D – F3History

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Duqueine

The Duqueine brothers, Victor and Gilles, owned a manufacturing facility making high tech components based in Villeurbanne in France. Their first cars were built in 1978 for Formule Renault and their first F3 car followed the next year. Success was not forthcoming and their next F3 chassis would be the VG4 in 1984, they continued to manufacture cars up until 1987 when the lack of any sustained success caused their withdrawal. Duqueine had many other strings to their bow, they have also built monocoques for Ligier as well as components for Renault, Group C sports cars and rally cars. In addition they also work in a number of different industrial areas.

1979

The VG3 was reminiscent of the Martini F3 cars with its sculptured nose cone. It seemed to have the appearance of a neat workmanlike chassis and apparently it showed well at Magny Cours, but like so many cars of the late 1970s they were left behind by ground effects technology. It seems that only the single VG3 chassis was completed.

1984

The VG4 consisted of a composite chassis with pull rods at the front and rockers at the rear meaning that the springs and dampers are inboard all round. AP brakes were fitted front and rear. The whole car came in well below the weight limit requiring 35kg of lead ballast. The VG4 first saw the light of day at the end of 1984 at Ledenon in the hands of Gilles Duqueine. The car continued into 1985 with Duqueine picking up several top six finishes until a serious road accident ended his career. Three cars were sold to customers for 1986 with Philippe Gache in particular having several promising runs.

1987

The VG5 appeared to be a continuation of the earlier VG4 theme. Sadly results weren’t good at Duqueine withdrew from F3 to concentrate on their other projects.

Drivers

1979 Bernard Perroy.

1984 Gilles Duqueine.

1985 Gilles Duqueine.

1986 Philippe Gache, Philippe Goutard, Uko Katayama.

1987

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Druid

Roger Andreason decided on the construction of a F3 car as an extension to his race preparation business, Andreason Racing and Tuning Ltd based in Eastleigh in Hampshire. The aim was to produce an easy to drive car that wouldn’t be expensive to run and repair.

1977

The 377 was based on the original design for the Royale RP23 that was never built, Rory Byrne the current Ferrari F1 designer laid out the chassis and suspension design. When taken over by Druid Roger Andreason and Paul fox completed the detail work and the bodywork. Andreason himself and Davina Galica carried out the initial testing and development. Unfortunately it would not be run by a top team and the advent of ground effect soon meant it would soon retire from the world of F3. The car was rebuilt as a Formula Atlantic car where it run with some success as well as in Formula Libre and a further 2 chassis were built.

Drivers
1977 Roger Andreason?

15 May, 202120 May, 2022

de Sanctis

Based in Rome the De Sanctis family, father Gino and son Lucio, ran a large FIAT dealership and towards the end of the 1950s Lucio De Sanctis began competing in Formula Junior in a car of his own design. By 1959 the De Sanctis was the car to beat in Italy with their tubular space frame, coil and wishbone front suspension and swing-axle at the rear. However when they came up against cars powered by the Ford 105E engine or the BMC “A” series, their FIAT engines would not prove to be man enough for the job. In the 1960s they continued with Brabham influenced, Ford powered F Junior and F3 cars and Jonathan Williams in particular went very well in them.

1964

The first F3 de Sanctis continued on from their run of quite successful F Junior cars. Their lead driver was the pseudonymous “Geki” and he proved the de Sanctis to be very quick at the traditional Monza slipstreaming blinds winning four times there during the year as well as taking one other victory.

1965

Development for 1965 seems to have been minimal and it showed with “Geki” only winning twice during the course of the year. At least one car appeared powered by a Lancia engine.

1966

A new car was introduced for 1966 with a modified version of the earlier spaceframe chassis utilising double wishbone suspension at the front and a lower wishbone/top link with twin radius rods set up at the rear. Power came from a Ford Cosworth MAE engine, the gearbox was a Colotti-modified VW four-speed unit with variable ratios. The new car was obviously at home on the fast Italian tracks with Jonathan Williams dominating the season winning 10 out of 16 races and securing the Italian Constructors Championship (albeit only for Italian built cars) for de Sanctis.

1967

Development for 1965 seems to have been minimal and it showed with “Geki” only winning twice during the course of the year. At least one car appeared powered by a Lancia engine.

1968

Some concerted effort went into improving the car for 1968 and results improved but the car to have in Italy was the Tecno. For 1969 de Sanctis marked time with few results of any consequence although Claudio Francisci won races at Monza and Vallelunga.

1969

It was further revisions for 1969 as the car moved further away from it’s Brabham heritage, aluminium panelling was used in an effort to stiffen the chassis and de Sanctis cast their own magnesium front uprights. Results were generally disappointing with no wins during the year.

1970

1971

The De Sanctis name appeared a few times on the grid in early season Italian F3 races but it does not appear that they were new cars, rather they were older 1-litre cars uprated with 1600cc engines. However later in the year a 1600cc car did appear in the UK at some late season races were it ran in the lower half of the field.

Drivers

1964 Giovanni Ballico-Lay, Sergio Bettoja, André Durantou, Corrado Ferlaino, “Miro Gay”, “Geki” (Giacomo Russo), “Tiger” (Romano Perdomi).

1965 Massimo de Antoni, Franco Bernabei, Mario Casoni, Carlo Facetti, “Geki” (Giacomo Russo), Francesco Godia, Dino Marniga, Otelli Rinaldi, Nestor Salerno, “Tiger” (Romano Perdomi).

1966 Giorgio Alberti, Giovanni Alberti, Walter Froldi, Ignazio Giunti, Marco Macciantelli, Antonio Maglione, Giuseppe Piazzi, Otello Rinaldi, “Tiger” (Romano Perdomi), Jonathan Williams.

1967
Giovanni Alberti, Marino Benagli, Franco Bernabei, Jorge Cupeiro, Claudio Francisci, “Geki” (Giacomo Russo), Salvatore Genovese, “Gero” (Cristiano Del Balzo), Antonio Maglione, Carlos Martin, Manfred Möhr, Luigi Petri, Sverrir Thoroddsson, “Tiger” (Romano Perdomi), Jonathan Williams.

1968 Giovanni Alberti, “Droopy”, Jürg Dubler, Carlo Franchi, Claudio Francisci, Giancarlo Gagliardi, “Gero” (Cristiano Del Balzo), Luigi Petri, Pino Pica, Jonathan Williams.

1969 Claudio Francisci, “Gero” (Cristiano Del Balzo).

1970 Yuri Andreyev, Marcello Gallo, Ré.

1971 Sandro Cinotti, Carlo Franchi.

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Derichs

Germany’s only F3 constructor of the early 1980s, Erwin Derichs constructed a number of distinctive looking if generally not too competitive cars. They were built to contest the German F3 series and cars were being produced up until 1984

1974

A singleton D34 chassis was run in the German F3 series for Hans Hargarten, it used a Ford engine and was never very competitive, the best result was a third place in a poor field at Salzburg.

1975

Erwin Derichs ran his own Ford powered car in the German F3 championship, it wasn’t very competitive and recorded no top 6 finishes.

1976

At least two cars were built for 1976, designated the D36 one was fitted with a BMW engine the other with a Ford. Results were poor in the German F3 championship with a best finish of tenth, taken by Derichs himself.

1977

Erwin Derichs ran his own Ford powered car in the German F3 championship, it wasn’t very competitive and recorded no top 6 finishes.

1978

Derichs continued using the D37 in the Bose team (which seems to have been the works team) for 1978 results were generally poor although Peter Kroeber won a non-championship race with a small field on the short Nurburgring. Kroeber also took another three top six finishes during the season, all in non-championship events.

1979

Once again it was the D37 that was used by the Bose team and Peter Kroeber who again had some good finishes in non-championship races.

1980

1981

Once again it was the D37 that was used by the Bose team and Peter Kroeber who again had some good finishes in non-championship races.

1982

1983

Once again it was the D37 that was used by the Bose team and Peter Kroeber who again had some good finishes in non-championship races.

1984

1985

Once again it was the D37 that was used by the Bose team and Peter Kroeber who again had some good finishes in non-championship races.

Drivers
1974 Hans Hargarten.

1975
D34
Hans Hargarten.

D35
Erwin Derichs, Romain Feitler.

1976
D35
Peter Bonk.

D36
Erwin Derichs, Olaf Höhn, Manfred Leppke.

1977
D37
Herbert Bürgmayr, Peter Kroeber.

D36
Arno Derichs. Erwin Derichs, Jürgen Schlich.

D35
Peter Bonk.

1978
D37
Heinz Beißler, Arno Derichs, Olaf Höhn, Henning Hagenbauer, Peter Kroeber, Jürgen Schlich, Hannelore Werner.

D36
Konrad Heberer.

D35
Peter Bonk.

1979
D37
Arno Derichs, Frithjof Erpelding, Olaf Höhn, Peter Kroeber.

D36
Konrad Heberer.

D35
Peter Bonk.

1980
D380
Heinz Beißler, Erwin Derichs, Jürgen Schlich.

D37
Arno Derichs, Jürgen Schlich.

D35
Peter Bonk.

1981
D380
Heinz Beißler, Henning Hagenbauer, Bernd Suckow, Bernd Wicks.

D37
Arno Derichs, Frithjof Erpelding, Helmut Kalenborn.

1982
D382
Jürgen Endres.

D380
Erwin Derichs, Rudi Seher.

D37
Helmut Kalenborn.

1983
D383
Rainer Offenbach.

D37
Pit Bilger.

1984
D385
Pit Bilger, Jürgen von Gartzen, Wolfgang Kaufmann, Bernd Wicks, Manfred Zimmermann.

D37
Pit Bilger, Jürgen von Gartzen.

1985 D385
Klaus-Dieter Hoekel, Bruno Stanjek, Manfred Zimmermann.

1986 D385
Stefan Oberndorfer.

1987 D385
Gerhard Müller.

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Delta

Delta first began producing cars for the 1-litre F4 championship in the mid 70s, owned by Glenn Hyatt, their first car was based on the 1973 MRE F3 car. Later they produced the IRF4, designed by Ian Reed, it won the 1975 F4 Championship driven by Fergus Tait. Hyatt then took over the Ray Jessop designed Safir RJO3 after Jessop’s death in 1976, renamed it the Delta, but lack of finances precluded it being run.

1975

Interestingly a Ray Jessop designed F3 car called the Delta RJ03 that was shown at the 1975 racing Car show. It is very reminiscent of Jessop’s Token F1 car of 1974 which was renamed Safir for a couple of British F1 races in 1975. The Safir F3 (q.v.) car also debuted in 1975 so is this an early version of the Safir? Unfortunately the photograph isn’t clear enough to answer that but allowing that the Safir also had the RJ03 designation it is likely that the Safir is the developed version (with modified bodywork) of this car.

The advert on the left was placed in Autosport and tends to reinforce the above as the Safir was also designed to take the Pinto engine.

15 May, 202120 May, 2022

Dastle

Throughout the sixties Geoffrey Rumble’s Dastle company specialised in short-track racing midgets with only a F. Ford car to their name. In 1972 they produced their first F3 car and over the next few years produced a number of models which ran with varying degrees of success. They always seem to be hampered by lack of suffuicient finance to enable them to do enough testing and to ensure they had decent engines. Today the Dastle company is still going strong making raceboxes to transport race cars.

1972

Based around a strong monocoque (note the hefty roll hoop in the pictures) with orthodox suspension, the Mk 9 was designed by Geoff Rumble. Its wide track made it stable through corners but slow in a straight line. Perhaps the Mk9’s greatest claim to fame was that the then newly formed Hesketh team gave the young James Hunt his last F3 races in one. Both James and Bubbles Horsley proved the strength of the tubs with huge accidents at Brands Hatch on the same day.

1973

Designed on similar lines to the Mk 9 but with inboard front brakes and a full-width nose the Mk 10 was driven by Barrie Maskell. Despite a lot of development work that took it through to “B” form it was never a genuine front runner and it gained a perhaps unjustified reputation as being poor handling. The best result was an end of season 5th at Thruxton for Maskell

1974

The Mk10 continued into 1974 where it suffered badly in early season races from an unreliable engine as the switch was made to 2-litre engines. However Dastle persevered and the car was updated to “C” spec for Maskell. Despite only using a 1700 or 1800 cc engine Maskell took an excellent second at Cadwell Park in June and a third in the same month at Snetterton. A fifth at Cadwell in July was the only other result of note.

1976

In 1976 Barrie Maskell resurrected the Mk10c and finished second in a non-championship race at Mallory Park in a very weak field. The car was, unusually for this time, powered by a twin-cam Ford.

Drivers:
1972 Anthony “Bubbles” Horsley, James Hunt, Steve Thompson.

1973 Barrie Maskell, Norman Pierce.

1974 Barrie Maskell, Norman Pierce.

1975 Barrie Maskell.

1976 Barrie Maskell.

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DULON

Dulon Cars were built in Didcot by Andrew DUncan and Bill LONgley and they made their reputation with a number of quite successful F Ford and FF2000 cars as well as some small capacity Sports Cars. At various times some F Atlantic cars emerged as well as a rather bulky one-off F5000. In December 1967 the new F Ford LD4 was announced, it was a conventional spaceframe chassis and it was stated that a F3 version, the LD5, would be built for Cooper F3 driver Jeremy Dobson although it seems as if the car was not completed. At various other times a F3 Dulon was mooted, including a car based on the 1975 FF2000 design but they all seem to have been stillborn.

15 May, 202110 July, 2021

de Tomaso

Alessandro de Tomaso came to Modena from his native Argentina to race Osca sports cars, when he retired he decided to settle in Modena permanently. He began constructing his own cars and in 1961 produced an F1 that would take either a 1.5 litre Osca or Alfa Romeo engine. Over the next few years de Tomaso came up with a string of various competition cars but it seemed that no sooner had a new car arrived than de Tomaso would loose interest and start on another project. All of this meant that although some of his cars were quite competitive they never received the necessary development. In 1969 they produced a reasonably competitive FVA powered F2 car and the following year Dallara was commissioned to produce an F1 car. The resultant car was run by Frank Williams and was driven by Piers Courage, things looked promising with a third place in the International Trophy at Silverstone. Tragically Courage lost his life in the car at Zandvoort and the team understandably lost heart for the rest of the year and at the end of the season de Tomaso gave up the single seater scene and concentrated on sports cars. Sadly Alessandro de Tomaso passed away in 2003.

1964

A F3 car was produced in 1964 that was basically an update of the 1962 F Junior car, fitted with a Holbay engine it showed flashes of promise including a win at Caserta.

1965

A new car was built for 1965 but results were generally disappointing, Clay Regazzoni taking a sixth at Magny Cours.

Drivers:

1964 Massimo de Antoni, Giorgio Bassi, Franco Bernabei, Giosue Butti, Mario Casoni, “Miro Gay”.

1965 Massimo de Antoni, Giorgio Bassi, Clay Regazzoni.

1966 Franco Bernabei, Roberto Bussinello, Francesco Vento.

15 May, 202110 July, 2021

De Nadai

The Ford powered de Nadai was raced by, and presumably constructed by, Henri de Nadai, its first appearance seems to have been at Clermont-Ferrand in July 1964 where it failed to start. There were sporadic, uncompetitive appearances until its swansong in 1967 where it finished 16th and last in Heat 1 of a race at Montjuich Park in April.

Drivers

1964 Henri de Nadai.

1965 Henri de Nadai.

1967 Henri de Nadai.

15 May, 202129 May, 2022

Delfin

A home-built Czechoslovakian car that was constructed by Ing. Gajdos who worked for the Tatra Koprivnice car and truck company. The initial power plant was unusual, it was the 2472 cc V8 engine from the Tatra 603 effectively cut in half and uniquely for an F3 engine it was air-cooled, the transmission came from a Fiat 600D. Three Delfins appeared at a race in 1964 at the Sachsenring that mixed a largely East German field with 8 or so contemporary western cars. Sadly, given their very unusual components, they weren’t noticeably competitive. The next appearance (assuming it was the same car) was at a race at Brno in 1966 when two cars were entered but did not finish, one was listed as a “66” the other as a “65” indicating there were two different designs. After this a single car arrived at Hockenheim in 1968, no engine was listed so it is not certain that Tatra still provided the motive force, no result was achieved. The final appearence for a Delfin was at a race at Neubiberg in October 1969 when it failed to finish, for this race at least the motive power was courtesy of Skoda.

Thanks to Standa Cozik for additional information.

Drivers:

1964 ?
Jiri Gajdos, Alois Gbelec, Jiri Pelucha.

1966
66
Jiri Gajdos.

65
Vladimir Ondrejik.

1968 ?
Vladislav Ondrejik.

1969 ?
Karl-Adolf Kneip.

Duqueine

1979

1984

1987

Druid

1977

de Sanctis

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

Derichs

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

Delta

1975

Dastle

1972

1973

1974

1976

DULON

de Tomaso

1964

1965

De Nadai

Delfin

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