Tom’s

TOM’S was established in 1974 and started life as a tuning shop specialising in Toyota cars, a range of products was soon available including wheels, suspension parts and engine tuning options. The company proved very successful and by 1983 it had set up its own competitions department, still with a Toyota basis. TOM’s first foray into F3 came in 1981 when they began tuning Toyota engines for use in the Japanese F3 championship where they met with almost immediate success. In 1987 TOM’S opened a base in Norfolk in England and began developing their Toyota F3 engine for the European market and in 1988 they won the British F3 title with JJ Lehto in the Pacific run Reynard 883. In 1991 they became a F3 constructor and began to appear in other formula including Japanese F3000 and the World Sports Car Championship where they ran the works Toyota effort. Today TOM’s are still producing their race winning F3 engines as well running their own Japanese F3 team (now using a Dallara chassis), in addition they are competing in the Japanese GT Championship

1991

The first TOM’s F3 chassis, the 031F, was built in England at TOM’S UK base and was designed by Andrew Thorby (who soon after left to join March), Martin Brigden and Kris Dwornik. The tub was constructed from carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb, at the rear a tubular steel subframe took the engine and gearbox. Cooling was by twin radiators mounted in the sidepods. Unsurprisingly it was fitted with one of the company’s own Toyota engines as well as a TOM’s built gearbox. The car impressed everyone with its build quality and cutting-edge design. It ran competitively from the start of the season and Rickard Rydell won the opening round of the British Championship, this was followed by a third and two second place finishes. However it all went wrong thereafter with a several non-finishes and results tailed off. The major handicap for the car, ironically, was its engine which seemed down on power compared with its rivals and was never happy running on the UK spec fuel. Things were better in Japan were the engine wasn’t a problem and Paulo Carcasci, in the works car, took the championship with four wins in the series. Team mate Victor Rosso backed up Carcasci with fourth place and two wins.

1992

A new car, the 032F, was produced for 1982 although it was an evolutionary design. For this new season TOM’S decided to concentrate on the Japanese Championship and other than at Macau the cars stayed in Japan. Changes in regulations regarding the size and positioning of wings initially handicapped the new car. Problems with weight distribution made the car difficult to drive but it was refined during the season and Jacques Villeneuve took the runner-up spot in the standings after winning three times. Rickard Rydell finished third with two wins and in addition he came away with a win at Macau.

1993

1994

It was another 1-2 for TOM’S in the All Japan Championship for the works cars of Michael Krumm and Masami Kageyama. Only Krumm had use of the new 034F which was built to give maximum downforce and he dominated the series with six wins from ten races. Only one other 034F appeared during the year, driven by Tora Takagi from the midpoint of the season it took several top three finishes.

1995

The 035F was designed by Andrew Thorby (who designed the original 031F) with detail work carried out by F1 designer Martin Ogilvie. The car was designed from scratch in only five months. The front suspension layout was unusual in that it used twin dampers but only a single spring. Plans to have up to four cars running in the UK came to naught and with no cars running in Japan the 035F was not one of TOM’S successes.

1996

The 1996 model was the 036F and was once again designed by Andrew Thorby. It proved to be more successful than its immediate predecessor with Dutchman Tom Coronel finishing third in the All Japan Championship with a single win. In the UK a solitary car appeared for Argentinean newcomer Brian Smith who, despite his inexperience, had several good runs with a best finish of third. It was tested extensively during the year by several drivers all of whom seemed quite complimentary about it, mostly suggesting it needed further development to get it right on the pace of the all-conquering Dallaras.

1997

For TOM’S final season as a F3 constructor the 037F was produced. Heavily based on the 036F it featured a modified tub, revised suspension and was fitted with a new gearbox casing. Initially the same aerodynamic package that had been fitted to the 036F was employed. The design revisions were the work of Mark Bailey who was responsible for the Swift F Ford car.
Rather surprisingly TOM’S eschewed the All Japan Championship preferring to run a Dallara for Tom Coronel which in fact was a shrewd move as the won the title. Instead the 037F raced exclusively in the UK, it had problems early on but as the season progressed it showed flashes of promise. Its main weakness seemed to be an inability to get enough heat into its front tyres and it was very inconsistent from circuit to circuit being very quick on one and then slow on another. Kevin McGarrity had the best finish of the year with a third at Oulton Park.
At the end of the year TOM’S ceased building their own cars although they continued in F3 for another year in the UK running Dallaras (and occasionally the 037F). They are still active and successful in Japan, again with Dallaras, in 1998 and ’99 they won the championship.

Drivers:

1991
031F
Paulo Carcasci, Takuya Kurosawa, Victor Rosso, Rickard Rydell.

1992
032F
Naozumi Itou, Tom Kristensen, Victor Rosso, Rickard Rydell, Tetsuya Tanaka, Jacques Villeneuve.

1993
033F
Masahiko Kondou, Tom Kristensen, Hidetoshi Mitsusada, Kazutomo Mizuki, Rickard Rydell, Shinsuke Shibahara, Yoshiyasu Tachi, Toranosuke Takagi, Tetsuya Tanaka, Yoshiro Tani.

032F
Hidetoshi Mitsusada, Yutaka Okano, Shinsuke Shibahara, Yoshio Tsuduki.

1994
034F
Michael Krumm, Toranosuke Takagi.

033F
Michael Graff, Shigeaki Hattori, Yuuji Ide, Russell Ingall, Masami Kageyama, Satoshi Motoyama, Manabu Ootsuka, Hirofumi Sada, Oonishi Taichirou, Toranosuke Takagi, Tsuchiya Takeshi.

031F
Fernando Croceri, Omar Martinez, Ricardo Risatti.

1995
034F
Sebastián Martino, Juan Manuel Silva.

033F
Hiroshi Sasaki, Hidekazu Shigetomi.

031F
Omar Martinez.

1996
036F
Tom Coronel, Syouta Mizuno, Brian Smith, Takashi Yokoyama.

034F
Rubén Derfler, Christian Ledesma, Juan Manuel Silva.

1997
037F
Giovanni Anapoli, Ricardo Mauricio, Kevin McGarrity, Martin O’Connell, Andy Priaulx, Jamie Spence, Darren Turner.

034F
Juan Manuel Silva.

1998 037F
Adam Wilcox.

1999
037F
Gavin Jones.

031F
Javier Catalfo.

F3 History