Manufacturers – Page 24

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Aumont

This French car took part in a number of races in France and East Germany between 1964 and 1966, powered by a Panhard engine in ’64 and ’65 and a Ford for ’66. One car was driven by Gabriel Aumont (possibly the designer?) and entered by Automobiles Gabriel Aumont, results were poor with a best of a couple of 12th places. Judging by the picture above it was a very small and neat car with inboard front suspension utilising upper rocker arms and a lower

Drivers

1964 Gabriel Aumont, Luis Fernandes, José Lampreia, Rene Villet.

1965 Gabriel Aumont.

1966 Gabriel Aumont.

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AU Bode

Almost nothing is known about this car, it raced in Germany between 1964 to 1966, it was entered and raced by Karl Starke. Designed by Erich Bode, it was powered by a DKW engine and it had a few top ten finishes in the East German races. It was originally designed for F Junior and it is not clear whether it was still racing as a F Junior or whether it had been converted to f3 spec. Since it had a box-section chassis and leaf spring front suspension it wasn’t very competitive, it was also known as the Bode 3 in F Junior guise.

Drivers-

1964 Karl Starke.

1965 Karl Starke.

1966 Karl Starke, Klaus Tenbensel.

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Arno

The first Arno appeared at an end of season Italian Championship round, it apparently didn’t handle too well and was difficult to set up. For 1984 Arno built three cars, the A02-384, featuring a honeycomb monocoque with double wishbone suspension, inboard springs and dampers operated by pushrods. This car must have been an improvement as Mancini came tenth in the Italian Championship in his Alfa powered car with a best finish of third.
A new car was built for 1985, the A03-385, but results were disappointing and Arno disappeared during the 1986 season.

Drivers

1983 Fabio Mancini.

1984 Fabio Mancini.

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Argo

Three manufacturers of the Classic F3 era, Argo, GRD and Modus, had two important things in common; firstly they were all based in Norfolk and secondly they all has Swiss Jo Marquart as their designer. Arguably they had a third thing in common, they were nearly very successful but for one reason or another they never quite fulfilled their potential.
After Modus had failed Marquart began work on the first Argo in a domestic garage and he was joined by John Peterson an American cofounder of the British Novamotor agency and former mechanic Nick Jordan. The first JM1 chassis was completed in February 1977 and showed a lot of promise. Until the advent of the full ground effects F3 car Argos, especially the JM6, would still be a competitive proposition. However by 1981 when the Ralt RT3 was dominating racing Argo’s two attempts to emulate the Ralt, the JM8 and the JM10, would prove to be disasters and Argo moved away from F3 until a return in 1990.

1977

Unsurprisingly the JM1 was very similar to the last of the F3 Modus line although the bodywork was reduced giving a lower, smoother shape. Front suspension was by double wishbones with outboard coil springs and dampers, top link/bottom wishbone set up was fitted at the rear. Most noticeable feature was the full width nose with a deep cockpit surround reminiscent of the Ralt RT1. Stefan Johansson gave the marque its first victory at Anderstorp in August and David Kennedy would have a brace of 2nds in the European Championship.

1978

Up until a week before the beginning of the season there was no deal for the works team so when David Kennedy came up with some money the previous years JM1 was wheeled out with no modifications or testing. Not surprisingly results were poor and Kennedy withdrew part way through the year. Stefan Johansson continued with his previous years example and managed some good results.

1979

A new car was needed for 1979 and the JM3 was the answer, it consisted of a slim monocoque with wide sidepods and one-piece bodywork. Racing Team Holland ran a pair without success so Roberto Guerrero became the focus of development. Towards the end of the season a revised car with stiffer suspension, monocoque and harder dampers was tried with some signs of improvement.

1980

The JM6 was a successful development of the previous year’s JM3. For this year cars were only raced in the UK and by the summer they were very much the car to beat. By year end Guerrero had won five races and finished second in the Championship whilst Tassin had two victories and finished fourth in the series. Front suspension was by wishbones with outboard coil springs and dampers. Rear suspension was by a top link with a lower wishbone with a toe-in link, a single radius rod was fitted. Rear brakes were inboard whilst coil springs and dampers were outboard.

1981

The JM8 was displayed to a waiting world in December 1980, it was intended to incorporate the best of the JM6 in a ground effect package. It had a narrower monocoque with larger sidepods housing the radiators and the suspension was inboard all round. It was claimed this would improve straight line speed whilst retaining “proven cornering abilities”.
The aluminium tub was fitted with a tubular frame at the rear to take the engine/gearbox package. A cast magnesium oil tank that doubled as an adaptor plate was situated between the engine and gearbox. Suspension was inboard front and rear with top rocker arms and lower links and wishbones, uprights were buried in the wheels to reduce drag. Outboard Lockheed brakes were fitted all round.
Sadly the car was a total disaster, early testing was promising but once it hit the race tracks it was nowhere. Tierry Tassin quickly abandoned it for a Ralt RT3 and works driver Jon Beekhuis reverted to a JM6. Just about everybody who bought one dumped it. A revamped version was bought out at the end of the season but there was no improvement.

1982

The JM10 was a completely new design consisting of an aluminium tub that extended to the rear to allow for semi-stressed engine location rather than the more usual subframe. Suspension was inboard with wide sidepods to maximize ground-effect. The entire programme was late and a testing accident at Silverstone delayed it even more, after a single race it was withdrawn for further development and not seen again. Several cars appeared in Germany without any signs of running at the front of the field.

1990

Drivers-

1977 JM1
Christian Debais, Ulf Granberg, Ruedi Gygax, Bruno Huber, Stefan Johansson, David Kennedy, Jorge Koechlin, Danny Sullivan.

1978
JM1
Janito Campos, Armin Conrad, Bruno Eichmann, Norbert Hütter, Stefan Johansson, David Kennedy, Dieter Kern, Fredy Schnarwiler, Leon Walger, Bernd Wicks.

1979
JM1
Armin Conrad, Jörg Reto, Jean-Yves Simeni.

JM3
Bruno Eichmann, Roberto Guerrero, Bruno Huber, Rob Leeuwenberg, Arie Luyendijk.

1980
JM3
Bruno Huber.

JM6
Bruno Eichman, Roberto Guerrero, David Sears, Thierry Tassin.

?
Edy Kobelt.

1981
JM3
Bruno Huber, Marcus Simeon.

JM6
Jan Ridell.

JM8
Jon Beekhuis, Enrique Benamo, John Booth, Paul Hutson, Victor Rosso, David Sturdy, Tierry Tassin.

?
Josef Binder, Beat Blatter, Armin Conrad.

1982
JM10
Arie Luyendijk, Jan Thoelke, Marcel Wettstein.

JM6
Bruno Huber, Uwe Teuscher, Jan Thoelke.

1983
JM10
Justin Sünkel, Marcel Wettstein.

JM8
Bruno Huber.

JM3
Franz Meier.

?
Josef Binder, Georges A. Hedinger.

1984
JM10
Rainer Fischer, Justin Sünkel, Marcel Wettstein.

JM8
Bruno Huber.

JM3
Franz Meier.

1985
JM10
Justin Sünkel.

JM8
Norbert Gapp.

JM1
Bruno Huber.

1986

JM10
Justin Sünkel.

1990 JM18
Eric Cheli.

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Arcus

Almost nothing is known about this Czech-built car, it appeared at a race at Dresden in June 1970 entered and driven by Franticek Janotka, himself a Czech, no engine was specified. Thanks to Stefan Örnerdal for additional information

Driver

1970 Franticek Janotka.

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ARC

Built by French Sports Car constructor, the ARC MF4-Toyota seemingly appeared for one race (Nogaro) at the end of 1982 and was never seen again.

Driver

1982 Joel de Miguel.

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Anson

F1 technician Gary Anderson built the first Ansons in 1976 but lack of money saw him pull out some 18 months later. In 1980 Anson Cars was formed by Anderson together with fellow F1 man Bob Simpson and ex-Rolls Royce employee Jeff Hills. For the next six years they took on the famous names of F3 such as March, Ralt and Chevron but they never really gained more than a toehold. Their greatest success was winning the German F3 Championship in 1983 with Franz Konrad whilst Tommy Byrne came 6th in the 1984 European Championship. Of course a few years further down the road Gary Anderson would achieve fame as a F1 designer, most notably with Jordan.

1976

The original SA1 was built in 1975 and was based on a Brabham BT38, it was raced in formule libre by Anderson with some success. For 1976 an entirely new car also called the SA1 was designed and built. It’s F3 debut came in an end of September BP round at Silverstone. A new SA1 was constructed for 1976 and was raced initially by Tiff Needell and then by Dick Parsons. The car was sponsored by Unipart, it ran competitively and led several races even though victory eluded the new team.. It had a distinctive shape with its low full-width nose and slab sided monocoque.

1977

The SA2 was designed for a mooted Unipart F3 Team (which would eventually appear with March), the last minute withdrawal of the sponsorship left the team in serious difficulties with not even enough money to go testing. The chassis was again very square in shape with full width nose. It had a narrow track with twin caliper brakes and inboard rockers at the front. There was an unusual springing arrangement at the rear with conventional coils and dampers plus an additional set of springs over the rear brakes. The theory was that the auxiliary springs would take up the body roll. Gary Anderson was the driver but a lack of resources saw the withdrawal of the car part way through the season.

1981

he SA3 looked very different to any other contemporary F3 chassis, all the manufacturers at the time were experimenting with ground-effect in F3 some with less success than others. The chassis was built in F1-type honeycomb construction using three sections for ease of manufacturer. A cast aluminium front bulkhead was fitted that also served as the front rollhoop/dashboard. Front suspension utilised a top rocker and lower wishbone mounted to the front bulkhead, the spring/damper units were inboard. Rear suspension was similar to the front except the springs/dampers were fitted inside the bellhousing. Fuel and oil tanks were behind the driver with the oil tank being part of the chassis forming part of the roll-over structure. The rear bodywork was very unusual consisting or a rear section with abbreviated sidepods and no rear wing. Similar ideas had been tried without success in F1 and Indycar designs As can be seen from the second picture testing soon saw the unusual rear design superseded by a wing and full length sidepods. In addition an entirely new rear suspension was fitted, the geometry of the front suspension was revised and the tub was rejigged. Towards the end of the season Dave Coyne had some promising runs in the modified car now called the SA3C.

1982

Anson continued with the SA3C in 1982 with just minor modifications to the suspension and bodywork. Both Claudio Langes in Europe and Mike O’Brien in the UK showed the car had potential with several top six finishes. Langes in particular finding the car well suited to the Pirelli tyres that were available in Europe.

1983

A new model was introduced for 1984, the SA4, it continued along the same lines as the SA3 and it proved to be quite a competitive proposition. The monocoque was constructed of aluminium honeycomb with the cockpit sides skinned in carbon fibre. Inside the tub cast magnesium dash and pedal beams were fitted both to aid stiffness and to increase driver protection in the event of an accident. Claudio Langes began slowly when the car wasn’t happy with the European Pirelli’s but a switch to Yokohama’s solved this problem. Additionally a redesign of the sidepods saw him able to run in the front half a dozen in the later season races. In Germany Franz Konrad won the National Championship in his SA4 in which he used both Alfa and VW engines. Several other German drivers, notably Rudi Seher in his SA3, also used various models with some success. Sadly no examples of the marque were to be seen in the British Championship.

1984

The SA4 was modified to “B” specification for 1984. Despite the success of Konrad and Langes the previous year no cars were sold in Britain. However Tommy Byrne took 6th in the European Championship and once again they were popular in Germany.

1985

The SA6 was introduced in 1985, it had a deeper monocoque and shorter sidepods that the SA4 series. Cast aluminium bulkheads front and rear took the major loads and the fuel and oil tanks were located amidships. Suspension was inboard all-round and featured pushrods at the front and rocking levers at the rear. All the suspension is interchangeable left to right. The rear spring/damper units were mounted vertically within the long bellhousing. The radiators were carried in the sidepods just ahead of the rear wheels. Driven by Keith Fine in the UK it was not a success, the tub appeared to be insufficiently stiff and half way through the year Fine abandoned it. Only one other SA6 appeared in Germany, again without success, and at the end of the year Anson stopped producing F3 cars.

1975 Gary Anderson.

1976 Tiff Needell, Dick Parsons.

1977 Gary Anderson.

1981 Dave Coyne.

1982 Claudio Langes, Tiff Needell, Mike O’Brien, Richard Trott, Gero Zamagna.

1983
SA4
Fernando Cazzangia, Philippe Huart, Franz Konrad, Claudio Langes, Pierre-Alain Lombardi, Thomas von Löwis, Kris Nissen, Oscar Pedersoli, Karl-Heinz Wieschalla.

SA3
Rudi Seher, Richard Hamann,, Andy Wietzke.

?
Bruno di Gioia, Jan Thoelke.

1984
SA4B
Leo Andersson, Tommy “Slim” Borgudd, Tommy Byrne, Tryggve Gronvall.

SA4
Thierry Hierman.

SA4 (unknown whether A or B)
Dieter Heinzelmann, Jan Karlsson, Mats Karlsson, Franz Konrad, Reinhold Mölig, Nicky Nufer, Rudi Seher, Jan Thoelke, Karl-Heinz Wieschalla.

SA3
Richard Hamann, Alexander Seibold, Andy Wietzke.

1985
SA6
Fredy Eschenmoser, Keith Fine.

SA4B
Steve Bottoms, Bill Coombs, Tryggve Gronvall.

SA4
Jeff Ward.

SA4 (unknown whether A or B)
Sigi Betz, Artur Deutgen, Dieter Heinzelmann, Franz Konrad, Günther Lüttecke, Nicky Nufer, Franz-Josef Prangemeier, Karl-Heinz Wieschalla.

SA3
Alexander Seibold.

?
Johan Rajamaki, Rudolf Weckmann.

1986
SA4
Patrick Lecompte.

SA4 (unknown whether A or B)
Mathias Arlt.

?
Ruedi Schurter.

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Alpine

Formed in 1951 by race and rally driver Jean Redelé at Dieppe, Société des Automobiles Alpines quickly became recognised as the competition arm of Renault. Initially created to build production versions of Redelé’s Renault 750 based racer the business thrived and new models were introduced. Given Redelé’s sporting history competition involvement was inevitable, to begin with the focus was on sports-racing cars and rallying, by the 1960s the focus had moved towards single seaters. In 1964 Alpine produced a F2/F3 car, it was strongly Brabham influenced, unsurprising really as Ron Tauranac was a design consultant. However at that time the uncompetitiveness of the Renault engine meant a switch to Formule France and sports car racing until 1968 when F3 began to be important once again. From 1969 to 1973 Alpine, with a succession of competitive designs with good Renault engines, allowed a new generation of French drivers to come to the fore and eventually make their mark in the world of Grand Prix racing. Success was also forthcoming in rallying and with the Renault-Alpine sports-racing cars, however this wasn’t matched with financial success and in 1974 Renault took over the struggling concern.

1964

Alpine employed Ron Tauranac as a consultant in the design of the A270 which was intended for both F2 and F3 use and it was strongly based on the 1963 F Junior Brabham, so much so that it was nicknamed the “Brabalpine”. The engine was a Mignotet prepared Renault R8 engine with an over optimistic claimed power output of 102-103 bhp. The gearbox was a four speed Renault unit, suspension was conventional and the bodywork was designed by Marcel Hubert and continued the Brabham similarity. The Alpine link to Renault ensured they had to stick with the French engine rather than the more powerful Ford based units used by the majority of the opposition. Despite this the Alpine showed well on occasions and Henri Grandsire took the French Championship.

1965

Minor developments were carried out for 1965 although the basic design of the car stayed along Brabham lines. Results were not startling, with Mauro Bianchi’s second place at Pau the highlight of the season. In France the new Matra MS5s took most of the honours.

1966

The suspension was revised for the 1966 car but the continued use of the Renault engine was still proving a handicap. Best result of the year was a 1-2 finish at Magny-Cours in July for Roby Weber and Mauro Bianchi.

1967

A new car was introduced for 1967, it featured a modified, shortened chassis and was known as the T27, (although race reports of the day continued to use the A310 designation) but Alpine were spending much of their time concentrating on their A210 Group 6 sports prototype. Several good top six places were scored but this might largely be down to the calibre of two of their drivers, Patrick Depailler and François Cévert. The best result of the year was a win for Depailler at Montlhéry.

1968

Things didn’t change much for 1968, the T27 (or possibly A310) continued to be used and Alpine entered just the single works car for Depailler. A new Renault engine was also introduced with a claimed 115 bhp but this was 5-10 bhp down on the good Ford engines despite showing signs of promise. Depailler had a few good results early season but things soon tailed off.

1969

New for 1969 was the A330 and A360, they continued with the spaceframe route and the two cars were identical except that the A360 had a longer wheelbase to accommodate the taller Jabouille. Best result was a 1-2 at Montlhéry. Engine: 4 cylinder, bore 72 mm, stroke 61 mm = 993 cc. Overhead valve, single Weber carburettor. Power = 117 bhp. Transmission: 4-speed Renault. Suspension: Front, wishbones and coil springs: rear lower wishbones, top links, twin radius rods and coil springs. Chassis: tubular steel spaceframe. Wheelbase: (A330) 76.9 in. (A360) 82.1 in. Track: front 54.8 in, rear 55.5 in. Weight: 880 lbs. Wheel Diameter: 13 in.

1970

For the last year of the 1-litre formula Alpine decided to forgo any works participation, the only car to participate was a private A360 fitted with a Ford engine.

1971

Derived from the 1968 F3 car, the A330, the new A360 utilised a space frame chassis made from chrome-molybdenum steel with a single fuel tank behind the driver. Front suspension was by unequal length wide based wishbones with lower reversed wishbones, top links and radius rods at the rear. De Carbon dampers were fitted all round and an Alpine built rack and pinion steering rack was used. Braking was by Girling calipers and Alpine discs front and rear. It was powered by a 121-123bhp @ 6600rpm Renault engine (based on the R16) driving through a Hewland Mk8 5-speed gearbox. The aerodynamic bodywork was distinctive and apparently effective, although louvres had to be added to cure overheating, the cars concentrated mainly on the French series winning several races.

1972

Although looking similar to the A360, the A364 boasted a new André de Cortanze designed space frame that was some 3.5 inches wider at the front. The suspension was revised with a 2.36 inch increase in track and the bodywork was made sleeker and more aerodynamic. The increase in track allowed for a more elegant 8.36 gallon single bag tank to be fitted rather than the previous multi tank solution. Dudot-Renault engines were fitted which produced similar power to the Ford derived units. Highlight of the year was a victory in the Monaco F3 race by Depailler who stepped back down to F3 for the race. Customer versions of the chassis were available but surprisingly only a few were sold and again most racing was French based.

1973

Once again the works Alpines would mainly concentrate on racing in France with only the occasional foreign foray. Initially the A364 from 1972 was used, however the increasing competitiveness of the rival Martini company meant that during the season some major suspension were introduced and the chassis was renamed A364B. 1973 would be the swan-song for the Alpines as the advent of the 2-litre formula the following year and the lack of any suitable Renault based engine meant that the distinctive shape of the Alpine would not be seen in F3 again except in privateers hands when they were usually fitted with a Ford twin-cam.

DRIVERS

1964 Lucian Bianchi, Mauro Bianchi, Henri Grandsire.

1965
A310
René Abbal, Jean Audhuy, Jean-Pierre Beynac, Lucian Bianchi, Mauro Bianchi, Philippe Bouillot, Jean-Jacques Dalmas, Henri Grandsire, Henri Julien, Dominique Lledo, Willy Mairesse, Jean Max, Pierre Monneret, Eugenio Rebollo, Jean Rolland, José Rosinski, Jean-Claude Schoepp, Philippe Vidal, Roby Weber.

1966 A310
Alex Astruc, Mauro Bianchi, Gérard Brun, Henri Grandsire, Patrice Gransart, Jean-Claude Lhoro, Jean Meiffret, Carlos Alberto Pairetti, François Rabbione, Gilbert Thollon, Jean Vinatier, Roby Weber.

1967
A310
Alex Astruc, Mauro Bianchi, François Cévert, Denis Dayan, Patrick Depailler, Jean Huffschmidt, Jean Meiffret, Bernard Morin, Joseph Thomas.

1968 A310
François Cévert, Patrick Depailler, François Mazet.

1969
A330
Patrick Depailler.

A360
Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

1970 A360

Jean-Claude Guenard.

1971 A360
Jean-Claude Andruet, Patrick Depailler, Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

1972
A364
Thomas Betzler, Patrick Depailler, Werner Haug, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Dieter Kern, Michel Leclère, Alain Serpaggi, Werner Schommers.

A360
Patrick Depailler, Lucien Guitteny, Linguard Goulding.

1973
A364/B
Thomas Betzler, Lucien Guitteny, Michel Leclère, Werner Schommers, Alain Serpaggi.

A360
Allan Davies.

1974 A364
Dieter Kern

1975 A364
Dieter Kern, Kurt Pfunder.

1976 A364
Dieter Kern.

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Alga

The Ford powered Alga raced in Italy in 1967 in the VI Trofeo Luigi Musso at Vallelunga in October, it failed to finish the first heat, whether it raced at any other events isn’t known.

Drivers

1967 “Lara”.

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Alfa Dana

This Danish manufacturer first built a car for the 500cc F3 formula in the late fifties, nothing more happened until a Formula Junior car appeared in the sixties apparently based on the Stanguellini. Both cars were designed by Uno Jensen, the first was front-engined the latter rear-engined. When the 1-litre F3 was introduced one, or perhaps two, of the rear-engined Junior cars were converted to the new formula using an Alfa Romeo engine for 1964, in 1965 the BMC A series based engine from F Junior was employed. Unsurprisingly they weren’t very competitive with the more modern designs.

1964

The pictures of the 1964 Abarth F3 indicate that the chassis was the same as that used for the F2 design, in addition track and wheelbase dimensions were virtually identical. It was a conventional spaceframe design with wishbone-based outboard suspension front and rear. Front track was 1320mm, rear 1330mm, wheelbase 2300mm and the chassis weighed 400kg. The engine was a 982cc Fiat-based unit with a four-speed gearbox, a Weber 40DCD carburetor was used and power was quoted as 88bhp at 7900rpm.
For whatever reason, perhaps the F3 engine wasn’t up to the job, the Abarth never raced.

Drivers

1964 Poul Johannessen, Tommy Larsen.

1965 Poul Johannessen.

1966 Tommy Larsen.

Aumont

Drivers

AU Bode

Drivers-

Arno

Drivers

Argo

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1990

Drivers-

Arcus

Driver

ARC

Driver

Anson

1976

1977

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

Alpine

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

DRIVERS

Alga

Drivers

Alfa Dana

1964

Drivers

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