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Wolf
Wolf
The name Wolf is more usually linked with the team that enjoyed a short sojourn in F1 in the second half of the ’70s but a Wolf also appeared in F3 briefly as well. In 1975 Canadian Walter Wolf became involved with the then unsuccessful Williams team, he bought up the remains of the failed Hesketh team and in 1976 the Williams cars were often called Wolf-Williams. Wolf bought up 60 per cent of the Williams team and soon after Frank Williams left the team leaving Wolf in charge. In 1977 he set up a new team, bought in Harvey Postlethwaite to design the WR1 and Jody Scheckter to drive it, the result, a win first time out and two more victories during the season. This competitiveness was not continued, the ground effect Wolfs (Wolves?) WR5 and WR7 were not very effective devices and results in ’78 and ’79 despite having Scheckter, Hunt and Rosberg were poor and at the end of ’79 Wolf withdrew from F1.
1978
Giampaolo Dallara designed the WD1 of which three were built, two for Walter Wolf Racing and one for an Italian privateer. The monocoque proved to be too flexible and it was stiffened during the course of the season. Suspension was conventional and a Toyota Novamotor was fitted, apparently a Hewland FT200 gearbox was used which, if correct, is odd as this is the F2 spec ‘box, the Hewland Mk9 5-speed is the normal unit. Although it is true that in the mid-eighties using a FT200 in F3 was a recognized “tweak” adopted by some teams so perhaps Wolf were just ahead of the times.
The car was generally outclassed by the more established marques, Chevron, March, Ralt etc. but there were occasions when it showed potential especially as it was sorted. Rahal managed 3rds at the Nurburgring and Österreichring and 4th in a heat at Monaco.
1979
For 1979 one Wolf went to Italy and became a Emiliani (see Emiliani entry for details.)
Drivers
1978 Roberto Farneti, Horst Fritz, Miguel Angel Guerra, Anders Olofsson, Bobby Rahal.
1979 Guido Pardini.
Hope
Hartmann
Hartmann
Amazingly the Hartmann was entered for the final F3 race on the banked Avus track in September 1967, amazingly because the Hartmann was a front engined DKW-powered F Junior model. The car had an alloy body with a bulbous nose, it had a simple frame consisting of two box side sections from a DKW saloon, there was additional cross bracing with an engine cradle. The front suspension, brakes, steering and wheels were also sourced from a standard DKW, the rear axle was located by radius rods with telescopic dampers and a transverse leaf spring. The car used a four-speed gearbox and a differential and was front wheel drive, unsurprisingly it wasn’t in the least competitive against its modern rivals.
Drivers
1967 Ernst Wagner.
Willys-Gavea
Willys-Gavea
Announced in early 1966 in Brazil, the Willys-Gávea was claimed to be suitable for F3, F2 even F1, the spaceframe chassis was built from 1.25 inch tubing and was fitted with a Renault engine and gearbox, outboard discs and Dunlop tyres were also included. The car raced in F3 guise in the 1966 Temporada series without much success, the best finish was ninth at the second round held at Parque Independencia in Argentina, and any F1 or F2 versions would seem to have been non-starters. The driver of the Willys-Gávea was Wilson Fittipaldi, later to enter F1 with the Brabham and Copersucar teams in the mid-seventies, he was of course also brother of Emerson and father of Christian who drove for Minardi and Arrows in F1 before moving to CART and NASCAR.
Thanks to José Alberto Parise for additional information.
Drivers
1966 Wilson Fittipaldi.
JW4
JW4
A JW4 chassis took part in one race at Stockholm in September 1967, driven by Sigvard Johansson it was unplaced. The JW4 was first built in 1965 by Johnny Walker for F4 racing, originally they were fitted with a 250cc Villiers Starmaker engine but the engine proved unreliable. The car was rebodied for 1966 and a number of the cars were sold to customers. In 1967 Walker approached legendary aerodynamacist Frank Costin (creator of the F1 Vanwall bodywork) to design a new car, work was slow due to financial constraints and although the car was finished late in the year and tested successfully Walker decided to retire from racing. The car raced by Johansson was the later Costin design and was fitted with the three-cylinder, two-stroke 850cc Saab engine that was fitted in the Saab 96 model introduced in 1960, this was the most powerful of the Saab engines.
Thanks to Peter Johansson for additional information.
Drivers
1967 Sigvard Johansson.
Wheatcroft
Wheatcroft
Tom Wheatcroft will forever be associated with Donington Park, it was his money, determination and enthusiasm that saw the rebuilding of Donington into a Grand Prix standard circuit, the same enthusiasm and determination that saw a Grand Prix held there, the same enthusiasm and determination that saw the creation of the wonderful Donington Collection of racing cars. It is therefore surprising that when Tom turned to racing car construction it seemed slightly halfhearted, many people feel that Tom never felt quite the same about being personally involved with racing after the death of Roger Williamson. The Mike Pilbeam designed R18 appeared in 1975 in F Atlantic specification and was raced that season to some race wins by Peter Morgan. In August of that year an F2 version was built with a Hart-BDA and Henton finished 3rd at Silverstone the car then going to South Africa for F Atlantic racing.
1977
John Bright, working on a shoestring budget, converted the ex-Peter Morgan F Atlantic car to F3 specification in Wheatcroft’s workshop. The car retained the full-width nose with a slim monocoque and hip-mounted radiators. The suspension was by double wishbone with inboard coils and dampers at the front. The fuel was contained in a single cell behind the driver which helped keep the tub slim. A Toyota Novamotor was the chosen power source. The only result was an early season 6th at Thruxton although Bright did win a non-championship race, at Donington coincidentally.
1978
Bright continued to use the R18 in unmodified form for the beginning of the 1978 season, a couple of good results were the reward with a 4th at Silverstone and a 6th at Thruxton. Bright then switched to a March 773 to finish the year.
Drivers
1977 John Bright.
1978 John Bright.
Jomo
Jomo
The Jomo was built by Keith Vickery, of Birmingham, in 1966. Keith had been a succesful 750F racer, building and racing his own cars for that formula. After a couple of outings for the works Alexis F3 team in 1965, Keith decided that as he had enjoyed those outings so much that he would build his own single-seater.
Vickery built the car to F3 specs, with F3/Formula Libre and Monoposto in mind (it looked similar to a Brabham BT15/18) with a 1000cc engine, and although it is unclear whether subsequent owners raced it in F3, it was certainly raced in the F3 class of F Libre at least once (in May 1967).
Keith then sold the car to a 750F friend, to concentrate on building cars for the then new Formula Ford category. From mid-1968 the history is patchy until it appeared competing in southern hillclimbs in the early `70`s in the hands of David Bassett.
Interestingly Keith was good friends with Jim Yardley of Beagle fame (q.v.), and they built their respective cars at similar times, sharing engine parts etc, and both racing in Monoposto and Yardley competed in F3 with his Beagle.
West
