Belgica

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Jackie Ickx testing the Belgica in 1966.

Belgica

Built by the Precision Liègeoise team in 1966 this was another entry in the Belgian F3 story, The team had run Teddy Pilette and Jean-Claude Franck in Brabham BT15s in 1965 and the Belgica was based on the Brabham but with a wider track. It was fitted with a Cosworth engine and was driven by Teddy Pilette, it raced sporadically in 1966/67 without success.

Drivers

1966 Yves Deprez, Teddy Pilette.

Belco Avia

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The wind tunnel model of the Belco Avia.

Belco Avia

Belco Avia are an Italian company that specialise in composites, amongst other projects they build racing powerboats, manufacture bodywork for sports cars and they did the composite work for the F1 Forti team. They announced their F3 car at the end of 1998 and showed the above model and stated they would begin testing in January 1999 but to date I have found no evidence that the car was ever built or raced.

Beagle

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Jim Yardley in 1969 with his neat little Monoposto Beagle.

Beagle

Jim Yardley raced in UK club racing throughout the 1960s and 70s producing his own car, the Beagle Mk1 in 1966. In July of that year he raced at a wet Oulton Park but failed to finish and he tried again in September at Castle Combe but the result was the same. By the end of the 1960s Yardley was racing in the Monoposto Championship in his 1.5 litre semi-monocoque Beagle and in 1969 he took the title. In 1970 Yardley dropped down to the 1-litre Monoposto class using a F3 engine that used a head of his own design fitted to an MAE block with a view to doing some F3 racing. It must have been a good engine as Yardley beat 1.5 litre cars with it but it seems that no F3 races were undertaken. Shortly after this Yardley had switched to the Clubmans class and in 1973 he took a leaf out of the Mallock book and converted his front engined Mk3 chassis with its beam front axle to F3 spec and entered a late season race at Thruxton where he retired with oil pressure problems. This seemed to be the temporary end of his ambitions and he returned to National racing where he had done so well. In 1985 Yardley suddenly reappeared at Silverstone with a Toyota powered Mk5, it qualified 33rd out of 35 (some 10 seconds off the pace) and retired after 7 laps with fuel pressure problems. Seemingly front and rear suspension was by beam axles, a very brave move! A non-qualification at the British GP followed in July and there were no further outings that year. The following year a Mk5B appeared at Silverstone, it qualified and finished second to last.

Driver

1966 Jim Yardley.

1973 Jim Yardley.

1985 Jim Yardley.

1986 David Morgan.

Bastet

Bastet

The Renault-powered Bastet was entered by its driver in a race at Nogaro in March 1967 but failed to arrive, it was a similar story in both May and September of 1968 at Montlhéry. There are no further details as to whether the car ever raced.

Driver

1967 Jacques Bastet.

1968 Jacques Bastet.

Barron

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The F31 on its announcement.

Barron

The Dutch Barron Racing Team announced the creation of the “first professional Dutch F3 car” in 1984, a claim that DAF might have had a quarrel with. Prior to the development of their own car they had been running March and Ralt chassis in the European Championship since 1980. They also ran a couple of ex-works Tyrrell 012s in F5000 in 1985 notably for Roberto Moreno without much success and then part way through the year the team disappeared.

1985

Built in late 1984, the F31 certainly looked the part with its flat rear deck and abbreviated sidepods. Designed by Kees van der Grint, who had previously designed the McGregor FF1600 and 2000 cars, the monocoque employed a bonded and riveted sandwich construction to reinforce the aluminium tub. Suspension was narrow track with pushrods at the front and rocking levers at the rear, custom Koni dampers were fitted all-round. Stopping was courtesy of AP/Lockheed single caliper outboard brakes front and rear. Power was provided by a Toyota engine and a Hewland Mk9 gearbox were fitted. Unusually for the time a digital tachometer was fitted with the other gauges; oil temperature and pressure, fuel pressure and water temperature, replaced with a series of warning lights. “Green” meaning OK, “amber” call in at the pits and “red” switch the engine off immediately! Due to compete in 1985 it seems that the car never actually raced, at least in the UK or Germany. In June of that year it was reported that Dutch FF2000 champion Lammy van der Heuvel would be testing the car but presumably the demise of the F3000 team saw the end of any F3 aspirations also.

Barnett

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The Barnett as it looks toaday.(Picture courtesy of Nick Lees)
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The Barnett at Spa in 2004. (Picture courtesy of Nick Lees)

Barnett

The Barnett-BMC was entered by driver Chris Barnett for a F3 race at Castle Combe at the end of June 1966 but seemingly it did not arrive. The Barnett then took to the hills in the early seventies and it can now be seen in Historic racing events driven by Nick Lees.

Avidesa

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Jose-Luis Lobelli in his Avidesa.

Avidesa

One of the few Spanish contributions to F3 racing, the Avidesa team employed the Selex company (q.v.) to produce a car for them in 1983 for their Spanish drivers Adrian Campos and Jose-Luis Lobelli. Selex had been producing neat, tidy F3 cars on and off since 1969 without any great success, this would be the Barcelona company’s last F3 car.

1983

The Avidesa 383 was a development of the 1982 Selex and was entirely conventional. Powered by an Alfa-Romeo engine there were several top ten finishes with a best of seventh at Jarama for Campos. Many felt the Avidesa had great potential but the team were hampered by the inexperience of Campos in setting up a car, the Spaniard had only done 5 races at the start of the season! Lobelli was more experienced but seemed to get second best in the equipment stakes and a broken ankle sustained in a fall from a transporter curtailed his season. For 1984 Avidesa bowed to the inevitable and bought a Ralt RT3 for Campos.
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Another shot of Jose-Luis Lobelli, notice the very rearward biased rear wing for maximum downforce.
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Adrian Campos in his Avidesa with revised airbox.

Driver

1983  Adrian Campos, Jose-Luis Lobelli.

Avia

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Václav Lim in his Formula Easter Avia AE3 in 1982

Avia

A Czechoslovakian F3 car is an unlikely thought and a Czechoslovakian F3 car built by a bus manufacturer even more so, but in 1970 and 1972 it nearly happened when Avia tried constructing a chassis for the formula. The company, based in Prague, manufacture buses and heavy goods vehicles including Renault trucks built under licence and a racing project under the control of company engineer Václav Lim was initiated. It would seem that the problem of obtaining the specialist components required for such a venture precluded any hope of success. Lim continued to build cars for Formula Easter (1.3-litre production-based engines) driving himself winning numerous races and as well as three national championships

Autotecnica

Autotecnica

Entered and driven by Romano Orsola, the Ford-powered Autotecnica failed to arrive at Vallelunga in October 1967. There are no records of any other appearances.

Driver

1967  Romano Orsola

Ausper

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The Ausper T3 in 1990 taking part in an Historic F Junior race at Silverstone driven by Rod Tolhurst.

Ausper

Ausper was formed by Australian Tom Hawkes who built the Tomahawk F Junior at the end of 1960. In the winter of that year Hawkes formed Competition Cars of Australia constructing the Ausper T2. For 1961 the T3 was built, it consisted of a multi-tubular spaceframe with unequal length wishbones at the front and lower wishbones and twin radius rods at the rear, the driveshaft acted as a top link. Brakes were Alfin drums: 10 in front, 9 in rear whilst the gearbox was an Ausper modified Renault. In 1964 Anthony “Bubbles” Horsley (of Hesketh F1 fame) entered and raced a T3 in a number of German and Italian F3 rounds without any great success. It seems that the German encouraged F Junior cars to make up the grids and it is quite likely that the T3 stayed in F Junior trim and wasn’t modified to F3 spec. In 1966 Patrick Allfrey took part in some early season races but finished well off the leaders, by now the car would have been to F3 specifications

Driver

1964 Tony Horsley.

1966 Patrick Allfrey.