Bianchini

Bianchini
Driver Massimo Natili stands next to the Bianchini during testing at Vallelunga in 1968, Giorgio Bianchini is on the left.

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
The Berta 88 was built along contemporary lines with its low line sidepod, the airbox can be seen above the engine cover..

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.
Berta1
The Renault engine and gearbox installation in the Berta 88.

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.

Berta2
Team manager Alberto Scarazzini examining the tub.

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

bellasi69small
The 1969 Bellasi at Monza clearly showing the unusual front top suspension.

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.

This shot shows the pronounced wedge shape and rear mounted radiator..

Driver

1966 Giuglielmo Bellasi.

1967 Alessandro Angeleri, Giuglielmo Bellasi.

1968 Alessandro Angeleri, Giuglielmo Bellasi, Franco Conti, Giuseppe Mariella, Luigi Petri.

1969 Giorgio Pianta.

Belgica

1966_Ickx
Jackie Ickx testing the Belgica in 1966.

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.

Belco Avia

belco_avia1
The wind tunnel model of the Belco Avia.

Belco Avia

Belco Avia are an Italian company that specialise in composites, amongst other projects they build racing powerboats, manufacture bodywork for sports cars and they did the composite work for the F1 Forti team. They announced their F3 car at the end of 1998 and showed the above model and stated they would begin testing in January 1999 but to date I have found no evidence that the car was ever built or raced.

Beagle

mono69
Jim Yardley in 1969 with his neat little Monoposto Beagle.

Beagle

Jim Yardley raced in UK club racing throughout the 1960s and 70s producing his own car, the Beagle Mk1 in 1966. In July of that year he raced at a wet Oulton Park but failed to finish and he tried again in September at Castle Combe but the result was the same. By the end of the 1960s Yardley was racing in the Monoposto Championship in his 1.5 litre semi-monocoque Beagle and in 1969 he took the title. In 1970 Yardley dropped down to the 1-litre Monoposto class using a F3 engine that used a head of his own design fitted to an MAE block with a view to doing some F3 racing. It must have been a good engine as Yardley beat 1.5 litre cars with it but it seems that no F3 races were undertaken. Shortly after this Yardley had switched to the Clubmans class and in 1973 he took a leaf out of the Mallock book and converted his front engined Mk3 chassis with its beam front axle to F3 spec and entered a late season race at Thruxton where he retired with oil pressure problems. This seemed to be the temporary end of his ambitions and he returned to National racing where he had done so well. In 1985 Yardley suddenly reappeared at Silverstone with a Toyota powered Mk5, it qualified 33rd out of 35 (some 10 seconds off the pace) and retired after 7 laps with fuel pressure problems. Seemingly front and rear suspension was by beam axles, a very brave move! A non-qualification at the British GP followed in July and there were no further outings that year. The following year a Mk5B appeared at Silverstone, it qualified and finished second to last.

Driver

1966 Jim Yardley.

1973 Jim Yardley.

1985 Jim Yardley.

1986 David Morgan.

Bastet

Bastet

The Renault-powered Bastet was entered by its driver in a race at Nogaro in March 1967 but failed to arrive, it was a similar story in both May and September of 1968 at Montlhéry. There are no further details as to whether the car ever raced.

Driver

1967 Jacques Bastet.

1968 Jacques Bastet.