A – Page 2 – F3History

14 May, 202110 July, 2021

Anson

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.

1976

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.

1977

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.

1981

he 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.

1982

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.

1983

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.

1984

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.

1985

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.

1975 Gary Anderson.

1976 Tiff Needell, Dick Parsons.

1977 Gary Anderson.

1981 Dave Coyne.

1982 Claudio Langes, Tiff Needell, Mike O’Brien, Richard Trott, Gero Zamagna.

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.

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.

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.

1986
SA4
Patrick Lecompte.

SA4 (unknown whether A or B)
Mathias Arlt.

?
Ruedi Schurter.

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Alpine

Formed in 1951 by race and rally driver Jean Redelé at Dieppe, Société des Automobiles Alpines quickly became recognised as the competition arm of Renault. Initially created to build production versions of Redelé’s Renault 750 based racer the business thrived and new models were introduced. Given Redelé’s sporting history competition involvement was inevitable, to begin with the focus was on sports-racing cars and rallying, by the 1960s the focus had moved towards single seaters. In 1964 Alpine produced a F2/F3 car, it was strongly Brabham influenced, unsurprising really as Ron Tauranac was a design consultant. However at that time the uncompetitiveness of the Renault engine meant a switch to Formule France and sports car racing until 1968 when F3 began to be important once again. From 1969 to 1973 Alpine, with a succession of competitive designs with good Renault engines, allowed a new generation of French drivers to come to the fore and eventually make their mark in the world of Grand Prix racing. Success was also forthcoming in rallying and with the Renault-Alpine sports-racing cars, however this wasn’t matched with financial success and in 1974 Renault took over the struggling concern.

1964

Alpine employed Ron Tauranac as a consultant in the design of the A270 which was intended for both F2 and F3 use and it was strongly based on the 1963 F Junior Brabham, so much so that it was nicknamed the “Brabalpine”. The engine was a Mignotet prepared Renault R8 engine with an over optimistic claimed power output of 102-103 bhp. The gearbox was a four speed Renault unit, suspension was conventional and the bodywork was designed by Marcel Hubert and continued the Brabham similarity. The Alpine link to Renault ensured they had to stick with the French engine rather than the more powerful Ford based units used by the majority of the opposition. Despite this the Alpine showed well on occasions and Henri Grandsire took the French Championship.

1965

Minor developments were carried out for 1965 although the basic design of the car stayed along Brabham lines. Results were not startling, with Mauro Bianchi’s second place at Pau the highlight of the season. In France the new Matra MS5s took most of the honours.

1966

The suspension was revised for the 1966 car but the continued use of the Renault engine was still proving a handicap. Best result of the year was a 1-2 finish at Magny-Cours in July for Roby Weber and Mauro Bianchi.

1967

A new car was introduced for 1967, it featured a modified, shortened chassis and was known as the T27, (although race reports of the day continued to use the A310 designation) but Alpine were spending much of their time concentrating on their A210 Group 6 sports prototype. Several good top six places were scored but this might largely be down to the calibre of two of their drivers, Patrick Depailler and François Cévert. The best result of the year was a win for Depailler at Montlhéry.

1968

Things didn’t change much for 1968, the T27 (or possibly A310) continued to be used and Alpine entered just the single works car for Depailler. A new Renault engine was also introduced with a claimed 115 bhp but this was 5-10 bhp down on the good Ford engines despite showing signs of promise. Depailler had a few good results early season but things soon tailed off.

1969

New for 1969 was the A330 and A360, they continued with the spaceframe route and the two cars were identical except that the A360 had a longer wheelbase to accommodate the taller Jabouille. Best result was a 1-2 at Montlhéry. Engine: 4 cylinder, bore 72 mm, stroke 61 mm = 993 cc. Overhead valve, single Weber carburettor. Power = 117 bhp. Transmission: 4-speed Renault. Suspension: Front, wishbones and coil springs: rear lower wishbones, top links, twin radius rods and coil springs. Chassis: tubular steel spaceframe. Wheelbase: (A330) 76.9 in. (A360) 82.1 in. Track: front 54.8 in, rear 55.5 in. Weight: 880 lbs. Wheel Diameter: 13 in.

1970

For the last year of the 1-litre formula Alpine decided to forgo any works participation, the only car to participate was a private A360 fitted with a Ford engine.

1971

Derived from the 1968 F3 car, the A330, the new A360 utilised a space frame chassis made from chrome-molybdenum steel with a single fuel tank behind the driver. Front suspension was by unequal length wide based wishbones with lower reversed wishbones, top links and radius rods at the rear. De Carbon dampers were fitted all round and an Alpine built rack and pinion steering rack was used. Braking was by Girling calipers and Alpine discs front and rear. It was powered by a 121-123bhp @ 6600rpm Renault engine (based on the R16) driving through a Hewland Mk8 5-speed gearbox. The aerodynamic bodywork was distinctive and apparently effective, although louvres had to be added to cure overheating, the cars concentrated mainly on the French series winning several races.

1972

Although looking similar to the A360, the A364 boasted a new André de Cortanze designed space frame that was some 3.5 inches wider at the front. The suspension was revised with a 2.36 inch increase in track and the bodywork was made sleeker and more aerodynamic. The increase in track allowed for a more elegant 8.36 gallon single bag tank to be fitted rather than the previous multi tank solution. Dudot-Renault engines were fitted which produced similar power to the Ford derived units. Highlight of the year was a victory in the Monaco F3 race by Depailler who stepped back down to F3 for the race. Customer versions of the chassis were available but surprisingly only a few were sold and again most racing was French based.

1973

Once again the works Alpines would mainly concentrate on racing in France with only the occasional foreign foray. Initially the A364 from 1972 was used, however the increasing competitiveness of the rival Martini company meant that during the season some major suspension were introduced and the chassis was renamed A364B. 1973 would be the swan-song for the Alpines as the advent of the 2-litre formula the following year and the lack of any suitable Renault based engine meant that the distinctive shape of the Alpine would not be seen in F3 again except in privateers hands when they were usually fitted with a Ford twin-cam.

DRIVERS

1964 Lucian Bianchi, Mauro Bianchi, Henri Grandsire.

1965
A310
René Abbal, Jean Audhuy, Jean-Pierre Beynac, Lucian Bianchi, Mauro Bianchi, Philippe Bouillot, Jean-Jacques Dalmas, Henri Grandsire, Henri Julien, Dominique Lledo, Willy Mairesse, Jean Max, Pierre Monneret, Eugenio Rebollo, Jean Rolland, José Rosinski, Jean-Claude Schoepp, Philippe Vidal, Roby Weber.

1966 A310
Alex Astruc, Mauro Bianchi, Gérard Brun, Henri Grandsire, Patrice Gransart, Jean-Claude Lhoro, Jean Meiffret, Carlos Alberto Pairetti, François Rabbione, Gilbert Thollon, Jean Vinatier, Roby Weber.

1967
A310
Alex Astruc, Mauro Bianchi, François Cévert, Denis Dayan, Patrick Depailler, Jean Huffschmidt, Jean Meiffret, Bernard Morin, Joseph Thomas.

1968 A310
François Cévert, Patrick Depailler, François Mazet.

1969
A330
Patrick Depailler.

A360
Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

1970 A360

Jean-Claude Guenard.

1971 A360
Jean-Claude Andruet, Patrick Depailler, Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

1972
A364
Thomas Betzler, Patrick Depailler, Werner Haug, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Dieter Kern, Michel Leclère, Alain Serpaggi, Werner Schommers.

A360
Patrick Depailler, Lucien Guitteny, Linguard Goulding.

1973
A364/B
Thomas Betzler, Lucien Guitteny, Michel Leclère, Werner Schommers, Alain Serpaggi.

A360
Allan Davies.

1974 A364
Dieter Kern

1975 A364
Dieter Kern, Kurt Pfunder.

1976 A364
Dieter Kern.

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Alga

The Ford powered Alga raced in Italy in 1967 in the VI Trofeo Luigi Musso at Vallelunga in October, it failed to finish the first heat, whether it raced at any other events isn’t known.

Drivers

1967 “Lara”.

14 May, 202122 September, 2021

Alfa Dana

This Danish manufacturer first built a car for the 500cc F3 formula in the late fifties, nothing more happened until a Formula Junior car appeared in the sixties apparently based on the Stanguellini. Both cars were designed by Uno Jensen, the first was front-engined the latter rear-engined. When the 1-litre F3 was introduced one, or perhaps two, of the rear-engined Junior cars were converted to the new formula using an Alfa Romeo engine for 1964, in 1965 the BMC A series based engine from F Junior was employed. Unsurprisingly they weren’t very competitive with the more modern designs.

1964

The pictures of the 1964 Abarth F3 indicate that the chassis was the same as that used for the F2 design, in addition track and wheelbase dimensions were virtually identical. It was a conventional spaceframe design with wishbone-based outboard suspension front and rear. Front track was 1320mm, rear 1330mm, wheelbase 2300mm and the chassis weighed 400kg. The engine was a 982cc Fiat-based unit with a four-speed gearbox, a Weber 40DCD carburetor was used and power was quoted as 88bhp at 7900rpm.
For whatever reason, perhaps the F3 engine wasn’t up to the job, the Abarth never raced.

Drivers

1964 Poul Johannessen, Tommy Larsen.

1965 Poul Johannessen.

1966 Tommy Larsen.

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Alexis

Alex Francis began building trials cars in 1953 and in 1959 he set up Alexis with Australian Bill Harris to start producing customer cars including a Formula Junior model. Harris had previously been responsible for the Flather 500cc F3 Special. For several years the team produced a number of increasingly sophisticated F Junior cars, the Mk5 in particular going very well. In fact a Mk5 was sold to DAF to be fitted with their Variomatic transmission and it was raced in F3 in 1964. When Harris returned to Australia in 1965 Lotus 7 racer Allan Taylor took his place and Alexis became a serious racing car constructor, and Team Alexis ran cars in a number of formulae. Both F2 and F3 cars were constructed during the ’60s and some success was achieved, the highlight being Paul Hawkins winning the 1965 F2 Eifelrennen. The Jim Russell Driving School took 57 of the Alexis Formula Ford cars for its pupils to learn on in 1967-68, however by the start of the 1970s production began to slow down as other marques came to prominence and Alexis faded from the scene.

1964

The Mk6 was designed by Bill Harris for use both in F2 and F3 but both the chassis that were built were to F3 specification (The ’65 F2 car was built as the Mk7). The design was a continuation of the F Junior line and the results weren’t too encouraging with a best of 6th in a race at Monza for John Ampt. In addition a number of Mk 4 and 5 F Junior cars were converted to F3 spec, notably the MK5 that was run by the works in early season races. The Mk4 was the 1962 F Junior car, featuring disc brakes and a Hewland gear box for the first time. A single Mk5 was produced in 1963, similar but smaller than the Mk4 it also featured fibreglass bodywork. This was the car that would be sold to DAF.

1965

Another Bill Harris design and again it was intended as a dual-purpose F2/F3 design, the Mk8 used a shorter spaceframe than the Mk6, it finished in front of the driveshafts. Modified suspension with new uprights and revised Mk 6 bodywork was used. Three cars were built but again results were disappointing with a best of 4th and 6th in the same race at Monza for Maglia and Blokdyk.

1966

Allan Taylor was the new designer for the Mk9, it was apparently a stronger car than the Mk8 and used a further modified bodywork but it still showed no signs of competitiveness. Unhappy with the customer Cosworth MAE engines available Alexis began to develop their own but with no sign of any improvement.

1967

For the first time for several years Alexis didn’t produce a new model.

1968

Introduced part way through the season the Mk12 was once again a conventional design using a modern type space frame chassis with typical Alexis suspension employing wide based wishbones at the front, the team continued to persevere with their own version of the MAE engine. Three cars were produced but it was another year without a breakthrough, the best finish was a seventh at Chimay for Terry Ogilvie-Hardy who used a Novamotor-headed Cosworth engine.

1969

Once again it was a mid-season debut for the latest Alexis F3, the Mk17, the chassis is sometimes called a Mk16, this would seem to be an early designation with the Mk17 intended to be a F2/F5000 car that was never built. It had a more sophisticated tubular steel chassis than the Mk12 and it featured a slightly wedge-shaped body. On occasions it showed some promise although once again the home brewed engines seemed to lack in the horsepower department. Ken Crook did a lot of the driving but numerous niggling problems prevented any real progress being made. Transmission: Hewland Mk6 4-speed Brakes: Girling 10.25 in diameter discs front and rear. Suspension: Front, wishbones and coil springs: rear lower wishbones, top links, twin radius rods and coil springs. Dimensions: wheelbase 89 in. track front 54.5 in. rear 55.25 in. Wheels: 13 in. diameter front and rear.

1970

The Mk17 was used again in 1970 but despite the switch to a Holbay engine in the works car results weren’t noticeably better with Ken Bailey managing a best of sixth at Mallory Park early in the year.

1971

Based on the previous year’s Mk17 F3 chassis, the Mk 20 had revised front suspension, side radiators and a wedge nose that gave a very neat overall appearance, a Vegantune engine was fitted. Sadly it seemed that very little development work was carried out and this was the last F3 Alexis to be seen.

DRIVERS-

1964
Mk6
John Ampt, George Smith.

Mk5
John Ampt.

?
Bruno Deserti, Paul Hawkins, Roy Pike, George Smith, Henk van Zalinge.

1965
Mk8
Trevor Blokdyk, Jacques Maglia.

Mk6
Allan Taylor.

Mk4
George Smith.

?
Manfred Zeller.

1966
Mk8
Allan Taylor.

Mk6
Allan Taylor.

Mk5
Terry Ogilvie-Hardy.

Mk4
George Smith.

1967
Mk3
George Smith.

Mk6
Allan Taylor, Peter Watts.

Mk5
Terry Ogilvie-Hardy.

?
Dave Walker

1968 Mk12
David Cole, Trevor Fowler, Terry Ogilvie-Hardy.

1969 Mk17
David Cole, Ken Crook, Dick Barker.

1970 Mk17
Ken Bailey.

1971 Mk20
Alan McCully, Allan Taylor.

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Abbott

Originally built in 1966 and debuted by its driver Norman Abbott at a November Brands Hatch meeting where it ran in the midfield. Described in contemporary reports as “projectile like” it was 5 inches (12.5 cms) slimmer than the contemporary Lotus 41. Suspension was outboard with wishbones at the front and a top link and radius rods at the rear. It looks as if there was an “external” extension on the top of the spaceframe tub for the top radius rod to attach to, this is reminiscent of the later Chevron B34.

It would seem there was only ever a singleton chassis built, apparently it cost £1400 (a new “name” chassis would have cost in excess of £2000). It is not clear how often it raced but its moment of glory came in early 1970 at a slippery Forward Trust round at Silverstone when Abbott finished an impressive second behind the works Lotus of Dave Walker.

Drivers

1966 Norman Abbott

1967 Norman Abbott

1970 Norman Abbott

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Alba

Designed by Giorgio Stirano, a former Osella engineer, he left the Italian F1 team in 1981 and built the one-off AR1 at the end of the year. He named it Alba meaning dawn and it raced without providing any results in 1982. After this Stirano switched to designing and building Group C Junior sports cars with more success.

1981

Appearing at Mugello in October 1981 the AR1 it was powered by an Alfa Romeo engine and was apparently conventional in design, unusually for the time it was fitted with Pirelli tyres. The bodywork shape is very reminiscent of Osella designs showing Stirano’s heritage. The same chassis was used in 1982.

Drivers

1981 Enzo Coloni.

1982 Giovanni Alberti, Davide Pavia.

1984 Gatta.

14 May, 20213 May, 2022

Ags

Formed by part-time racing car builder and driver Henri Julien and based at Gonfaron a small town 40kms north east of Toulon, Autombiles Gonfaronnaise Sportives began constructing cars in 1970 for the Formule France series. The first chassis was the JH1 designed by Christian Vanderpleyn and cars for other French categories followed, notably Formule Renault. By 1978 AGS began constructing cars for F2 and produced a number of neat and reasonably competitive cars, driver Richard Dallest winning at Pau and Zandvoort in 1980. F3000 cars followed and in 1986 AGS moved into F1 and for the next few years would struggle to make the grade in Grand Prix racing scoring the odd point until the financial realities caught up with them and they withdrew.

1972

In 1972 the JH5 was constructed for F3, consisting of a monocoque with a tubular sub frame for its Nova engine it had a front radiator and orthodox suspension. It only raced on two occasions when it was driven by future owner of the GPA Helmet company François Berthelot who would later be an AGS sponsor sadly it was not a great success and was to be AGS’s only F3 car.

Drivers

1972 François Berthelot.

14 May, 20219 August, 2021

Active

The Active TA-31 appeared during the 1993 Japanese F3 Championship, it was entered by Active Motorsport and it was driven by Hidehiro Mochizuki. The car was powered by a Tom’s Toyota engine and it was never competitive generally qualifying around 20th and never finishing higher than 12th.

DRIVERS

1993 Hidehiro Mochizuki.

14 May, 202130 May, 2022

Abarth

Carlo Abarth was one of the Porsche project managers for the doomed Cistalia GP car and in this capacity he came to Turin in 1947. Following the failure of the Cistalia programme Abarth decided to stay in Turin where he started his own company producing high performance add-ons for Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo. To advertise the effectiveness of his products Abarth began producing a number of racing and record cars using Fiat and Alfa engines fitted to attractive cars designed by many of the noted Turin stylists. Abarth began to specialise in tuning Fiats especially following the release of the Fiat 600. Through the 1960s and ’70s Abarth created and raced number of very potent saloon and 2-litre sports cars often with great success. However Abarth only ever dabbled in the world of single seaters, in 1964 they built a spaceframe F2 car with their own 995cc engine and six-speed gearbox but results were disappointing with the Abarth engine no match for the opposition Cosworth unit. In 1968 a F1 car was announced using an Abarth V8, it was to have been tested/raced by Jonathan Williams but in his opinion the car design was very outdated and rumours that the V8 was dreadfully underpowered meant the car never turned a wheel.

Anson

1976

1977

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

Alpine

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

DRIVERS

Alga

Drivers

Alfa Dana

1964

Drivers

Alexis

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

DRIVERS-

Abbott

Drivers

Alba

1981

Drivers

Ags

1972

Drivers

Active

DRIVERS

Abarth

1964

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