G – F3History

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Grac

First entering F3 in 1969 Grac (Groupe de Recherches Automobiles de Course) had previously constructed cars for Formule France from their headquarters in Valence. They met with some success winning the French championship in 1968 and 1969. Team owner and designer, Serge Asiomanoff then moved into F3 for a few years where he met with limited success. In the mid to late ’70s Grac built a number of cars for the European 2-litre Sports Car Championship and appeared to leave the single-seater market. The MT chassis designation used on all the Grac models was a tribute to Maurice Trintignant. Today Serge Asiomanoff and Grac are still active but in in a different field, they manufacture specialised suspension systems for vehicles such as ambulances. (Thanks to Rene Verstappen for the information).

1964

A Ford-powered Grac raced sporadically in France, presumably a converted Formule France car.

1965

As in 1964 a couple of Ford-powered Gracs were occasionally seen in France, again probably converted Formule France cars.

1966

A Ford-powered Grac raced sporadically in France, presumably a converted Formule France car.

1967

As in 1964 a couple of Ford-powered Gracs were occasionally seen in France, again probably converted Formule France cars.

1969

There were two versions of the MT8, one with the distinctive wedge shaped bodywork and one with conventional body work which was called the MT8A. Front suspension was via wishbones whilst the rear used top links and twin radius rods. Springs and dampers were outboard front and rear. Wheelbase: 78.7 ins. Track: front 55 ins. rear 55 ins. The MT8 proved a disaster and whilst the MT8A was better no results were achieved and Vidal gave up part way through the season.

1970

The MT11 used a spaceframe chassis with aluminium sheet panelling over the driver’s legs. There were twin rubber bag type fuel tanks in each sidepod. The front suspension used a top link and trailing arm similar to the Chevron design with a wishbone at the bottom. Rear suspension was by top link with reversed bottom wishbone and twin radius rods. Springs and dampers were outboard front and rear. The uprights were Grac’s own magnesium castings. The wheels were twin segment disc-type wheels that were adjustable for rim width. The car was sponsored by Veglia instruments and thus entered as a Veglia-Grac. Tragically Denis Dayan suffered a fatal accident in the car just as it was beginning to show well which bought an end to the project as well as Grac’s F3 involvement.s.

1973

The MT14 appeared in 1973 German F3 races were it raced with reasonable success with a best result of second in a weak field at Hockenheim. The MT14 was the 1971 Formule France chassis shown on the left, was the German car a converted Formule France model or something else? The MT14 designation was also used for the MT14B and MT14S which were sportscars so perhaps the German car had some other genesis.

Drivers

1964
Bernard Plaisance.

1965
Jean Faure, Alain Leguellec, Gilles Pequenot, Bernard Plaisance.

1966 Jean Faure, Jean Max.

1967 Alex Astruc, Jean Belin, Michel Moisset.

1968 Jimmy Mieusset .

1969
MT8
Jean Max.

MT8A
Philippe Vidal.

1970 MT11
Denis Dayan.

1973 MT14
Reinhard Pfändler.

1974 MT14
Giancarlo Commazzi.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Gueparda

The Guerpardo (Spanish for cheetah) was displayed in 1966 at a Racing Car show, suspension was inboard at the front and outboard at the rear. From the picture it’s not clear what engine was fitted except it is not a standard F3 engine, it appears to have a twin-choke, downdraught carburettor fitted, at this time the regulations called for a single-choke carburettor and side-draught would be the norm until 1968. It would seem that Guepardo also built cars for Spanish Formula IV racing. There is no record that the car ever raced.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Greenwood

A self-built car by Austin apprentice John Greenwood that raced in F3 in 1965-66, it used the steering wheel, drivers cowling and the twin Pannier fuel tanks from the F Junior Diggory Gwyniad and was powered by a BMC engine. Since the BMC engine was only competitive in 1964 and had quickly been left behind by the Ford unit there were no significant results either in the UK or on the odd continental outing.

Drivers:

1965 John Greenwood.

1966 John Greenwood.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

GRD

As Lotus withdrew from the production side of racing car manufacture there were a number of personnel in the Hethel area of Norfolk looking for new employment. Several of these ex-Lotus employees, notably Mike Warner, designer Dave Baldwin and two leading technicians, Derek Wild and Gordon Huckle formed Group Racing Developments by linking together with local engineering company, Griston. To finish the group Jo Marquart joined from Huron as designer. With Lotus, and soon Brabham, leaving the production racing car market things looked good for GRD and initially they had a lot of success and in 1973 joined up with Denys Dobbie’s DART operation with grand plans for the future. However Dobbie pulled out in early 1974 and by the end of the year production ceased as prospects for the following year were not good. Three former employees set up a service operation and in 1975 Van Diemen took over this and the 375 F3 car (of which a modified version became the Van Diemen F3 car).

1972

The 372 consisted of an aluminium bathtub monocoque with tubular sub frames front and rear and conventional suspension. The bodywork had a pronounced wedge shape with large side mounted radiators. The car gained a reputation for being easy to set up and forgiving to drive and during the season it produced a lot of wins especially as other drivers switched over to it. The prototype chassis was debuted in some end of season races in the UK in 1971

1973

Most of the changes to the 373 were to make production of the chassis easier but it seemed that the factory preoccupation with F2 meant that the F3 car lacked some development and although successful it began to receive a less than flattering press from some of its drivers. A chassis flexing problem was solved mid season but it wasn’t until the end of the year that the real hard testing was carried out that eventually cured the problems. Alan Jones, Brian Henton and Richard Robarts chalked up 9 wins between them so the season wasn’t a total disaster by any means.

1974

F3 racing was in the doldrums in the UK in 1974 with very small grids so the first major changes to the GRD design didn’t really help matters. The chassis/suspension remained basically as before with the changes to the radiator positioning and the new nose being the main modifications. Alex Ribeiro and Pedro Passadore had some reasonable runs but the writing was on the wall for GRD.

1975

The GRD 375 at the 1975 Racing Car Show.
The first GRD 375 was in fact an updated 374 which shows that once again this was an evolutionary update. Ian Taylor ran in a works version and some support was given to some of the European competitors. The car retained its full width nose but the radiators were moved rearwards again. Highlight of the year was undoubtedly Renzo Zorzi’s fortunate victory at Monaco in a 374. At the end of the year GRD closed down and the F3 operation was taken over by Van Diemen.

Drivers
1971 372
Andy Sutcliife

1972 372
Tim Brise, Tony Brise, Cesare Doneda, Patrick Duchamp, Adelmo Fossati, Johnny Gerber, Bengt Gilhorn, Neil Ginn, Mo Harness, Hans-Peter Hoffman, Alan Jones, Masami Kuwashima, Barrie Maskell, Kurt Müller, Jorge Pinhol, Pierre-Francois Rousselot, Robin Smythe, Fernando Spreafico, Andy Sutcliffe, Keiichi Tahara, Ian Taylor, Bernard Vermilio, Jo Vonlanthen, Roger Williamson.

1973
373
Thomas Betzler, Bernhard Brack, Tony Brise, Wolfgang Bülow, Ingvar Carlsson, Rudolf Dötsch, Harald Ertl, Jeremy Gambs, Alexander Güttes, Sigi Hofmann, Alan Jones, Dieter Kern, Gernot Lamby, Heinz Lange, John MacDonald, Jac Nelleman, Gunnar Nordström, Pedro Passadore, Richard Robarts, Tony Rouff.

372
Tony Brise, Jacques Coulon, Roger Craven, Neil Ginn, Hans-Peter Hoffman, Alan Jones, Richard Knight, Norman Moffett, Jac Nelleman, Masami Kuwashima, Pedro Passadore, Larry Perkins, Rod Smith, Fernando Spreafico.

?
Walter Flückinger.

1974
374
Hakan Alriksson, Alberto Colombo, Gaudenzio Mantova, Gian-Massimo Martoni, Luis Moraes, Marcos Moraes, Jac Nelleman, Pedro Passadore, Alessandro Pessenti-Rossi, Alex Ribeiro, Renzo Zorzi.

373
Bernhard Brack, Günter Hölker, Roger Hurst, John-Erik Johansson, Gernot Lamby, Jac Nelleman, Gunnar Nordström, Tony Rouff, Len Smith.

372
Hans-Peter Hoffman, Kurt Müller.

?
Ingo Hopp.

1975
375
Ingvar Carlsson, Werner Fischer, Den Greer, Shaw Hayami, Donald MacLeod, Jac Nellemann, Ian Taylor.

374
Doug Bassett, Derek Cook, Jac Nellemann, Porky Thyling, Mike Tyrrell, Renzo Zorzi.

373
Hakan Alriksson, Ulf Alriksson, Bernhard Brack, Hans Deffland, Dan Greer, Günter Hölker, Roger Hurst, John-Erik Johansson, John Lain, Anders Olofsson, John Rust, Clas Sigurdsson, Len Smith, Marc Surer, Henrik Spellerberg, Fernando Spreafico.

372
Giancarlo Commazzi.

1976
375
Tommy “Slim” Borgudd, Ingvar Carlsson, Sören Hansen, Stefan Johannsson, John Nielsen, Jan Ridell.

374/6
Henrik Spellerberg.

374
Roger Andreason, Fernando Spreafico.

373/6
Doug Bassett.

373
Anders Olofsson, John Rust, Rudi Sehr.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Graf

Entered and driven by Franz Graf the Graf raced in the German F3 series in the mid sixties. Unusually it had a 1-litre Simca engine and it achieved some success in minor races including a win at Ulm (in a very poor field) and second at Mainz, both in 1967.

Drivers

1965 Franz Graf.

1966 Franz Graf.

1967 Franz Graf.

1968 Franz Graf.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Gozzoli

Back to Italy again for this early 1970s contender, it was apparently totally conventional Nova-Ford powered chassis. It appeared in 1971 and then did a full season of the Italian F3 Championship racing in 1972 when prepared by Modena Corse. It only recorded two finishes from its 13 starts with a best placing of 7th at Monza.

Drivers

1971 Giuseppe Minozzi.

1972 Paulo Minozzi.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Ginetta

Ginetta are most famous for their kit cars, their early models were based on Ford parts and the early cars were often successful in club racing especially the G4. The cars were designed and built by the four Walkett brothers, Bob, Ivor, Trevor and Douglas, at their base at Woodbridge in Suffolk, in the mid sixties they moved to Witham in Essex. More sports car with a competition bias followed and in 1964 a F3 chassis was built and work on a F2 car began. Later in 1969 a customer F Ford car, the G18, was built which showed some promise and another F3 car, the G19, based on the G18 was mooted but never built. In the same year Ginetta even announced the G20 a BRM V12 powered F1 car but this again never happened and Ginetta decided to concentrate on their kit cars and leave the world of single seaters.

1964

The G8 monocoque consisted of a steel frame made of 16 and 18 gauge tubing sandwiched between two layers of fibreglass. The steel frame then acted as an attachment point for the suspension, engine and gearbox. Steel sub-frames are added front and rear for attaching auxiliary components. Front suspension was by lower wishbones with rockers operating the inboard springs and dampers. Modified Triumph Herald uprights were used with an anti-roll bar inside the bodywork. Rear suspension employed reversed lower wishbones, a top link and twin radius rods with outboard springs and dampers, no rear anti roll bar was fitted initially. Rear uprights were Ginetta made magnesium units and the wheels (also of Ginetta make) were 13 inch. The engine was a Holbay-Ford with a 4-speed Hewland gearbox.
Three cars were built and Chris Meek showed the car had some promise but the problems of aligning the spaceframe accurately within the fibreglass tub and the sheer cost meant that Ginetta gave up on the project.

Drivers:
1964 Chris Meek.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Germain

There is little information about the Germain-Renault, it first appeared in August 1964 when it completed 2 laps of the Trophée de Cognac held at Cognac and then vanished until the same race the following year when it again failed to finish and was not seen again. Presumably the driver (and entrant) was also the constructor.

Drivers

1964 Roland Germain.

1965 Roland Germain.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Gerca

First entered for the Grand Prix de Nogaro in August 1965 this French (?) car (which was sometimes also listed as Gerka) and its French driver did not appear. In July of the following year 2 cars arrived at Magny Cours, the Bazin car failed to qualify and Lafosse did not start.

Drivers

1965 Gérard Bazin.

1966 Gérard Bazin, Jean-Louis Lafosse.

16 May, 202120 May, 2022

Gemini

When The Chequered Flag team decided to switch from sports cars to single-seaters patron Graham Warner announced the Gemini (White’s birth sign) Mk 1, this was a conventional F Junior spaceframe with BMC mechanical parts and it was based on the Les Redmond designed Moorland F Junior. The Mk 2 used a Cosworth engine but was not especially successful although popular but things changed with the rear-engined Mk 3 of 1960 which was able to challenge the contemporary Cooper and Lotus designs. Suspension was conventional with wishbones and coil springs/dampers front and rear, radius rods were fitted at the back, a Cosworth Ford engine and five-speed gearbox were standard issue. The Mk 4, although unsuccessful, was advanced for its time (1962) with side radiators and inboard suspension and brakes, a six-speed Jack Knight gearbox was used but proved something of a problem.

A few converted F Junior cars raced very rarely in the first few years of F3 using both BMC and Ford engines, they were not competitive.

Drivers

1964
Mk4
Derek Bennett, Adam Wyllie.

?
Michel Nicol.

1964
Mk4
Alan Lovell-Spencer, Peter Orr.

1967
Mk4
Michael Llewellyn.

F3 History

Category: G

Grac

Grac

1964

1965

1966

1967

1969

1970

1973

Gueparda

Gueparda

Greenwood

Greenwood

GRD

GRD

1972

1973

1974

1975

Graf

Graf

Gozzoli

Gozzoli

Ginetta

Ginetta

1964

Germain

Germain

Gerca

Gerca

Gemini

Gemini

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