Manufacturers – Page 16

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Selex

The Selex company, based in Barcelona, built their first F3 car in 1969, the ST2, although it wasn’t raced until 1970 when it was driven by Salvador Cañellas. Selex continued to produce the occasional F3 chassis up until 1983 (although this last F3 car was called an Avidesa q.v.). However most of their cars were for the national Spanish series, SEAT Formula 1430 and the 1.8-litre Formula Nacional, eventually by the late 1980’s Selex had switched to the construction of specialist shock absorbers.

1970

The ST2 was the Selex offering for 1970, from the picture it appeares to be a conventional, outboard suspended design. No results of any importance were achieved.

1978

The ST8 monocoque was based on the design for a Formula Nacional car, it had conventional outboard suspension, a front radiator with a full-width nose although the picture on the left does indicate that the tub was very shallow indeed. Power as ever was supplied by a Toyota Novamotor. Since there was no Spanish F3 championship it lacked the stimulus to development that national racing might have provided. Also most of the Spanish F3 drivers at that time understandably preferred the more proven qualities of Ralt or March. Miguel Molons who seems to have been the only driver was the son of the patron, no results of any note were achieved.

1979

It may be that the ST8 continued to race into 1979 but no good results were scored.

Drivers

1970 Salvador Cañellas.

1978 Miguel Molons.

1979 Miguel Molons.

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SEG

SEG were one of the companies that appeared around 1960 when the East German government wanted to use sport as a means of propaganda, this was euphemistically called using “socialist development racing communities”. The driving lights behind the company were Willy Lehmann (who had also been involved with the Scampolo F Junior cars) and Siegfried Seiffert and during the 1960s they produced a number of similar looking Wartburg-powered cars. They were generally competitive runners when pitted against the other East German cars but less so when they met more serious opposition. As F3 became more professional the SEGs faded from the scene but they provided cars for 7 years which is more than many more illustrious names managed. It is not clear how many different “types” appeared during the seven years as the cars were only ever shown as “SEG” on the entry lists.

Drivers:

1964 Siegmar Bunk. Dietmar Grieger, Erich Käppler, Willy Lehmann, Siegfried Leutert, Christian Pfeiffer, Siegfried Seifert, Wolfgang Wiele.

1965 Siegmar Bunk. Dietmar Grieger, Jerzy Jankowski, Jurgen Käppler, Willy Lehmann, Siegfried Leutert, Henry Linde, Klaus Mende, Christian Pfeiffer, Siegfried Seifert, Joachim Willmann.

1966 Eberhard Fingerle, Dietmar Grieger, Christian Haase, Jurgen Käppler, Willy Lehmann, Siegfried Leutert, Klaus Mende, Christian Pfeiffer, Siegfried Scholz, Joachim Willmann.

1967 Manfred Berger, Eberhard Fingerle, Jürgen Käppler, Willy Lehmann, Dieter Pankrath, Christian Pfeiffer, Siegfried Scholz, Joachim Willmann.

1968 Manfred Berger, Eberhard Fingerle, Lothar Grübner, Christian Haase, Jürgen Käppler, Dieter Pankrath, Christian Pfeiffer, Siegfried Scholz, Joachim Willmann.

1969 Manfred Berger, Eberhard Fingerle, Christian Haase, Jürgen Käppler, Dieter Pankrath, Kurt Rolapp, Siegfried Scholz, Lothar Wolf.

1970 Manfred Berger, Werner Eschrich, Eberhard Fingerle, Jürgen Käppler, Wolfgang Krug, Dieter Pankrath, Kurt Rolapp, Siegfried Scholz, Lothar Wolf.

1971 Manfred Berger, Jürgen Käppler, Wolfgang Krug, Dieter Pankrath, Kurt Rolapp, Lothar Schmidt, Siegfried Scholz, Lothar Wolf.

1972 Manfred Berger, Jürgen Käppler, Wolfgang Krug, Kurt Rolapp, Lothar Schmidt.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

SDC

In October 1975 some time Formula Atlantic driver Stephen Choularton announced the construction of the SDC 36. The chassis name was presumably taken from his initials and the car would be built in converted stables at his home in Warrington in Cheshire in conjunction with computer mathematician John Hughes. It was planned that the car would also be suitable to be used in F2 and F Atlantic, nothing further was heard and it would seem the plans came to naught.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Scorpion

The Ford-powered Scorpion was driven by Swiss driver Laurent Rotti, its country of origin isn’t clear but since its only race appearance was in Italy perhaps it was of Italian construction. The Scorpion was entered for a round of the Italian F3 Championship at Monza in September where it failed to qualify. This would seem to be the only outing for the car.

Drivers:

1971 Laurent Rotti.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Sautenent

The Sautenet-Peugeot, presumably constructed by its driver/entrant, failed to qualify for its only three races, at La Châtre in June 1964 and 1966 and on the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans in September 1966. The Peugeot engine indicates a possible F Junior history.

Drivers

1964 Claude Sautenet.

1966 Claude Sautenet.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Saturn

The BMC-powered Saturn raced sporadically in UK F3 races during 1964 without being very competitive. From the picture above it appears very small and ran outboard suspension all-round.

Drivers

1964 Alistair Welch.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Sana

The first Sana was a F Atlantic chassis that appeared in the Spring of 1976, it was designed by Gordon Fowell, designer of one of the 1973 Chris Amon-driven F1 Tecnos and like the Tecno it was built by John Thompson The new car was driven by Cyd Williams and it showed some promise with a 2nd place finish first time out. As a result of this success a F3 version was constructed, the F Atlantic versions continued to do well reasonably driven by Cyd Williams, Terry Perkins and Nick May. It was later raced in Libre races in the North of England as the Barton JTB3.

1976

The F3 version of the F Atlantic car appeared only once, driven by Larry Perkins at the Monaco GP support race, it qualified on the last row of the grid and was retired by Perkins due apparently to its evil handling. Evidently Fowell had decided that his suspension design was correct and therefore didn’t fit any roll bar adjustment. The F3 design was the same as the F Atlantic car with its full width nose and pronounced wedge shape provided by the monocoque and bodywork. Power came from a Brown-Ford engine that wasn’t reckoned to be the most powerful around.

Drivers
1976 Terry Perkins.

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Safir

Safir was the name of an engineering company owned by John Thorpe and the first car to be called a Safir was the renamed F1 Token RJ02 which was acquired and run in a couple of British F1 races in 1975, the original intention being to gain experience before launching a new design in 1976. The Token F! was designed by Ray Jessop who had left Brabham’s to work on the Ron Dennis’ Rondel F1 car which never ran due to budgetary problems, it was taken over by another team and renamed the Token and then became the Safir. In 1975 Safir built and raced a F3 car, after extensive winter testing by Tony Trimmer it showed promise but as most of the available budget went on building the car there was very little left over to develop it into a consistent front runner. An initial batch of five cars was planned in an effort to take on March but despite the car showing its competitiveness it would seem that the extra cars never materialised. Safir continued into 1976 but the death of Ray Jessop saw the project wound up.

1975

Designed by Ray Jessop, with Alan England responsible for the aerodynamics the RJ03 was not dissimilar to a Ralt with its full-width nose and slab sided monocoque, suspension was a conventional wide track design and power came from either a Holbay-Ford Pinto or later a Holbay-Ford twin-cam. Best results were a win at Knockhill for Belgian Patrick Neve backed up by 2nds at Monaco, Silverstone and twice at Thruxton. The design would appear to be a developed version of the Delta RJO3 (q.v.) that was announced in early 1975.

1976

Some minor revisions were introduced for 1976 when a second chassis was built the most important of which was probably the installation of a Toyota Novamotor. Sadly Ray Jessop died early in the year of a stroke aged only 40 which prevented any further development. Best results for Tiff Needell were a 2nd at Thruxton and a 4th at Oulton Park with a handful of other top 6 finishes.

Drivers
1975 Claude Crespin, Geoff Lees, Patrick Neve

1976 Tiff Needell

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Maurer

Listed as the SK86F and Toyota powered it is not clear if this has any connection with the Maurer F2 team of the early eighties, since the German team pulled out of F2 at the end of 1983 it seems odd. The car competed in the 1986 Japanese F3 Championship taking part in two races finishing 17th and 16th.

Drivers

1986 Shinji Yoshikawa.

15 May, 202110 July, 2021

Mazilli

It seems likely that this was an Italian manufacturer in view of the name and of the apparent driver nationalities. Two cars were entered at a Kassel-Calden event in 1974 where they did not seem to be very competitive. Both cars were entered by Scuderia Italia which I assume is the same Scuderia Italia of F1 fame that ran the BMS Dallaras and BMS Lolas for drivers such as Alex Caffi, Andrea de Cesaris, JJ Lehto and Michele Alboreto, they now run Ferraris in the FIA Sportscar Championship. Presumably they usually raced in Italy as this seems to be the only German race they appeared in.

1974

The only details I have for the car are that it was called the T374 and it was Ford powered.

drivers

1974 Francesco Bergami, Giacomo Fadini.

F3 History

Category: Manufacturers

Selex

Selex

1970

1978

1979

SEG

SEG

SDC

SDC

Scorpion

Scorpion

Sautenent

Sautenent

Saturn

Saturn

Sana

Sana

1976

Safir

Safir

1975

1976

Maurer

Maurer

Drivers

Mazilli

Mazilli

1974

drivers

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