Manufacturers – Page 14

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Melkus

The Melkus factory was based in Dresden and its founder Heinz Melkus began building cars in the late fifties. From 1959 on Melkus began producing F Junior cars and they soon became very popular in the Eastern Bloc countries due to the difficulties of obtaining cars such as Coopers. The cars were powered by 3-cylinder 2-stroke Wartburg engines and whilst the were never really competitive with Western cars they nevertheless went very well against similar cars.

As the new F3 came into being initially several of the late model F Junior cars were converted over to the new regulations and then purpose built F3 designs were produced. Once again they were seldom in with a chance against the Western cars as their Wartburg engines only gave about 85-90bhp. Spaceframe construction was favoured in all the F3 designs, and some developments were carried out to make the cars as aerodynamic as possible to compensate for power deficiencies, bodies were very slippery and the suspension was sited inboard front and rear. Surprisingly drum brakes were used up to 1970 when the first disc-braked cars were built, presumably disc brake components were in short supply through the 1960s. One interesting aerodynamic tweak that was seemingly tried was that the air from the radiator was ducted along the body in two tunnels to vent at the tail.Heinz raced his eponymous cars with much success in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Latvia and Russia and his son Ulrich was similarly successful until his death from a racing accident in 1990. As the new F3 became more and more competitive and the Eastern European authorities became more insular Melkus switched to building Formula Easter cars. Sadly Heinz Melkus died on the 5th September 2005. Thanks to Alexey Rogachev for the new pictures and the guys at TNF for additional information.

Drivers

1964 ?
Laszlo Bognar, Manfred Bretschneider, Peter Bretschneider, Max Byczkowski, Ferenc Demel, Peter Findeisen, Wolfgang Kauf, Günther Klug, Horst Klug, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Frieder Rädlein, Hans Roediger, Valerij Schachverdov, Dieter Schierz, Siegfried Scholz, Istvan Sulyok, Tibor Szeles, Hans-Theo Tegeler.

1965
64
Vladimir Ptushkin, Ants Seiler, Georgy Surguchev.

63
Rudolf Goldin, Vladimir Ptushkin, S Shakhbazyan.

?
Laszlo Bognar, Manfred Bretschneider, Max Byczkowski, Ferenc Demel, Peter Findeisen, Vladimir Hubacek, Günther Klug, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Frieder Rädlein, Hans Roediger, Siegfried Scholz, Miklos de Sorgo, Istvan Sulyok, Tibor Szeles, Antoni Weiner.

1966
65
Frieder Rädlein, Heinz Melkus.

64
Yuri Andreev, Viktor Lapin, Yakov Vartpatrikov.

63
O. Kosinov.

62
Laszlo Bognar.

?
Herbert Armstroff, Manfred Bretschneider, Peter Bretschneider, Peter Findeisen, Evegeny Glukharev, Vladimir Hubacek, Günther Klug, Wolfgang Klug, Klaus-Peter Krause, Manfred Lesche, Siegfried Leutert, Hans Roediger, Miklos de Sorgo, Istvan Sulyok, Tibor Szeles.

1967 Herbert Armstroff, Manfred Bretschneider, Peter Bretschneider, Peter Findeisen, Vladimir Hubacek, Günther Klug, Wolfgang Klug, Wolfgang Krug, Klaus-Peter Krause, Manfred Lesche, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Frieder Rädlein, Ralf Röber, Hans Roediger, Siegfried Scholz, Tibor Seles, Miklos de Sorgo, Istvan Sulyok, Tibor Szeles.

1968 Herbert Armstroff, Manfred Bretschneider, Peter Bretschneider, Peter Findeisen, Peter Jurack, Günter Klingner, Klaus-Peter Krause, Wolfgang Krug, Wolfgang Küther, Manfred Lesche, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Ulli Melkus, Frieder Rädlein, Ralf Röber, Hans Roediger, Miklos de Sorgo, Istvan Sulyok.

1969 Manfred Bretschneider, Siegfried Bubenik, Peter Findeisen, Frank Hausmann, Roland Jurack, Günter Klingner, Günther Klug, Klaus-Peter Krause, Wolfgang Krug, Wolfgang Küther, Manfred Lesche, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Ulli Melkus, Frieder Rädlein, Ralf Röber.

1970 Manfred Bretschneider, Siegfried Bubenik, Peter Findeisen, Frank Hausmann, Günter Klingner, Klaus-Peter Krause, Wolfgang Küther, Manfred Lesche, Dieter Lindner, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Ulli Melkus, Dieter Raabs, Frieder Rädlein, Joachim Willmann.

1971 Siegfried Bubenik, Christian Gallus, Frank Hausmann, Günter Klingner, Kurt Klotz, Klaus-Peter Krause, Wolfgang Krug, Wolfgang Küther, Manfred Lesche, Dieter Lindner, Werner Markhoff, Heinz Melkus, Ulli Melkus, Miklos de Sorgo, Joachim Willmann.

1972 Siegfried Bubenik, Christian Gallus, Frank Hausmann, Günter Klingner, Klaus-Peter Krause, Wolfgang Küther, Dieter Lindner, Heinz Melkus, Ulli Melkus.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Swallow

Swallow Racing came into being in 1981 running a Pilbeam in FF2000 and by 1985 they had progressed to F3 with a Reynard. In an attempt to gain an advantage over the other teams they decided to design their own chassis and designer Dave Rendall, an ex-Reynard man, began work in 1986. The lack of success of the chassis meant that this would be Swallow’s only attempt at F3.

1987

The front suspension detail.
Unlike its contemporaries Ralt and Reynard who opted for aluminium honeycomb and carbon fibre respectively the 387 used glass composite for its monocoque as Rendall reckoned it the safest in event of an accident. The VW engine was mounted with a 14° tilt to the right (from the rear) to give a lower centre of gravity and lower engine cover for an improved airflow to the rear wing. Unusually a 5-speed Staffs Silent Gearbox was fitted.
Suspension was double wishbone front and rear with pull rods all round. The front dampers were mounted in front of the main tub (see picture) with the rear dampers attached vertically either side of the gearbox. The water radiator and oil cooler were in the left-hand composite sidepod.
Julian Bailey and then Peter Hardman did the initial development before Tim Davies raced the car. Sadly despite Davies best efforts the car clearly wasn’t a match for the massed Ralts and Reynards, traction in particular being a problem, and no points were scored all season. At the end of the year Swallow decided being a constructor wasn’t a viable proposition and they continued in F3 the following year as Reynard customers.

Drivers
1987 Tim Davies.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Swica

Built by the Swiss team Rechsteiner Racing in Lausanne the Swica (SWIss CAr) raced in the 1985 French F3 Championship. Patron of the team Pierre Rechsteiner, a former F Ford driver, instigated the design of the VW powered car, the monocoque had an aluminium lower section with a carbon fibre upper section. Results weren’t good, best was a ninth at Pau for the experienced James Weaver, and the team reverted to running customer cars. For 1986 a, presumably, new design the 386 was raced in the Swiss F3 championship for at least part of the season by Jakob Bordoli. In 1987 a Swica 387 raced in the European Championship round at Silverstone in October, it finished 20th and last, it seems this was its only appearance outside the Swiss Championship.

Drivers
1985 385 James Weaver.

1986 386 Jakob Bordoli

1987387 Christophe Hurni, Peter Stoller.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Svebe

1947 saw the first Svebe see the light of day, a front wheel drive DKW 800cc powered device built by Sven Andersson and Bengt Peterson (father of Ronnie). In later years a series of 500cc cars were built primarily for sprints and hillclimbs. Ronnie Peterson had been going very well in karting and his father decided F3 was the next step, in an attempt to save money Peterson Snr. and Andersson built a number of F3 Svebes.

1966

The Svebe was a direct Brabham copy that Peterson raced all over Sweden and Denmark in 1966. Results weren’t bad but the car eventually cost about twice what a Brabham would cost and faced with updating it at the end of the year the team bought a Brabham. Several other drivers also raced Svebes, most notably Freddie Kottulinsky, and like Peterson scored some reasonable places without ever being a consistent threat to the more favoured Brabhams.

Drivers

1965 Egert Haglund.

1966 Sven Andersson, Egert Haglund, Freddie Kottulinsky, Ronnie Peterson.

1967 Tommy Andersson, Gustav Dieden, Freddie Kottulinsky, Sune Rillver, Hans Uhlin.

1968 Per-Owe Söderberg.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Supernova

Supernova were based in Sussex and had a short-lived career as a F3 racing car constructor, they were better known for building good looking Super Vee cars.

1976

As can be seen from the picture to the left the SF3 was a slender design with conventional outboard suspension and a front radiator, the nose looks very similar to the F5000 Trojan design. Judging by the narrow wheels and tyres at the front and the rear uprights sticking out in the breeze these were not the correct wheels for the car. Powered by a Brown Ford twin-cam engine the Supernova had a couple of good early season results with a best of 3rd at Oulton Park in March.

Drivers
1976 Claude Cuicci.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Stella

The Stella 033 first appeared in the 1985 Japanese F3 Championship, two teams ran the cars and both were Nissan powered. Best finishing position was a fifth place for Yuuji Yamamoto, the car reappeared for five races in 1987 but was no longer competitive.

Drivers:

1985
Shigeki Matsui, Yuuji Yamamoto.

1987
Yoshinori Fujita.

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Mcnamara

McNamara were based at Lengreiss on the Rhine and was started by Francis McNamara a US serviceman who had raced F Vees whilst posted to Germany. McNamara first built a number of successful Vees and then in 1969 a spaceframe design by Dan Hawkes was modified by Austrian Jo Karasek to become the F3 McNamara Sebring Mk3, the car showed promise and in 1970 a modified version, the 3B, was introduced. However by this time McNamara had moved up the ladder and in 1970 they built an Indianapolis car for STP to be driven by Mario Andretti and they modified Andretti’s F1 STP March 701. Unfortunately the Indy car proved a failure and the modified 701 was no faster than the original design. Later McNamara had problems with the sudden death of his wife, his own disappearance and the launch of an Interpol investigation.

1969

The first F3 design had a spaceframe chassis and the suspension was heavily based on Brabham lines and several early cars used some Brabham components. Front suspension was double wishbones with outboard spring/dampers. Rear suspension was by top link and lower wishbone with twin radius rods, springs and dampers were again outboard. It was clothed in a distinctive looking wedge shaped body and although there were no wins the car was by no means disgraced. Wheelbase: 92 ins. Track: front 57 ins. rear 56 ins. Wheels: 13 ins.

1970

The MK3B was introduced for 1970 and featured revised suspension geometry. Quite a few cars were sold in Germany on the strength of the 1969 results, one win was recorded during the year, Gerold Pankol at Diepholz. Several other top six places were recorded notably by a young Niki Lauda. At the end of the year McNamara withdrew from F3.

Drivers

1969
Helmut Marko, Werner Riedl.

1970
3B
Wilfried Holder, Niki Lauda, Francis McNamara, Gerold Pankl, Werner Riedl, Peter Schäbitz, Lothar Schörg, Nikolaus Ukmar.

?
Ole Vejlund.

1971
3
Josef Resch.

3B
Horst Eiteneuer, Wilfried Holder, Klaus-Jürgen Rappensberger, Peter Schäbitz, Werner Schommers.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Starfire

The Starfire first saw the light of day at the 1975 Racing Car Show in January where it appeared in FF2000 guise, it was built by Starfire Racing who were based in Fulham, Southwest London. The neat looking car was penned by a then almost unknown Patrick Head and it was advertised as also being available as a F3 or Formula Super Renault chassis. It would seem that no F3 versions were ever built.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Stanguellini

Vittorio Stanguellini, a FIAT dealer in Modena, began racing before the war in 1100 cc Ballilas and following the end of the hostilities in 1946 he started to manufacture his own cars based on FIAT parts. Stanguellini also developed his own engines and his 750cc and 1100cc sports car won numerous races in Italian national championships. Following the introduction of F Junior in 1958 Stanguellini built a batch of cars which were immediately successful winning the Italian Championship in 1958. In 1959 Stanguellini dominated the new International Championship with Swiss driver Michel May taking title and newcomers (and future GP winners) Wolfgang von Trips and Lorenzo Bandini taking wins in their “Stangs”. The Stanguellini-built cars always had an excellent reputation for the quality of their cars and although they were eclipsed by the arrival of the F Junior Cooper they continued to build cars for several years.

1964

Stanguellini built a Fiat-powered F3 car for the introduction of the formula in 1964, from appearances it was a neat, conventional spaceframe design with inboard front suspension. Unfortunately the Fiat engine was not competitive and this, coupled with a a lack of finance, meant that the car was never developed and it never progressed past the testing stage. This would be the last single-seater chassis to be built by Stanguellini.
It would seem therefore that the few Stangs that raced in F3 were converted F Junior models.
There were further rumours in 1970 of a new car to be raced the following year in the new 1600cc F3, interestingly it was said to be powered by a Ferrari Dino based engine but sadly it seems to have been just a rumour.

Drivers:

1964
Gianfranco Stanga.

1965
Gianfranco Stanga.

1966 Remigio Cianfriglia, Luciano Dal Ben.

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Spider

The first Spider, the Mk1, was a F Junior chassis built by Svenharry Åkesson in 1959-60, it was fitted with a BMC engine and VW gearbox and raced by the designer himself. The Mk2 appeared in 1962 and was a development of the Mk1, in 1963 it was run as a F Junior but in 1964 it was converted to 1-litre F2 spec still with Svenharry Åkesson taking care of the driving duties. The Holbay-powered Spider Mk3 was a one-off Brabham clone, it was built in 1965 with Svenharry driving and in 1966 it was sold to Börje Björkqvist. The Mk3 was raced in both Scandanavia and Germany.

Drivers:

1965 Svenharry Åkesson.

1966 Börje Björkqvist.

F3 History

Category: Manufacturers

Melkus

Melkus

Drivers

Swallow

Swallow

1987

Swica

Swica

Svebe

Svebe

1966

Supernova

Supernova

1976

Stella

Stella

Mcnamara

Mcnamara

1969

1970

Drivers

Starfire

Starfire

Stanguellini

Stanguellini

Spider

Spider

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