Black Widow
A 1964 German F3 car entered and driven by Ernst Schubert, no results in any notable races were obtained. No other details, including the type of engine,are available.
Driver
1966 Ernst Schubert.
Black Widow
Birrana
Birrana
Based in Adelaide and formed in 1971 by Malcolm Ramsey and designer Tony Alcock, Birrana built cars for F Ford and the Australian F2 (ANF2) winning the champinship in 1973-76. In 1975 two ANF2 274s came to the UK and were raced in Formula Atlantic one of which metamorphsed into the 1976 F2 Minos driven by Bobby Muir. Tragically Birrana was wound up when Tony Alcock was killed in Graham Hill’s aircraft accident.
1974
There was a chassis, the 374, offered for sale by Birrana for F3 in 1974 but I can find no evidence that one was actually built or raced, the picture on the left appeared in Autosport with the announcement that a F3 was for sale.
Birel
Birel
In the late 1960s Italian race organisers were offering additional money to anyone fielding an Italian car in F3 events. This led to a large number of manufacturers emerging from the woodwork, the most successful being Tecno. The legendary Brambilla bothers, Tino and Vittorio supported Birel in their efforts to create a local car, the resulting series of Brabham BT21 copies gave Vittorio some success in the final years of the 1-litre formula.
1967
An almost direct clone of a contemporay Brabham, unfortunately for the Birel team it wasn’t as quick as the real thing and results were disappointing..
1968
The Birel design was now beginning to move away, if only slightly, from its Brabham roots and The Brambilla brothers were now getting involved in the project. Ernesto Brambilla took a second place at Monza in May indicating the car was getting better.
1969
The Birel now looked very like a Brabham BT21 and it was obviously going like one as Vittorio Brambilla scored several good results with it including wins at Vallelunga and Monza.
1970
For 1970 the Brambilla’s switched to building karts but at the end of the season Vittorio took his car out of mothballs and won a race at Munich to show it was still competitive.
1971
For 1971 the ’69 car was rebuilt with some Alpine characteristics and raced as the Birel 71. Vittorio winning one race with an Alfa Romeo-based engine and two more with a Nova version.
1972
By 1972 the Birel star had waned, Vittorio doing 5 races with a Wainer-tuned Alfa engine and 2 with a Nova whilst Tino did 5 races with the Alfa version. The chassis was based on a Tecno chassis and used Alpine inspired bodywork. After securing only a single point each the switch to a Brabham chassis was made and the Birel name disappeared from racing history.
Driver
1967 Ernesto Brambilla, Luciano Selva.
1968 Alessandro Angeleri, Ernesto Brambilla, Vittorio Brambilla, Enzo Corti.
1969 Vittorio Brambilla, “Guido”.
1970 Vittorio Brambilla.
1971 Vittorio Brambilla, Pino Pica
1972 Ernesto Brambilla, Vittorio Brambilla, Roberto Manzon
Bianchini
Bianchini
Alex Francis began building trials cars in 1953 and in 1959 he set up Alexis with Australian Bill Harris to start producing customer cars including a Formula Junior model. Harris had previously been responsible for the Flather 500cc F3 Special. For several years the team produced a number of increasingly sophisticated F Junior cars, the Mk5 in particular going very well. In fact a Mk5 was sold to DAF to be fitted with their Variomatic transmission and it was raced in F3 in 1964.
When Harris returned to Australia in 1965 Lotus 7 racer Allan Taylor took his place and Alexis became a serious racing car constructor, and Team Alexis ran cars in a number of formulae. Both F2 and F3 cars were constructed during the ’60s and some success was achieved, the highlight being Paul Hawkins winning the 1965 F2 Eifelrennen. The Jim Russell Driving School took 57 of the Alexis Formula Ford cars for its pupils to learn on in 1967-68, however by the start of the 1970s production began to slow down as other marques came to prominence and Alexis faded from the scene.
1966
The first chassis was designed by Augusto and built by Giorgio and was similar to the contemporary De Sanctis and it used a Bianchini-tuned Ford engine with a claimed 113bhp @ 11500 rpm. Unusually it was fitted with aluminium bodywork designed by Filachioni who was also responsible for the De Sanctis F3 bodies. The aluminium bodywork might was probably at least partially responsible for the chassis being overweight.
The Bianchini debuted at Vallelunga in the Gran Premio di Roma on the 29th May driven by successful saloon car driver Franco Chiari but it retired with driveshaft failure although it showed some promise. A second car driven by Francesco Ghezzi appeared a month later running competently at Monza. At the end of the year Chiari took a “class win” (first Italian-built car?) at the Copa del Cimini in September.
1967
In an effort to save weight the Bianchini was modified for 1967 by the fitment of fibreglass bodywork and the suspension was modified to improve the handling. Results were generally disappointing although there was a second place at an Italian F3 round at Vallelunga. It seems as if Bianchini limped on for another two years in F3 without recording any respectable results. A total of 5 F3 cars were built.
Driver
1966 Francesco Ghezzi, Franco Chiari.
1967 Massimo Natili, Romano Orsola.
Berta
Berta
Berta is one of the most famous names in Argentinean motorsport, they have produced single seaters and sports cars for many years. Oreste Berta set up his manufacturing business at Cordoba and in the late sixties several FIAT powered cars were built for national racing. Later Berta aimed higher when a F5000, was constructed, it raced in the USA without success. The F1 Berta was built in 1974, it was a conventional device with a nose reminiscent of the Brabham BT34, it was fitted with a Berta V8 which looked very similar to a DFV, sadly a lack of finance precluded it getting past the testing stage. Berta also produced a number of sports cars including in 1970 a DFV powered model, the LR, that showed up very well against European opposition in the Temporada series and in May at the Nurburgring 1000Kms World Sportscar Championship round.
1987
1987 was the first year of the Sudam F3 Championship and the year was totally dominted by the Berta MkIII, it should be noted however that the competition from other manufacturers was very limited with only a single example of the Reynard and Dallara marques on display. Most of the cars were powered by VW engines although a few opted for Renault motors. The MKIII continued into 1988 but was generally no match for the European cars that were now being imported.
1988
Following on from their success in the 1987 Sudam Championship for 1988, in conjunction with Marc Hessel, a F3 car was built to race in the German Championship.
The chassis was a mix of aluminium honeycomb and carbon fibre with metal panelwork, suspension was conventional. Power came from a Berta-tuned Renault 18 based engine attached to a Meriggi Renault based gearbox.
Argentinean driver Victor Rosso took part in a couple of races where the car ran midfield, the venture was then abandoned. A car also appeared in the Sudam Championship without any great success.
Driver
1987 MkIII
Enrique Benamo, Daniel Cingolan, Fernando Croceri, Leonel Friedrich, Gabriel Furlán, Juan C. Giacchino, Miguel A. Guerra, Néstor Gurini, Egon Hertzfeld, Guillermo Kissling, Guillermo Maldonado, José Luis Di Palma, Cezar Pegoraro, Ricardo Risatti.
1988
88
Guillermo Kissling, Victor Rosso.
MkIII
Pedro Bartelle, Daniel Cingolan, Leonel Friedrich, Gabriel Furlán, Néstor Gurini, Guillermo Kissling, Pedro Muffato, José Luis Di Palma, Cezar Pegoraro, Ricardo Risatti, Renato Russo.
1989
88
Luis Belloso, Djalma Fogaça, Elio Seikel.
MkIII
Guillermo Kissling, Affonso Rangel, Renato Russo.
1990 88
Luis Belloso.
Bergholm
Bergholm
A self-built car by its Finnish driver seemingly the third Bergholm had built, contemporary reports described it as “workmanlike”. Powered by a home built Ford it had drum brakes and a VW gearbox and it raced three times, twice at Keimola and Hämeenlinna in Finland in 1967 and once at Hämeenlinna in August 1978 where it DNF’d on every occasion.
Driver
1967 Bengt Bergholm.
1968 Bengt Bergholm.
BEP
BEP
The Renault-powered BEP appeared sporadically during 1965 driven by Frenchman, Raymond Thollon. Entered in a handful of early-season races in France and Italy it either failed to finish or didn’t qualify.
Driver
1965
Raymond Thollon.
Benit
Benit
The Benit-Renault appeared just once, at Magny-Cours in May 1965, driven by Frenchman Jean Chicard it failed to pre-qualify for the race.
Driver
1965 Jean Chicard.
Bellasi
Bellasi
Giuglielmo Bellasi produced a number of F3 cars from 1966 to 1969, they never achieved any great success but were one of the large number of small Italian companies that helped boost the grids in the early years of F3.
Bellasi’s greatest claim to fame was in 1970 when Swiss F1 privateer Silvio Moser commissioned them to build him a Grand Prix car. The change in F1 regulations at that time required bag tanks which meant a monocoque so Bellasi made a tub to receive the Ford DFV engine, Hewland gearbox and much of the suspension from Moser’s spaceframe Brabham BT24. The car managed to qualify at the back of a couple of Grand Prix before Moser gave in.
1966
The first Bellasi, as was common in Italy at the time, was based on a contemporary Brabham chassis, driven by Giuglielmo Bellasi himself the only result of note was a 3rd place at Lago de Garda in May.
1967
Bellasi switched to a monocoque design for their 1967 car, Giuglielmo Bellasi was still the driver, a fifth at Monza in June was his best finish.
1968
There are no details as to what car was used in 1968, there were no top six results recorded in any race of note.
1969
A new car was introduced for 1969, it featured a fashionable wedge shape (in fact it was nicknamed “Cuneo” meaning a wedge). The rather spindly suspension was outboard with a very unusual looking top wishbone and anti rollbar. The radiator really was rear mounted, it was sited above the gearbox which presumably gave a very heavy rearward weight bias. Once again no results were achieved despite being driven by the experienced Giorgio Pianta and this seems to have been the last F3 Bellasi produced.
Driver
1966 Giuglielmo Bellasi.
1967 Alessandro Angeleri, Giuglielmo Bellasi.
1968 Alessandro Angeleri, Giuglielmo Bellasi, Franco Conti, Giuseppe Mariella, Luigi Petri.
1969 Giorgio Pianta.
Belgica
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.