Manufacturers – Page 11

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Roni

The Roni was a revamp of the Cygnus, the Cygnus (q.v.) appeared in July/August 1984, it was designed by two men from March, Nick Wasyliw and Rob Gustavsson and built by Paul Vincent in north London. Apparently it had been conceived long before its appearance but that hardy perennial, lack of money, saw its gestation delayed. Ian Flux did a couple of races in it without setting the world alight. For 1985 the Cygnus was converted to comply with the new flat-bottomed F3 regs and renamed the Roni.

1985

The Roni was the Cygnus tub with new sidepods and a flat bottom, the suspension was revised to take account of these changes. As with the Cygnus Ian Flux did the driving in the couple of races in which it was entered. Sadly, as before, Flux reported the chassis was good but the engine wasn’t and a lack of finance saw the project grind to a halt.

Drivers

1985 Ian Flux.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Lynx

Monoposto champion Godfrey Hall ran his Lynx-Toyota GH2 in the 1984 British F3 Championship in the B Class for year old cars, the car was heavily based on a Ralt RT3. He scored in several races and finished eighth in the final standings.

Drivers:

1984 Godfrey Hall.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Lutos

The Lutos was based on the Lotus 22 and was originally designed and built in Örebro as a F Junior but it never raced in this class, the chassis was built by Sportscars AB who used the same frame for their Focus (q.v.). It was bought by Sven-Erik Eriksson and it was fitted with rear suspension from a F2 Lola and bodywork from the F3 Svebe (q.v.). It raced occasionally in 1966-67 and it appeared again briefly in the 1970s fitted with a twin-cam engine.

Thanks to Peter Pettersson for the above information.

Drivers:

1966 Lars Bjuhr.

1967
Björn Öhrman.

197? Frank Lacknack.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Lucangeli

n 1959 Sergio Lucangeli built a rear-engined F Junior car, the chassis was multi-tubular with independent suspension front and rear, the engine and gearbox were Fiat.

In June 1964 Odoardo Govoni failed to finish a race at Monza in a Ford-powered chassis, beating several notable names that failed to qualify. In September of the same year, again at Monza, the Lucangeli finished ninth whilst in October it failed to qualify for a Monza round. In the final race it was listed as Fiat-powered. Its reasonable level of competitiveness indicates that perhaps this 1964 model wasn’t a modified F Junior chassis.

Drivers

1964 Odoardo Govoni.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Lova

The Lova was a Belgian machine constructed by Jef Dujourie at Louvain (hence the derivation of its name, the Latin name for Louvain was Lovanium). The first Lova was a 500cc car raced by Dujourie himself in Belgian hillclimbs and in 1960 he built a front-engined DKW powered F Junior which, despite André Pilette having an outing at Monthléry, proved uncompetitive.
A new chassis was constructed, this time moving the DKW engine to the rear and was driven by the wonderfully named Willy Vroomen, a Dutchman from Antwerp and Jean-Claude Franck, a 21 year old from Louvain. Results were still disappointing and even the adoption of a Holbay-tweaked Ford engine did not noticeably improve matters.
Vroomen took part in several early F3 races, where the Lova reverted to a DKW engine in what would seem to be the F Junior car converted to F3. It only ever appeared to run towards the back of a handful of races and then vanished as the racing became more serious.

Thanks to Stefan Örnerdal for additional information.

Drivers:
1964 Willy Vroomen.

1965 Roger Béguint, Willy Vroomen.

1966 Willy Vroomen.

16 May, 202131 May, 2022

Lotus

One of the most famous names in motor racing history, the Lotus story is too long to be told in any great detail here. Founded by Colin Chapman in January 1952, Lotus Engineering Company together with Team Lotus (the racing team founded in 1954) soon gained a reputation for brilliant and often innovative engineering. Chapman himself was a more than competent racing driver, he very nearly drove in F1, and he did design work for Vanwall and BRM before his Lotus days. It wasn’t surprising therefore that Lotus soon became involved in Grand Prix racing and the first Lotus F1 race was at Silverstone in 1958 with updated type 12 F2 cars. Their first real success was when Chapman followed the Cooper route and put the engine in the rear for the type 18 and Stirling Moss would win the first Lotus GP victory at Monaco. For the next 20 years Lotus would produce a string of often beautiful, frequently fragile but usually competitive F1 cars, some highlights would be the 25 and 33 with Jim Clark, the 49 with Clark again and Graham Hill, the 72 and Jochen Rindt, the 79 with Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson. Sadly Colin Chapman died in 1982 and much of the life in Lotus went with him, good cars were still made and success was still there, especially when Ayrton Senna was driving but by the end of the 80’s things were not looking rosy and before long the Lotus name would leave the world of F1 racing although the name lives on it the Lotus road cars. Although F1 was almost always the raison d’être behind Lotus, cars were often built for other formulae especially F2 and F3 where the were often very successful.

1964

The first F3 Lotus was the 31 which was basically a minor rework of the 1962 F Junior 22. The chassis was a spaceframe of round and square tubing with a central bulkhead doubling as the dashboard. Front suspension is via unequal length double wishbones and outboard springs/dampers and an anti-roll bar. At the rear it used a reversed lower wishbone and a top link, twin parallel radius rods with outboard springs and dampers and an anti-roll bar. Magnesium uprights were used at the rear with proprietary units at the front. The 13 inch wheels were cast magnesium although pressed steel Lotus Elan types were found on early models. A Hewland Mk6 gearbox was used, again earlier models were offered with a modified VW or Renault box. Wheelbase 90 ins. Track: front 47.5 ins. rear 50 ins. Despite the success of Lotus in F Junior there were only 12 cars built. In the year of Jackie Stewart and the Tyrrell-Coopers the 31 was very much an also ran with just one win for John Fenning at a minor Silverstone round.

1965

There was no specific F3 model for 1965 but several teams modified the F2 Type 35 to F3 spec. The 35 had an aluminium monocoque chassis with some steel sheeting that was derived from the 1964 F2 model, the 32. Front suspension was by rocker arms and lower wishbones with inboard springs and dampers, at the rear it was reversed lower wishbones, top links, twin radius rods and outboard springs/dampers. The lack of any interest by Lotus showed and the season was very much a Brabham benefit with the only highlight for Lotus being Peter Revson’s Monaco GP support win.

1966

The 41 was the result of a major rethink by Lotus, F3 was being dominated by teams such as Brabham which used a spaceframe for their cars. Lotus had gone for the more sophisticated monocoque approach with the 35 but it hadn’t worked and further customers didn’t like the expense and complexity of repairing a monocoque. So the 41 was born, it was in effect an evolved version of the 22/31 spaceframe design, it was stiffened with sheet steel paneling around the pedal box and the undertray. There were front and rear stressed steel bulkheads, the rear one was hollow and was also the oil catch-tank. Solid engine and gearbox mounts were used to help with the rigidity of the whole unit. Suspension was wide track with double wishbones at the front set up with anti-dive with outboard springs and dampers. The rear consisted of reversed lower wishbones, top links, un-parallel radius rods and outboard springs/dampers. Wheels were 13 inch 6-spoke cast-magnesium with 7 inch rims at the front, 9 inch at the rear and 10.5 inch Girling discs were employed front and rear. Wheelbase: 90 ins. Track: front 56.5 ins. rear 56 ins. Results were at best reasonable, Piers Courage did well and won 5 races and took the French Craven ‘A’ Championship, his team mate Roy Pike also scored a couple of victories. In the UK Jackie Oliver took some wins and newcomers Derek Bell and Mo Nunn showed well but once again, compared to Brabham especially, first places were few and far between.

1967

The 41C was the 1967 car, it was the 41 with a few small changes to the rear suspension, it had a reputation for being as quick as the dominant Brabhams and Matras but it wasn’t easy to drive it quickly, not a good selling point for customer cars. Only four wins at any major event were taken all season with two wins for Freddy Kottulinsky and one each for Charles Lucas and Mo Nunn.

1968

A “new” car appeared for 1968, the 41X, Lotus took a 41C and modified the front suspension with Lotus 47 (the competition version of the Europa road car) uprights and wheels. In addition a dramatic (for the time) wedge shaped body was fitted, it had a low, wide nose and radiator inlet, the body rising at a constant angle to the rear of the cockpit. A flat engine cover with a slanted undercut tail completed the design. As the season progressed various aerodynamic adjustments were made including a tall rear wing in imitation of its F1 relatives. Only the one car was built and John Miles took it to four good wins during the year. However once again compared with the results racked up by Tecno and Brabham during the year it was another poor Lotus season. In official Lotus records this car was actually listed as the Type 55, the designation it would have when production started. However in view of its only adequate performance these plans were shelved and the Type 59 appeared instead.

1969

An entirely new design for 1969, the Dave Baldwin designed 59. It was a dual purpose F2/F3 spaceframe chassis composed of square tubing. Suspension was the familiar double wishbone, outboard springs and dampers at the front with top link, reversed lower wishbone and twin radius rods at the rear. Triumph Herald uprights were used at the front with cast-magnesium units the rear. Wheels were cast magnesium with a knock-on centre-lock fitting. The oil tank, pump, cooler and catch-tank were all sited over the Hewland gearbox.
Wheelbase: 92.5 ins.
Track: front & rear 56 ins.

The 59 first appeared at the Brands Hatch Boxing Day meeting, actually the 27th December 1967. After overcoming some early season problems with spring rates and the oil system the car proved a success, its chunky body hampered it a little on fast circuits but it had a reputation for putting the power down very well. Most successful driver was an up-and-coming young Brazilian named Emerson Fittipaldi, a string of nine wins saw him take the UK Lombard Championship.

1970

The 59 continued unchanged into 1970 but part way through the year the nose from the F2 69 was adopted and the car in this configuration was known a the 59A. Results continued to be very good, in the UK Carlos Pace took the Forward Trust Championship and the 59 won 14 National and Club races. On the Continent the Liptons Tea team of Freddy Kottulinsky and Sten Axelsson took four good wins between them.

1971

The Lotus 69 was designed by Dave Baldwin for use in F2, F3, F Ford and FB/ Atlantic. In F3 guise the 69 had a complex square tube space frame chassis, front suspension was by wishbones with outboard springs and dampers. Rear suspension was by a reversed lower wishbone, top link and twin radius rods. The 69 was hugely successful in F3 with works driver Australian Dave Walker with his Novamotor twin-cam Ford powered car winning no less than 25 races out of 32 entered.

1972

According to Lotus publicists the 73 was the F3 answer to the F1 World Championship winning 72. It was built purely for use as a works car and was officially designated a “John Player Special”. Early design work was by 72 designer Maurice Phillippe before he left Lotus and it was originally intended to be a F2 car. The design was finalised by Dave Baldwin and Martin Wade. Like its F1 big brother the 73 had a bathtub monocoque with the engine acting as a stressed member attached via a tubular framework. At the front a tubular sub frame carried the rack and pinion steering, inboard front brakes, rising rate suspension with fabricated double wishbones with outboard coil springs and dampers. Rear suspension was via a single upper link, twin parallel lower links and twin radius rods, the whole design was based on the 59/69 series. Coil springs/dampers were outboard, brakes inboard.
Early season results were good with Trimmer winning at Mallory and coming second at Monaco but ultimately the car was too complex to be set up quickly in the short F3 race days and the car faded as the season progressed. Additionally the impression was that Lotus weren’t really interested in F3 and that some of the JPS F3 budget ended up in the F1 coffers.
A modified version, the 73B was prepared for 1973 but lack of a sponsor meant Lotus never raced it. The cars were sold to Dr Joseph Ehrlich in 1975 who entered one in a race at Monza as an Ehrlich-Lotus, driven by Patrick Neve, it retired after failing to feature.

Drivers (N.B. Race reports in the early sixties often didn’t specify the chassis type so details are necessarily uncertain)

1964
31
Rodney Banting, Richard Burton, Piers Courage, Jörgen Ellekaer, John Fenning, Pierre Gelé, Evert Jan Groen, Freek Dudok van Heel, Martin Kaye, David van Lennep, “Franz Müller” (Roman Dirschl), Georges Rossetti, Sverrir Thoroddsson, Jonathan Williams.

27
Malcolm Angood, Jean-Paul Behra, John Berry, Roland Binder, Bruno Deserti, Franz Dörfliger, Bruce Eglinton, Simon de Lautour, Melvyn Long, Hans Maasland, Luigi Malanca, Alberico Passadore, Malcolm Payne, David Porter, Harry Stiller, Barry Wood, Philippe Vidal.

22
Georges Ansermoz, Pino Babbini, Guglielmo Bellasi, John Berry, Luigi Bettiol, Bernard Collomb, Franco Conti, Piers Courage, Paul Craven, Jörgen Ellekaer, John Fenning, Franco Ghezzi, Kai Godenhjelm, Brian Hart, Henri Julien, Jens-Christian Legarth, Alain Leguellec, Michel Looser, Jean-Pierre Muller, Jack Pearce, Jacques Pouzet, Georges Rossetti, Stefan Sklenar, Jonathan Williams, Walter Wüst.

20/22
Mike Herbertson.

20
Albert Achinger, Norberto Bagnalasta, Jean Bruyère, Ralph B.de Laforest, Dieter Lanzerath, Charles Lucas, Otto Lux, Jean-Pierre Muller, Franco Pigozzi, Jacques Pouzet, Georges Rossetti, Keith St John.

18
Jean Audhuy, Christian Berger, Jean Bruyère, Chicard, Kurt Dernen, Patrick Dupin, Horst Görs, Jean-Marie Guyot, Georges Héligoin, Jean-Louis Mise, Vincent Palmaro, Johnny Rives, Claude Robert, Claude Swietlik, Olivier Turcat, Karl Untersteggaber, Richard Weber.

?
Malcolm Angood, Brian Barton, Daniel Cerisier, Franco Conti, Yves Deprez, Ray Dilley, Thierry van Eyll, Len Gibbs, Toni Hildebrand, Albert McMillen, Alessandro Rigamonti, “Thierry”, Walter Treser, Giuseppe Vanaria.

1965
35
Bob Bondurant, John Cardwell, Adrian Chambers, Brian Hart, Freddy Kottulinsky, Melvin Long, John Miles, Filippe Nogueira, Ray Parsons, Peter Revson, “Jorge S”, Alban Scheiber, Roby Weber.

34
Dieter Lanzerath.

32
John Cardwell, Francesco Ghezzi, Harry Stiller.

31
Derek Bell, Paul Deetens, Ray Hills, Ole Jörgensen, Tony Lanfranchi, Morris Nunn, Leif Persson, Georges Rossetti, Giuseppe Vanaria, Adam Wyllie.

27
Roland Binder, Sean Brady, Walter Flückiger, Patrice Gransart, Tonio Hildebrand, Hans Maasland, Harry Stiller.

22
Rodney Banting, Guigliemo Bellasi, Alessandro Braga, Giouse Butti, Walter Flückiger, Kai Godenhjelm, Ole Jörgensen, Jörn Qviste, Georges Rossetti, Tom Trana.

20/22
Mike Herbertson.

20
Romolo Baston, Raymond Sodreau.

18
A. Prince, Hans Nilsson.

?
Francois Chevalier, Edwin Dawson, Peter Derré, Luigi Foschi, Carmelo Genovese, Peter Gethin, Patrice Gransart, Willi Keufen, Dieter Lanzerath, Ray Parsons, Malcolm Payne, Gunnar Pedersen, Aldo Pessina, Luigi Petri, Boley Pittard, Walter Wüst.

1966
41
Derek Bell, Lars Bjuhr, Jean Blanc, John Cardwell, Gunnar Carlsson, Piers Courage, Andrew Cowan, Teddy Dawson, Tony Dean, Cacho Fangio, “Geki” (Giacomo Russo), Francesco Godia, Nick Gold, Egert Haglund, Brian Hart, L Hawkins, John Hine, David Hobbs, Tetsu Ikuzawa, Bill Ivy, José-Maria Juncadella, Emil Knecht, Simon de Lautour, Melvyn Long, Wim Loos, Charles Lucas, Chris Moore, Hans Nilsson, Morris Nunn, Eric Offenstadt, Jackie Oliver, Vincent Palmaro, Malcolm Payne, Roy Pike, Peter Revson, Alex Soler-Roig, Rob Slotemaker, Harry Stiller, Thierry Tilmant, Peter Welstead.

35
Walter Flückiger, Keith Greene, Brian Hart, L Huerta-Garcia, Brian Jordan, Freddy Kottulinsky, Jochen Neerpasch, Colin Priddey, Karl von Wendt, Andy Wilkinson.

32
Jaime Martinez.

31
Tony Broster, Roy Cook, Ken Crook, Teddy Dawson, Bengt Ekström, Peter Fattorini, Len Gibbs, Mike Heathcote, Brian Jordan, John Hartle, John Lindsay, Ken Luscombe-Whyte, Mike Potter, Jeff Roberts, Simon Sherman, Steve Thompson, David Wragg.

27
Roland Binder, Werner Jörgensen.

22
Tony Bracegirdle, Tony Broster, Giosue Butti, Kaj Godenhjelm, Alessandro Guidetti, Gabriel Lacoste, Chris Lewis, Luigi Malanca, John Peake, Jörn Qviste, David Wragg.

20
John Lindsay, Betty Peters, Heinz-Dietmar Riedinger.

18
Thorkild Thyrring.

?
Jean-Pierre Beynac, Alessandro Braga, Antonio Braga, Capozzi, Foresti, Giancarlo Gagliardi, Stefan Gelmar, Genovese, Francesco Ghezzi, “Giagi”, A. Guidetti, Olavi Kuikka, Gabriel Lacoste, Dieter Lanzerath, Hasse Nilsson, Saint-Michel, Saverio Salerno, Hans Sjosted, Andrea Tosi.

1967
41C
Vladimír Hubácèk, Freddy Kottulinsky.

41 (some may be the 41C chassis)
Albert Badan, Giancarlo Baghetti, Jean-Claude Beynac, David Bickel, Roland Binder, Jean Blanc, John Cardwell, Chris Cox, Peter Crossley, Mac Daghorn, Jürg Dubler, Bo Eriksson, Nasif Estefano, John Fenning, Malcolm Fletcher, Alain Franceschi, Peter Gaydon, “Geki” (Giacomo Russo), Ramon Griffoll, Cliff Haworth, John Hine, Vladimir Hubacek, Emil Knecht, Brian Jordan, “Josse”, John Kendall, Freddy Kottulinsky, Robert Lamplough, Freddy Link, Charles Lucas, Carlos Martin, John Miles, Chris Moore, John Netherwood, Hans Nilsson, Morris Nunn, Eric Offenstadt, Andrew Page, José-Maria Palomo, Jaime Piera, Roy Pike, Comte Adam Potocki, Gilbert Salles, Jaime Samsò, Alex Soler-Roig, Georges Taquet, Javier de Vilar, Peter Welstead.

35
José Juncadella, Dieter Lanzerath, Freddy Link, Ernst Maring, Ove Nicklasson, Eric Offenstadt, Chris Williams.

32
Brian Jones, Brian Jordan.

31
Bengt Ekström, Peter Farrer, Bernard Unett, Leif Wikander.

27
“Kirke”, Tim Stock.

22
A Bracegirdle, Tim Schenken.

20
Heikki Heidenstrauch, Börje Lindberg.

18
Bob Howlings.

?
Franco Foresti, Eugen Kiemele, Jean-Paul Moussier.

1968
59
John Miles.

51
Jac Nelleman.

41X
John Miles.

41C
Ken Crook.

41 (some may be the 41C chassis)
Albert Badan, Eugenio Baturone, Jean-Pierre Beynac, Roland Binder, Jean Blanc, Alain Cheval, Paul Cure, Leif Englund, Lennart Engström, Malcolm Fletcher, Josef Frei, Carlos Giro, Freddy Kottulinsky, Freddy Link, Morris Nunn, José Palomo, Lars-Eric Salé, Richard Scott, Georges Taquet, Philippe Vidal, Staffan Wahlström.

35
Roland Binder, Tony Birchenhough, Paul Fischer, Freddy Kottulinsky, Freddy Link, Ernst Maring, Bengt Rådmyr, Åke Roslund, Paul Tucom.

22
Willi Deutsch.

20
Willi Deutsch.

?
Björn Öhrman, Vladislav Ondrejik, Bengt Rådmyr, Per-Owe Söderberg.

1969
59B
Tetsu Ikuzawa.

59
Mike Beckwith, Bev Bond, Lars Elgin, Emerson Fittipaldi, Tetsu Ikuzawa, Freddy Kottulinsky, Matti Lamminen, François Mazet, Morris Nunn, Ronnie Peterson, Roy Pike, Andy Sutcliffe, Dave Walker.

51
Ernst Ungar.

41B
Francois Humbert.

41
Vladimir Hubacek, Jörg Kissling, Vladislav Ondrejik, Bengt Radmyr, Peter Rosenmaier, Lars-Erik Sale, Mike Watkins.

35
Tony Birchenhough, Paul Fischer.

1970
59A
Sten Axelsson, Bev Bond, Wilson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Fritz Jordan, Freddy Kottulinsky, Carlos Pace, Dave Walker.

59
Sten Axelsson, Bev Bond, Claude Bouroignie, David Cole, Wilson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Per K:son Kjellberg, Freddy Kottulinsky, Carlos Pace, Bengt Rådmyr, Andy Sutcliffe, Tony Trimmer, Ole Vejlund, Dave Walker, Tom Walkinshaw.

41B
Michel Richard.

41
Bengt Rådmyr, Mike Watkins.

35
Paul Fischer.

?
Rolf Gröndahl, Vladimir Hubacek, Vladislav Ondrejik.

1971

69
Ian Ashley, Thomas Betzler, Guisseppi Bianchi, Gerry Birrell, Claude Bourgoignie, Freddy Kottulinsky, Manizio Levi, Richard Longman, Alan McCully, Manfred Möhr, Dave Morgan, Giancarlo Naddeo, Fernando Natividade, Fabrizio Noe, Rikki von Opel, Gerold Pankl, Bengt Radmyr, Andy Sutcliffe, Dave Walker, Sven Wingaard, Geddes Yeates.

59A
Wilson Fittipaldi, Fritz Jordan, Carlos Pace, Tony Trimmer, Dave Walker.

?
Paul Fischer, Sigi Hofmann.

1972 73
Tony Trimmer, Bernard Vermilio,

69
Ross Ambrose, Carlo Breidenstein, Alan Edgar, Harald Ertl, Roger Keele, Günter Kölmel, Freddy Link, Lella Lombardi, Barrie Maskell, Ernesto Neves, Bruno Pescia, Bengt Radmyr, Gerhard Witti, Geddes Yeates.

1973 69
Malcolm Bohm, Carlo Breidenstein, Günter Kölmel, Gaudenzio Mantova, Klaus Scholtyssek.

1974 69
Carlo Breidenstein, Günter Kölmel.

1975
73B
Patrick Neve.

? (Listed as a Lotus 3)
Peter Rössler.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Royale

Bob King founder of Royale had his motor racing roots as a mechanic in New Zealand working on speedway machines, he later returned to the UK and went into selling road cars. One day somebody traded in an Elva sports car and Bob thought he would race it himself, this led to preparing cars for other people. To deal with all the work King set up Racing Preparations specialising in Coventry Climax engines, Alan Cornock joined the company and as the demand for Climax engines decreased the decision was made to move into constructing customer cars. In 1968 a F Ford, the Royale RP1, was produced (Royale for the Park Royal area of London and as a pun on King and RP for Racing Preparations). Over the next few years large numbers competitive F Fords and Super Vees were sold, and in 1973 Royale moved to Huntingdon however King decided to retire due to health problems in 1976 so Alan Cornock took over the company. Cornock moved the company to smaller premises and over the next few years Royale concentrated on the F Ford and Ford 2000 market with some success, Rory Byrne being their young designer. However by the 80s demand fell off and in 1984 the company went into liquidation.

1970

Two RP8s were constructed, the first as an Atlantic car, it used the same spaceframe chassis as the Formula Ford RP3 with the chassis extended by 2 inches. It had some success in Libre races driven by Ray Allen and Tony Lanfranchi at the end of 1970, it was then shipped to America. The second car was sold to German agent Herbert Hartge as an F3 chassis, there is no record of it ever racing in this guise.

1971

The prototype RP11, designed by Mike Smith and Peter Bohanna, was produced in late ’71 as an F3 toe in the water with no definite plans to go into production, however it was immediately competitive in Tom Pryce’s hands so the decision to sell copies was soon made. It was a monocoque design featuring a tub adapted from the RP9 Super Vee model with outboard suspension and characterised by the hip mounted radiators (a design that was also used in F Ford). Pryce would win the opening round of the 1972 British F3 championship encouraging plenty of customers for the production version.

1972

The RP11 was offered for sale in 1972 the production version differing from the 1971 prototype in having lighter magnesium wheels and uprights to reduce corner weights. 8 were built for 1972 with some models beinhg exported. Since the Royale factory weren’t set up to run a works car in F3 Pryce moved onto F Atlantic with an RP12. None of the customer drivers could get the RP11A to go as fast as Pryce could and results were disappointing.

1973

A further revised version of the RP11, the RP11A was used in 1973 driven by Andy Sutcliffe, he finished 2nd (benefiting from several runners being penalised for jump starts) at Thruxton. The only real difference to the new model was the adoption of all enveloping bodywork and a wing similar to the Ensign design. Shortly after Sutcliffe fell out with the team running him and quit. This left a handful of under equipped privateers to carry the flag in RP11s. Only a single RP11A was ever built and was sold to Huub Vermeulen. The RP20 was announced in late 1973 as a F2/F Atlantic/F3 chassis with different tubular engine bays attached to the monocoque according to the engine type. Only a single car was built and it raced once in F. Atlantic. Thus the Royale name disappeared from F3 with one exception that is, in 1978 a horrible, old and very slow RP5 (a 1970 Formula Libre design) was converted to F3 spec and did nothing to enhance the Royale name.

1977

The RP23 was designed by Rory Byrne and the initial building had begun when the whole project was sold to Roger Andreason and it became the Druid 377.

Drivers

1971 Bev Bond, Tom Pryce.

1972 Ian Ashley, Bernhard Brack, Martyn Howes, Lee Kaye, Josef Kremer, Val Musetti, Tom Pryce, Chris Pryer, Simon Sherman.

1973 Werner Jakob, Josef Kremer, Val Musetti, John Sheldon, Simon Sherman, Andy Sutcliffe, Huub Vermuelen.

1974 Josef Kremer.

1975 Josef Kremer, Mike Wrigley.

1976 Josef Kremer.

1978 Paul Dalton (RP5).

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Lola

Lola began life in 1958 and since then have built cars for just about every formula there is, whether sports car or single seater. Founder Eric Broadley entered the world of motorsport in 1954 as a driver of a 750 Formula car at Silverstone, just two years later he built his first car, called Lola, it was an 1172 Formula car and was immediately successful. The following year work began on a 1100cc sports-racing car, again it was very successful and the requests for replicas was such that at the end of 1958 Broadley quit his job as a builder and began work as a racing car constructor with the Lola Mk1. By 1962 Lola were producing F1 cars for John Surtees and the Bowmaker GP team and the 1963 Lola GT was the father of the fabulous Ford GT40 (on which Broadley did early development work). Soon came the superb Lola T70 sports car, Surtees winning the 1966 CanAm series with one whilst in the same year Graham Hill won the Indy 500 in a T90. For many years after Lola would continue to win all over the world in sports cars, CART, F Ford, in just about every formula there seemed to be a Lola competing. Trouble eventually hit Lola when Reynard made heavy inroads into their CART monopoly, sports car racing was in the doldrums and Broadley decided to have one more crack at F1. Although Lola had tried F1 on a number of occasions it was always effectively as a supplier of cars to other teams and Broadley wanted to do the job as a full Lola works team. Unfortunately it was a total disaster , the cars appeared at one race, Brazil 1997, where they were hopelessly off the pace and the whole mess nearly ruined Lola. Broadley stepped down and the company was bought by Irish entrepreneur Martin Birrane who has effectively turned Lola around and they are once again a force to be reckoned with. In 2003 Loal returned to F3 in conjunction with the Japanese company Dome producing a car that was immediately on a par with the all-conquering Dallaras

1964

Only one T53 was built and it was in fact a F Junior Mk5A converted by Lola to the new F3 regulations, powered by a BMC engine it was used by the Midland Racing Partnership. No results of any consequence were achieved other than a third at Rouen.

1965

1965’s offering was the dual-purpose T60, it was a monocoque destined for both F2 and F3, the suspension contained large amounts of anti-dive and anti-squat. The F2 version had some reasonable results, notably in the hands of John Surtees and Frank Lythgoe had a F3 version built for Mike Beckwith who secured a win at Monza in 1966 although, generally, results were not outstanding.

1966

The T62 was again a design intended for F2 and F3 and was a conventional monocoque car but it would seem that no F3 versions were built (but see 1969). The 1965 T60 was still used by several drivers with Mike Beckwith and Eric Offenstadt taking three early season wins but as the season progressed the T60’s fortunes waned. It seemed that Lola’s success with their other cars, notably the T70 sports car and the T90 Indianapolis car meant that their interest in F3 came to an end for the rest of the decade.

1967

During 1967 entry lists/results showed both a T63 (for Ian Ashley and Boley Pittard) and a T64 (for Michel Dagorne) racing, this would seem to be an error and these F3 type numbers did not exist. The most likely explanation is that the T63 was in fact T60/3 and T64 was T60/4. Thanks to Glyn Jones of Lola Heritage for the additional information.

1969

In 1969 Guy Edwards raced a 1966 T62 in several UK F3 races, since there is no record of a T62 previously racing as a F3 car this is likely to be a converted F2 chassis (possibly one of the ex-Frank Williams F2 cars?).

1971

The T240 was announced as the Lola chassis for junior formulae for 1971, it could be used in F2, F3 and Formula B. It comprised of a new monocoque with outboard suspension, double wishbones at the front, lower reversed wishbones with fixed length driveshafts and radius rods at the rear. The angular fuel tanks were low slung, well back in the wheelbase. In the end a solitary F2 chassis was completed that was raced once by Helmut Marko, no F3 or FB cars were built. Ironically the monocoque was used as the basis for T330, the very successful F5000 car of 1972.

1972

Following on from the T240 was the T242, basically just an update of the previous years car. As before no F3 versions were made, in this case the only completed cars were for FB.

1973

1975

Information on the T350 is scarce, it seems to have been tested by South African Robert Joubert. It appeared at the first championship race of the season at Thruxton but non-started through engine problems, it is not clear whether it raced again. In the middle of May Joubert announced he was quitting F3 and converting the chassis to F Atlantic to race it in Canada. From appearances it was from the same family as the T360 which was the 1974/5 F Atlantic car, one of which was converted to F2 spec and raced a couple of times by Ted Wentz.

1976

Lola’s 1976 F3 offering, the T470, seemed to follow the past trend of Lola in F3, it hardly set the world alight. Based on the T450 F2 chassis, it consisted of a three quarter monocoque with a tubular sub frame to take the engine, suspension was narrow track and outboard. It only appeared on a few occasions when it was driven by Patrick Bardinon, at Monaco he didn’t even start as he was so far down the grid, his best result was an 8th place at Thruxton.

1977

Based on the T550, the 1977 F2 car, it had a front radiator and full-width nose cone, it had a longer wheelbase than the T470 but the front track was narrower. Mike Blanchet carried out extensive testing, joined at the end of the season by Nigel Mansell who had raced a private car during the year actually managing to get it up to 4th place at Silverstone in October. Four cars were sold but results were disappointing.

1978

The T670 was a new design but it leant heavily on the lessons learnt from the development of the T570. It retained the full-width nose cone and front radiator whilst the front and rear track were narrower. Mike Blanchet managed a 5th place in the works example and Arie Luyendijk managed some top 6 places in Europe, but he used a Chevrolet Vega engine which weren’t considered competitive and the chassis was thought to be overweight.

1979

1980

1983

Lola had one more look at F3 with the T870, it was tested in mid-1983 and Lola announced it would race once it was fully competitive. It never raced which implies it wasn’t ready to take on the Ralt RT3 head to head. That was Lola’s last F3 car for 20 years until the creation of the Lola-Dome (q.v.).

Drivers

1964
Mk53
Bill Bradley.

Mk5A
Jacques Clemente, Jean-Claude Franck, Dieter Mantzel, Eric Offenstadt.

Mk5
Andrea de Adamich, David Baker, Tommy Bunn, William Caiger, Len Selby.

Mk3
Josef Hecht, Klaus Miersch, August Rösner.

Mk2
Tony Goodwin.

?
Richard Höhfeld, Chuck Jones, Jean-Pierre Muller, Heinrich Oestreich, Giuseppe Polistena, Josef Schnitzer.

1965
T60
Mike Beckwith, Eric Offenstadt.

Mk5A
Andrea de Adamich, Jean Bruyére, Georg Duneborn, Jean-Pierre Muller, Antonio Peixinho, Paul Pellero, Claude Sitrakian.

Mk5
Claude Sitrakian.

Mk3
Ralph Buschaus de Laforest.

?
Pierre Derré, Sten-Olof Gunnasson, J-C Muller, Ernst Schelble, Hasse Sjostedt, Yngve Wallin.

1966
T60
Mike Beckwith, Eric Offenstadt, Luigi Petri, Giorgio Pianta, Steve Thompson.

Mk5A
Ted Reece, Georges Taquet.

Mk3
Karl Starke.

?
Dieter Braun, Stig Dahlman, Lothar Ranft, Yngve Wallin.

1967
T60 (see 1967 above)
Ian Ashley, Michel Dagorne, Pierre/Philippe Marchesi, Boley Pittard, Steve Thompson.

Mk3
Karl Starke.

?
Mario Acquati, Mac Daghorn, Daniel Gache.

1968 ?
Göran Porander.

1969
T62
Guy Edwards.

?
Klaus Tenbensel.

1975 T350
Robert Joubert.

1976
T470
Patrick Bardinon.

1977 T570
George Aposkitis, Ian Ashley, Nigel Mansell.

1978 T670
Walter Baltisser, Roland Bitterlin, Mike Blanchet, Tommy “Slim” Borgudd, Fredy Eschenmoser, Arie Luyendijk.

1979
T770
Phillipe Alliot.

T672
Roland Bitterlin, Mike Blanchet.

T670
Mike Blanchet, Beat Blatter, Fredy Eschenmoser, Edy Kobelt, Max F. Welti.

1980
T770/2
Mike Blanchet.

?
Jean-Pierre Lebet, Pierre-Alain Lombardi.

1981
T570
Jean-Pierre Trachsel.

T672
Jean-Pierre Lebet, Pierre-Yves Meinen.

1982
T672
Robert Simac.

T670
Jean-Pierre Trachsel.

1983 ?
Christian Nenning, Walter Pedrazza.

1984 ?
Roland Dupasquier.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Lenham- Hurst

Lenham Hurst Racing was formed in 1968 to combine the racing efforts of Roger Hurst with the Lenham Motor Co. A number of quite successful sports cars were the outcome including the Lenham P70 which won the French Sports Car Championship and led to the company competing a number of times at Le Mans. The first F3 car, the 1972 Lenham Hurst LM1, was a conventional space framed car with a Piper engine, seemingly it was an adaptation of the Hamlen Formula Ford car. It raced that year in the GP des Frontières at Chimay in Belgium without success and seems to have then faded from the scene. Hurst and Lenham parted company in 1972 although Hurst still produced sports cars with the Lenham name. Two later F3 projects, the Lenham P73 and P87 were modified March F3 cars and a couple of other announced F3 projects, the P74 and the P86 appear to have been stillborn. It is not certain that any of them actually raced.

1979

In 1979, Roger Hurst showed his Lenham P87 F3 car, it was based on a March chassis (which one isn’t clear). I can find no trace of it racing.

Drivers
1972 Richard Croucher.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Le Grand

Le Grand began building racing cars in the early sixties in Sylmar Southern California, founded by Alden “Red” LeGrand they concentrated mainly on single seaters. Le Grand had several National successes including winning the SCCA 1965 Pacific Division Formula C, they also produced Formula B and F Ford models.

1967

In 1967 the Le Grand Mk5 appeared in a number of minor Continental races where it ran well. The Mk5 consisted of a thin gauge metal space frame employing a number of magnesium castings and suspension parts that made it very light (but expensive). It was fitted with a Cosworth engine and Hewland gearbox and unusually it was fitted with American Airheart disc brakes. It was a small car with a track 2.5 inches less than the contemporary Lotus 41 and a 4 inch shorter wheelbase.
Results were quite good with a 4th at Schleiz the best.

Drivers
1967 Bruce Eglinton.

Roni

1985

Drivers

Lynx

Lutos

Lucangeli

Lova

Lotus

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

Royale

1970

1971

1972

1973

1977

Drivers

Lola

1964

1965

1966

1967

1969

1971

1972

1973

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1983

Lenham- Hurst

1979

Le Grand

1967

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