Elva

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elval
elva
A 200 series Elva from 1960.

Elva

Elva (from the Latin “she goes”) were one of the earliest manufacturers to build a F Junior chassis their first car appearing at the first F Junior race at Snetterton in 1959. The company was formed by Frank Nichols in the early fifties initially constructing sports cars before moving into F Junior. The first Elvas proved both successful and popular but they were soon overtaken by the more famous names both here and on the continent and in 1962 Elva stopped building Juniors and returned to sports cars. A 200 with a BMC engine was seen at Caserta in June of 1964 and an unknown Elva model appeared at a F3 race at the Nurburgring, the engine wasn’t listed and the car was probably still in Junior guise. Similarly a Mk1 DKW-powered model raced at the Roskilde Ring in 1965 without making an impression.

Drivers

1964
200
Lars Bjuhr.

?
Dieter Noisternig.

1965
Mk1
Björn Nielsen.

1966 ?
Björn Öhrman.

Emilani

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Guido Pardini in the Emiliani 380 leading a group of cars during the 1980 Italian F3 Championship.

Emilani

A one-off chassis built for the Italian F3 Championship and run by the Ferdinando Ravarotto team it served its purpose and won in 1980 despite stiff opposition from Enzo Coloni and Michele Alboreto.

1979

Based on the 1978 Wolf Dallara and modified by Giampaolo Dallara who designed the original. A sleeker body was fitted and sidepods were added. A Toyota engine was fitted and it went well enough to finish 6th in the Italian Championship.

1980

The Emiliani was further modified for 1980 with a lower cockpit and a nose reminiscent of the March 803. An intensive development was carried out based around different tyre manufacturers and during the season ran on Pirelli, Goodyear and M&H. All the hard work paid off and Pardini took the title that year.

Drivers

1979 Guido Pardini.

1980 Guido Pardini.

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Guido Pardini finishing 5th at Monaco.
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Pardini again, in the 1980 Emiliani.
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A rare cut-away drawing of the Emiliani 380.

Euroracing

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Oscar Larrauri in the Euroracing 101.

Euroracing

Paoli Pavanello had been the Italian March agent for several years and in 1981 he had run a pair of cars in the European Championship for winner Mauro Baldi and Kurt Thiim under his Euroracing banner. Unfortunately for Pavanello March withdrew from F3 at the end of the year leaving the team in need of something to defend their championship, nothing daunted Pavanello decided to become a constructor by modifying his Marches for 1982. Euroracing only used their own cars for the one season as for 1983 they took over the running of the F1 Alfa Romeo team for Autodelta.

1982

The two Euroracing March 813s were taken back to base and with the help of Alfa F1 man Ing. Marelli the cars were modified for 1982. The outer skin of the monocoque was narrowed, the front track was widened and the front and rear suspension were modified. To complete the changes an entirely different aerodynamic package was fitted. The modifications worked as the car was 9 mph faster in a straight line than the old car although, like the 813, it didn’t like tight and twisty tracks. Larrauri and Pirro dominated the season winning ten races between then, Larrauri taking the Championship and Pirro finishing as runner up.

1983

For 1983 Carlo Brambilla bought a 101 for the Italian Championship but he didn’t seem to have his father’s ability and there were no significant results achieved

Drivers

1982
Oscar Larrauri, Emanuelle Pirro.

1983 Carlo Brambilla.

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Oscar Larrauri had a successful year in 1982 with the Euroracing 101.
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Carlo Brambilla and his father Vittorio with their Euroracing in 1983.

Eigenbau

eigenbau
eigenbau

Eigenbau

A lot of cars appearing in the German entry lists in the early years of the 1-litre class were listed under the Eigenbau heading, Wartburg Eigenbau being very popular. However since Eigenbau is German for “Home Built” it is likely that these were either, as the name suggests, home-built cars or modified versions of others e.g. in 1964 a Lola Eigenbau appeared. Without further evidence these cars will have to remain lumped under this general heading

Drivers

1964
Lola-Höhreich Eigenbau
Richard Höhfeld, Heinrich Oestreich.

Wartburg-Eigenbau
Willy Arhenholz, Longin Bielak, Jerzy Jankowski, Frank Menzel, Wladislaw Szulczewski, Grzegorz Timoschek, Jiri Vohralik, Helmut Zimmer.

1965
Eigenbau
Susta.

Wartburg-Eigenbau
Willy Arhenholz, Longin Bielak, Alois Gbelec, Josef Kielbania, Wolfgang Krug, Wladislaw Szulczewski, Grzegorz Timoschek, Erhard Winkler.

1966
Cooper-Eigenbau
Heinrich Brendt.

Wartburg-Eigenbau
Otto Auerbach, Alois Gbelec, Erhard Winkler.

1967
Cooper-Eigenbau
Heinrich Brendt.

Eigenbau
György Fülöp, Alois Gbelec, Sandor Kiss, Henri Saarm.

Wartburg-Eigenbau
Otto Auerbach, Erhard Winkler.

1968 Eigenbau
Alois Gbelec.

1970 Eigenbau
Martin Schulz, Miklos de Sorgo.

1971 Eigenbau
Werner Eschrich, Martin Schulz.

1972 Eigenbau
Werner Eschrich, Manfred Kuhn, Martin Schulz, Hartmut Thasler.

Emeryson

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badge
emeryson
Paul Emery testing the F Junior Mk2.

Emeryson

Despite not being one of the most familiar names in motor sport during his career Paul Emery built F1, F2 and F3 cars which puts him in some fairly exalted company. Following in the footsteps of his father George who built specials pre-war Paul built a 500cc car in 1949 which was unusual in that it used rubber damping for its independent suspension and was front-wheel-drive, it had moderate success and some customer cars were sold. By 1953 a F2 Alta-engined car had been built with Emery driving it himself, he continued for several years with the occasional reasonable result despite being hampered by financial considerations. In 1960 things improved when former Cooper driver Alan Brown and others put up the money for a new F2 car, the former Connaught premises were purchased and a car was constructed. During 1960 a F1 version of the F2 model fitted with a Climax engine and a five-speed Colotti gearbox was built. In 1961 Ecurie Nationale Belge ran three cars fitted with Maserati engines and ran them almost exclusively in non-championship races but the cars either crashed or failed to qualify and at the end of the year American Hugh Powell bought the company from Emery although he stayed on. An improved car, the Mk3, was introduced in 1962 it was slimmer and lighter and used a semi-monocoque design but results were still generally poor. In 1963 the cars were fitted with BRM engines and renamed Scirocco but results were no better and at the end of the year Emery decided to leave and concentrate on tuning road cars. In addition to the larger formulae Emeryson also produced a F Junior model, the Mk2, which was a conventional spaceframe, wishbone suspended design. The Mk2 met with some success in the hands of young Mike Spence including a big win at Silverstone. Jack Newton entered and raced an Emeryson-Ford, almost certainly a Mk2, at Brands Hatch in August 1965 but finished well down the field. Peter Wright similarly raced an Emeryson-Ford at Silverstone in July 1966 but failed to finish

Drivers

1965
Jack Newton.

1966
Peter Wright.

Piltette

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Dirk Müller in the PWT 94C at Hockenheim.

Piltette

Pilette Cars was founded by former F5000 champion Teddy Pilette and based in England at Snetterton. Pilette had a successful career in sports cars as well as single seaters and had raced in F3 himself in the 1-litre F3s.

1994

Pilette Cars produced the Martin Ogilvie designed Fiat-powered Pilette PWT 94C in June of 1994.Ogilvie has previously been responsible for the controversial twin-chassis Lotus 88 F1 car and this new design was meant to combine high downforce with low drag. It certainly looked different with its unique front and rear wing design. It seems that the chassis was effectively the Ralt 94C that had been raced briefly at the beginning of the year in the British F3 Championship. The fact that it had been withdrawn due to its lack of performance did not bode well for the Pilette. Early reports of the Pilette’s testing indicated it was a very wayward beast indeed. Entered by Pilette Speed Tradition in the 1994 German F3 Championship the car sadly didn’t continue the family tradition for speed as it was very much a back of the grid machine in the handful of races it competed in. At its first race at Hockenheim Jeremy Dufour walked out from the team in disgust when it was eight seconds off the pace. At the end of the year the Pilette name vanished from the scene.

Drivers

1994 Paolo Coloni, Dirk Müller.

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The unusual front wing design is evident in this shot.
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The very low rear wing and faired in suspension of the PWT 94C.

Piper

Piper

Piper Cars had first started in the sports car market building an open topped car in 1963 and then moving onto the more refined GT types that could also be raced. The later cars tended to be based on Ford running gear and the GTT model sold in respectable numbers. In 1969 they went as far as to enter two Group 6 Oldsmobile-powered GTRs at Le Mans, only one arrived and that had to be withdrawn due to various problems. The introduction of VAT made the kit-car market no longer economic and they briefly tried building a complete “turnkey” car but the recession of the early 1970s saw the company end up in receivership.

1966

Announced in mid-1966 the Piper was the work of designer Tony Hilder and was intended as a multi-formulae machine, it was built at the Piper Cars base, Campbell’s Garage in Hayes, Kent. Also involved in the project were engine man Bob Gayler, Ken Packham (chassis development) and the owner of Campbell’s George Henrup. The chassis was a monocoque but unusually it was constructed of mallite aluminium and balsa wood. Mallite was a sandwich of aluminium/wood/aluminium and was used on the 1966 F1 McLaren M2A. The tub was strengthened by four cast magnesium bulkheads. Front suspension was wide-based lower wishbones with upper links and radius rods attaching to the dash hoop. At the rear it was reversed lower wishbones with top links and twin radius rods. There was some anti-dive built into the front and Armstrong spring/damper units were fitted front and rear. Girling alloy brake calipers were used with the discs outboard at both ends of the car. The 8″ front and 10″ rear wheels fitted to the prototype were cast in magnesium and designed to have a turbofan cooling effect on the brakes. The engine bay was constructed to take a variety of engines and it was said that the car was so light that in F3 guise ballast would be required. The car in the picture was fitted with a 1650cc Ford engine and there is no record of any F3 cars actually having been built.
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The monocoque chassis of the Piper.
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The brake-cooling wheels.

Promot

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promot

Promot

A Wartburg powered device that appeared as late as 1970, its only result was a fifth in a poor field at the Szczecin track in north-west Poland. It was built by Jerzy Jankowski of Rak (q.v.) fame, it had a spaceframe chassis with unequal length wishbones at the front and a top link and twin radius rods at the rear.

Drivers

1970
Kris Frank.

Puma

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Bob Evans at Brands Hatch in 1971.

Puma

Alan McKechnie’s small team only made the one attempt at racing car construction although it was notable for being somewhat different from the usual run-of-the-mill F3 cars that were around in the 1970s although it never achieved great things. In addition to being used in F3 it seems that in 1972 a Ford BDA engine was fitted to the car and it was entered in the somewhat unusual Rothmans 50,000 race at Brands Hatch in 1972, designated HM23 it did not start the race.

1971

Designed in 1969 by Tony Hilder (who had worked on the McLaren M1A sports car), the monocoque of the Puma was very unusual as it was made of Mallite an aluminium/balsa wood sandwich that was also used in the 1966 McLaren M2B. Strong and light it was arguably the first appearances of composite construction that today is the norm. The tub was a full length structure stretching back to the gearbox and only weighed 10 lbs (4.5 kg). The two foam-filled fuel tanks were inserted horizontally inside the tub. If that wasn’t enough rising-rate torsion bar suspension was also used although this apparently caused some disharmony in the team. The torsion bar itself took the load strain rather than the chassis pick-up points. The Puma was hidden away in a Peckham lock-up for two years as McKechnie ran a F5000 team. Discovered and driven by Bob Evans the car showed promise with a pole position first time out. Initially hampered by poor BRM engines a change to a Vegantune unit improved things a lot until Evans had a serious testing accident which put the car and himself out of racing for the rest of the season. Best result of the year was a 3rd at Crystal Palace in June.

1977

Revised in 1977 as the 377 and entered for two races to give Nigel Mansell his start in F3, the car was something of a “bitsa” with new suspension using Lola uprights with Chevron wishbones at the front and March ones at the rear. A March nose and a GP Metalcraft wing were added, an engine was borrowed and the Puma went racing. In its two races it was apparently quick in the corners, slow on the straights and unreliable (it retired both times).Some reports say that the basis of this car was based on an unraced 1972 Puma Mk2 design

Drivers

1971 Bob Evans.
1977 Nigel Mansell.

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The Puma stalls on the grid on it's debut at Brands Hatch, Jacques Coulon (36) and Roger Williamson (28) take avoiding action.
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Another shot of Evans with a different colour scheme.
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Nigel Mansell in the 1977 version of the Puma.