team (which would eventually
appear with March), the last minute withdrawal of the sponsorship
left the team in serious difficulties with not even enough money to
go testing. The chassis was again very square in shape with full width
nose. It had a narrow track with twin caliper brakes and inboard rockers
at the front. There was an unusual springing arrangement at the rear
with conventional coils and dampers plus an additional set of springs
over the rear brakes. The theory was that the auxiliary springs would
take up the body roll. Gary Anderson was the driver but a lack of
resources saw the withdrawal of the car part way through the season. |
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The
SA3 on its announcement, the unusual rear end treatment
is very obvious..
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The
modified end of season SA3C.
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The
SA3 looked very different to any other contemporary F3 chassis,
all the manufacturers at the time were experimenting with ground-effect
in F3 some with less success than others. The chassis was built
in F1-type honeycomb construction using three sections for ease
of manufacturer. A cast aluminium front bulkhead was fitted that
also served as the front rollhoop/dashboard. Front suspension utilised
a top rocker and lower wishbone mounted to the front bulkhead, the
spring/damper units were inboard. Rear suspension was similar to
the front except the springs/dampers were fitted inside the bellhousing.
Fuel and oil tanks were behind the driver with the oil tank being
part of the chassis forming part of the roll-over structure. The
rear bodywork was very unusual consisting or a rear section with
abbreviated sidepods and no rear wing. Similar ideas had been tried
without success in F1 and Indycar designs
As can be seen from the second picture testing soon saw the unusual
rear design superseded by a wing and full length sidepods. In addition
an entirely new rear suspension was fitted, the geometry of the
front suspension was revised and the tub was rejigged. Towards the
end of the season Dave Coyne had some promising runs in the modified
car now called the SA3C. |
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Mike
O'Brien in his SA3C.
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Anson
continued with the SA3C in 1982 with just minor modifications to
the suspension and bodywork. Both Claudio Langes in Europe and Mike
O'Brien in the UK showed the car had potential with several top
six finishes. Langes in particular finding the car well suited to
the Pirelli tyres that were available in Europe. |
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Claudio
Langes had some good results in Europe in his
SA4.
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Franz
Konrad's German Championship winning car.
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The
SA4 tub clearly showing the honeycomb/carbon fibre
mixture.
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A
new model was introduced for 1984, the SA4, it continued
along the same lines as the SA3 and it proved to be quite
a competitive proposition. The monocoque was constructed
of aluminium honeycomb with the cockpit sides skinned in
carbon fibre. Inside the tub cast magnesium dash and pedal
beams were fitted both to aid stiffness and to increase
driver protection in the event of an accident.
Claudio Langes began slowly when the car wasn't happy with
the European Pirelli's but a switch to Yokohama's solved
this problem. Additionally a redesign of the sidepods saw
him able to run in the front half a dozen in the later season
races. In Germany Franz Konrad won the National Championship
in his SA4 in which he used both Alfa and VW engines. Several
other German drivers, notably Rudi Seher in his SA3, also
used various models with some success. Sadly no examples
of the marque were to be seen in the British Championship. |
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Tommy
Byrne in the Anson SA4B showing the forward driver's location.
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The
SA4 was modified to "B" specification for 1984. Despite
the success of Konrad and Langes the previous year no cars were
sold in Britain. However Tommy Byrne took 6th in the European Championship
and once again they were popular in Germany. |
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The
SA6 with Keith Fine driving.
(Picture courtesy of Julian Roberts) |
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Keith
Fine on the grid at Silverstone in March.
(Picture courtesy of Julian Roberts) |
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The SA6 was
introduced in 1985, it had a deeper monocoque and shorter sidepods
that the SA4 series. Cast aluminium bulkheads front and rear took
the major loads and the fuel and oil tanks were located amidships.
Suspension was inboard all-round and featured pushrods at the
front and rocking levers at the rear. All the suspension is interchangeable
left to right. The rear spring/damper units were mounted vertically
within the long bellhousing. The radiators were carried in the
sidepods just ahead of the rear wheels.
Driven by Keith Fine in the UK it was not a success, the tub appeared
to be insufficiently stiff and half way through the year Fine
abandoned it. Only one other SA6 appeared in Germany, again without
success, and at the end of the year Anson stopped producing F3
cars.
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Drivers |
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1975 |
Gary
Anderson. |
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1976 |
Tiff
Needell, Dick Parsons. |
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1977 |
Gary
Anderson. |
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1981 |
Dave
Coyne. |
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1982 |
Claudio
Langes, Tiff Needell, Mike O'Brien, Richard Trott, Gero Zamagna. |
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1983 |
SA4
Fernando Cazzangia, Philippe Huart, Franz Konrad, Claudio Langes,
Pierre-Alain Lombardi, Thomas von Löwis, Kris Nissen, Oscar
Pedersoli, Karl-Heinz Wieschalla.
SA3
Rudi Seher, Richard Hamann,, Andy Wietzke.
?
Bruno di Gioia, Jan Thoelke.
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1984 |
SA4B
Leo Andersson, Tommy "Slim" Borgudd, Tommy Byrne, Tryggve
Gronvall.
SA4
Thierry Hierman.
SA4 (unknown
whether A or B)
Dieter Heinzelmann,
Jan Karlsson,
Mats Karlsson, Franz Konrad, Reinhold Mölig, Nicky Nufer, Rudi
Seher, Jan Thoelke, Karl-Heinz Wieschalla.
SA3
Richard Hamann, Alexander Seibold, Andy Wietzke.
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1985 |
SA6
Fredy Eschenmoser, Keith Fine.
SA4B
Steve Bottoms, Bill Coombs, Tryggve Gronvall.
SA4
Jeff Ward.
SA4 (unknown
whether A or B)
Sigi Betz, Artur
Deutgen, Dieter Heinzelmann, Franz Konrad, Günther Lüttecke,
Nicky Nufer, Franz-Josef Prangemeier, Karl-Heinz Wieschalla.
SA3
Alexander Seibold.
?
Johan Rajamaki, Rudolf Weckmann.
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1986 |
SA4
Patrick Lecompte.
SA4
(unknown whether A or B)
Mathias Arlt.
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Ruedi Schurter. |
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