Formed by part-time racing car builder and driver Henri Julien and based at Gonfaron a small town 40kms north east of Toulon, Autombiles Gonfaronnaise Sportives began constructing cars in 1970 for the Formule France series. The first chassis was the JH1 designed by Christian Vanderpleyn and cars for other French categories followed, notably Formule Renault. By 1978 AGS began constructing cars for F2 and produced a number of neat and reasonably competitive cars, driver Richard Dallest winning at Pau and Zandvoort in 1980. F3000 cars followed and in 1986 AGS moved into F1 and for the next few years would struggle to make the grade in Grand Prix racing scoring the odd point until the financial realities caught up with them and they withdrew.