F3 History

Raymond Rispal was a Renault distributor in Bordeaux and his first car was an early F Junior, it had a tubular frame, wishbones and coil springs/dampers based on the Renault Dauphine at the front and the rear suspension used a swing-axle. Not surprisingly, in view of Rispal’s Renault connections, it used a Renault Dauphine engine and transmission which were ideal for a rear-engined design. In 1964 a Rispal, still using a Renault engine and driven by Raymond Rispal appeared irregularly in the French Championship claiming a few top ten finishes although usually several laps adrift in generally not very strong fields. For 1965 the Rispal was only seen three times and results were poor as the fields became stronger. Whether the car that was seen in ’64 and ’65 was an updated version of the F Junior car or a new model isn’t known.