F3 History

Author: webmaster

Posted on

Svebe

Svebe

1947 saw the first Svebe see the light of day, a front wheel drive DKW 800cc powered device built by Sven Andersson and Bengt Peterson (father of Ronnie). In later years a series of 500cc cars were built primarily for sprints and hillclimbs. Ronnie Peterson had been going very well in karting and his father decided F3 was the next step, in an attempt to save money Peterson Snr. and Andersson built a number of F3 Svebes.

1966

The Svebe was a direct Brabham copy that Peterson raced all over Sweden and Denmark in 1966. Results weren’t bad but the car eventually cost about twice what a Brabham would cost and faced with updating it at the end of the year the team bought a Brabham. Several other drivers also raced Svebes, most notably Freddie Kottulinsky, and like Peterson scored some reasonable places without ever being a consistent threat to the more favoured Brabhams.

Drivers

1965 Egert Haglund.

1966 Sven Andersson, Egert Haglund, Freddie Kottulinsky, Ronnie Peterson.

1967 Tommy Andersson, Gustav Dieden, Freddie Kottulinsky, Sune Rillver, Hans Uhlin.

1968 Per-Owe Söderberg.

svebe
Ronnie Peterson in the Svebe.
Posted on

Supernova

Supernova

Supernova were based in Sussex and had a short-lived career as a F3 racing car constructor, they were better known for building good looking Super Vee cars.

1976

As can be seen from the picture to the left the SF3 was a slender design with conventional outboard suspension and a front radiator, the nose looks very similar to the F5000 Trojan design. Judging by the narrow wheels and tyres at the front and the rear uprights sticking out in the breeze these were not the correct wheels for the car. Powered by a Brown Ford twin-cam engine the Supernova had a couple of good early season results with a best of 3rd at Oulton Park in March.

Drivers
1976 Claude Cuicci.

Supernova76
Claude Cuicci in the Silverstone pits with his Supernova.
Posted on

Stella

stella
stella
stella

Stella

The Stella 033 first appeared in the 1985 Japanese F3 Championship, two teams ran the cars and both were Nissan powered. Best finishing position was a fifth place for Yuuji Yamamoto, the car reappeared for five races in 1987 but was no longer competitive.

Drivers:

1985
Shigeki Matsui, Yuuji Yamamoto.

1987
Yoshinori Fujita.

Posted on

Mcnamara

mk3_2
The McNamara at Mallory Park in 1969.

Mcnamara

McNamara were based at Lengreiss on the Rhine and was started by Francis McNamara a US serviceman who had raced F Vees whilst posted to Germany. McNamara first built a number of successful Vees and then in 1969 a spaceframe design by Dan Hawkes was modified by Austrian Jo Karasek to become the F3 McNamara Sebring Mk3, the car showed promise and in 1970 a modified version, the 3B, was introduced. However by this time McNamara had moved up the ladder and in 1970 they built an Indianapolis car for STP to be driven by Mario Andretti and they modified Andretti’s F1 STP March 701. Unfortunately the Indy car proved a failure and the modified 701 was no faster than the original design. Later McNamara had problems with the sudden death of his wife, his own disappearance and the launch of an Interpol investigation.

1969

The first F3 design had a spaceframe chassis and the suspension was heavily based on Brabham lines and several early cars used some Brabham components. Front suspension was double wishbones with outboard spring/dampers. Rear suspension was by top link and lower wishbone with twin radius rods, springs and dampers were again outboard. It was clothed in a distinctive looking wedge shaped body and although there were no wins the car was by no means disgraced. Wheelbase: 92 ins. Track: front 57 ins. rear 56 ins. Wheels: 13 ins.

1970

The MK3B was introduced for 1970 and featured revised suspension geometry. Quite a few cars were sold in Germany on the strength of the 1969 results, one win was recorded during the year, Gerold Pankol at Diepholz. Several other top six places were recorded notably by a young Niki Lauda. At the end of the year McNamara withdrew from F3.

Drivers

1969
Helmut Marko, Werner Riedl.

1970
3B
Wilfried Holder, Niki Lauda, Francis McNamara, Gerold Pankl, Werner Riedl, Peter Schäbitz, Lothar Schörg, Nikolaus Ukmar.

?
Ole Vejlund.

1971
3
Josef Resch.

3B
Horst Eiteneuer, Wilfried Holder, Klaus-Jürgen Rappensberger, Peter Schäbitz, Werner Schommers.

mk3
The neat lines of the McNamara.
mk3_3
The McNamara without its bodywork.
mk3b
The Mk3B waiting on the grid.
Posted on

Starfire

starfire
The FF2000 Starfire at the 1975 Racing Car Show.

Starfire

The Starfire first saw the light of day at the 1975 Racing Car Show in January where it appeared in FF2000 guise, it was built by Starfire Racing who were based in Fulham, Southwest London. The neat looking car was penned by a then almost unknown Patrick Head and it was advertised as also being available as a F3 or Formula Super Renault chassis. It would seem that no F3 versions were ever built.
Posted on

Stanguellini

stanguellini_junior
Vittorio Stanguellini sitting in a 1961 F Junior Delfino.

Stanguellini

Vittorio Stanguellini, a FIAT dealer in Modena, began racing before the war in 1100 cc Ballilas and following the end of the hostilities in 1946 he started to manufacture his own cars based on FIAT parts. Stanguellini also developed his own engines and his 750cc and 1100cc sports car won numerous races in Italian national championships. Following the introduction of F Junior in 1958 Stanguellini built a batch of cars which were immediately successful winning the Italian Championship in 1958. In 1959 Stanguellini dominated the new International Championship with Swiss driver Michel May taking title and newcomers (and future GP winners) Wolfgang von Trips and Lorenzo Bandini taking wins in their “Stangs”. The Stanguellini-built cars always had an excellent reputation for the quality of their cars and although they were eclipsed by the arrival of the F Junior Cooper they continued to build cars for several years.
stanguellinif3
Francesco Stanguellini testing the F3 Stang at the Aerautodromo di Modena in 1964.

 

1964

Stanguellini built a Fiat-powered F3 car for the introduction of the formula in 1964, from appearances it was a neat, conventional spaceframe design with inboard front suspension. Unfortunately the Fiat engine was not competitive and this, coupled with a a lack of finance, meant that the car was never developed and it never progressed past the testing stage. This would be the last single-seater chassis to be built by Stanguellini.
It would seem therefore that the few Stangs that raced in F3 were converted F Junior models.
There were further rumours in 1970 of a new car to be raced the following year in the new 1600cc F3, interestingly it was said to be powered by a Ferrari Dino based engine but sadly it seems to have been just a rumour.

Drivers:

1964
Gianfranco Stanga.

1965
Gianfranco Stanga.

1966 Remigio Cianfriglia, Luciano Dal Ben.

Posted on

Spider

01b - 2
The Spider Mk3 in 2009 following a full restoration by designer Svenharry Åkesson.

Spider

The first Spider, the Mk1, was a F Junior chassis built by Svenharry Åkesson in 1959-60, it was fitted with a BMC engine and VW gearbox and raced by the designer himself. The Mk2 appeared in 1962 and was a development of the Mk1, in 1963 it was run as a F Junior but in 1964 it was converted to 1-litre F2 spec still with Svenharry Åkesson taking care of the driving duties. The Holbay-powered Spider Mk3 was a one-off Brabham clone, it was built in 1965 with Svenharry driving and in 1966 it was sold to Börje Björkqvist. The Mk3 was raced in both Scandanavia and Germany.

Drivers:

1965 Svenharry Åkesson.

1966 Börje Björkqvist.

02b - 1
The Mk3 in 2009 showing the Holbay engine with its Weber carburettor and the Hewland Mk6 gearbox, Wheels are Brabham 8" and 6" fitted with Dunlop Tyres.
Posted on

Speedcar

speedcar
speedcar
speedcar

Speedcar

Driven by Franco Foresti, the Speedcar failed to finish a race at Monza in May 1967, it also failed to qualify in June at the same venue. No engine was listed and this would seem to be its only two appearances.

Drivers

1967 Franco Foresti.

Posted on

Sparton

Sparton

Sparton was founded by Norman Pierce and Paul Jackson in 1977 in Lingfield, Surrey and the company began producing cars for the F Ford 1600 and F Ford 2000 market. They soon gained a reputation for building well made competitive cars and as a result they entered F3 in 1983 but they only lasted for two years without any success to show for it.

1983

For 1983 Sparton introduced the SE420 which was based on the company’s FF2000 car. It first appeared in the summer and by the end of the season it was starting to show reasonably well. A young Ayrton Senna tested it and was complimentary about its track behaviour.

1984

Sparton lightly modified the SE420 for 1984 building a new car in the process, the most noticeable change was fitting revised bodywork. Entered by Valour Racing Paul Jackson did the first five races of the year without any success and then switched to a Ralt for the rest of the year. In 1985 one of the cars was entered in the B class for year old cars.

Drivers:

1983
Mario Hytten, Paul Jackson, Jeff Ward.

1984
Paul Jackson.

1985

sparton83
The SE420 at its announcement.
sparton84
Sparton co-director Paul Jackson hurls the SE420 around the track.
Posted on

Skoda

66 - 1
The Skoda on display at a 1966 racing car show.

Skoda

Czechoslovakia’s famous car company has had a long competition history usually based on rallying but they have also competed in sports car and single seater racing. First appearing in 1965, they had some success winning a race at Most and taking other top 6 placings. In 1966 they produced ten cars powered by their own 1000MB engine, the cars used a spaceframe chassis with inboard suspension. Unfortunately their engines were some 25bhp down on a good Cosworth Ford unit so they would always struggle against Western European opposition but they were reasonably competitive against their Eastern European brethren in the handful of German races they took part in.

Drivers:

1966 Vaclav Bobek Snr.

1966 Jaroslav Bobek, Vaclav Bobek Snr., Miroslav Fousek.

1967 Jaroslav Bobek, Miroslav Fousek.

1968

1969 Jaroslav Bobek, Miroslav Fousek.