N – F3History

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Northstar

The F Junior Northstar was built by Ron Robinson in 1960 although it was not completed and raced until 1962, driven by A. P. (Bill) Belcher it raced through the remaining years of F Junior. It comprised a spaceframe chassis with a rear-mounted Ford engine, in F Junior guise a VW gearbox was used. Unusually wire wheels were fitted (ex-Lotus 11) and stopping came courtesy of Alfin drum brakes fitted all round. When F Junior ceased it was fitted with a 1500cc supercharged engine and raced in Formula Libre races. The Northstar Mk2 had a single F3 outing at Mallory in May 1967 when it finished ninth, a lap behind the leaders.

Drivers

1967 Alistair Belcher.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Nike

Nike are based in Holsworthy, Devon and have been producing racing cars for many years starting with a Formula Junior in 1961. Run by Ken Nicholls, Nike also has a reputation for restoring and running Historic racing cars. Although best known for their F Ford chassis they have also built sports cars and even a F5000 car. It seems that in 1971 they built an F3 car, the Mk11, it was a monocoque with a tubular engine bay and had the usual double wishbone suspension. Designed by Mark Erwood and Ken Nicholls it was only ever used in hillclimbs and sprints.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Niemax

In the 1980’s Finland developed their own class of racing based on Super Vee, it allowed for a lighter chassis powered by 1600cc engine and was called Formula VW 1600. When VW stopped supporting the category it was renamed Formula 4 and the 1800cc engine from the VW Golf was introduced. As the class became popular many second-hand F3 cars, especially Ralts and Reynards, were converted to F4 specification as the two classes were very similar in performance. Finland’s own Seppo Nieminen began to manufacturer the Niemax for F4 , the chassis was built around Veemax components and in 1986 the Niemax began racing in the Finnish F3 Open Championship The design proved successful with Sami Pensala winning the F4 championship in 1987 and 1988. Although the Niemax never raced in F3 specification, it did race in a F3 championship and I have included it in order to explain how it differed from the contemporary F3 regulations. Thanks to Antti Rinne for additional information.

Drivers

Drivers:

1986
Keijo Ponkka.

1987 Sami Pensala.

1988 Sami Pensala.

1989 Antti Rinne.

1990 Antti Rinne.

1991 Antti Rinne.

1992 Antti Rinne.

1993 Antti Rinne.

1994 Antti Rinne.

2000 Pekka Rinne.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Nova

Formed in 1973 by Shinsuke Yamanashi with driver Hiroshi Kazato and designer Kikuo Kaira and based at Fuji, Nova would mostly build F2 cars for use in the Japanese Championship. Their first car the F2 02 was finished in 1974 and for the next few years they built a number of successful cars even entering a couple of European F2 races in 1978. However by the end of the 70s the March was the car to have and Nova switched over to them and they continued in F2 and then F3000 in the 80s using various manufacturers.

1978

Novas F3 car was the 513, based on their Formula Honda 1300 car it would take part in a handful of European races in 1978. It was a conventional monocoque car with wishbone suspension, it was powered by the ubiquitous Toyota engine and perhaps the most unusual aspect was that it was sponsored by Russian airline Aeroflot.

Drivers

1978 Satoru Nakajima.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Nemo

The Nemo was built by the Race Cars International team who were based in Hornsey, North London and it was designed by Canadian Max Boxstrom. The car first appeared in July 1970, it was intended as a customer car but was never really developed as in the middle of a racing season the RCI drivers preferred their own, known cars. At the end of the year the project was sold to Tony Kitchener for a projected K4 design that never materialised.

1981

The pictures of the 1964 Abarth F3 indicate that the chassis was the same as that used for the F2 design, in addition track and wheelbase dimensions were virtually identical. It was a conventional spaceframe design with wishbone-based outboard suspension front and rear. Front track was 1320mm, rear 1330mm, wheelbase 2300mm and the chassis weighed 400kg. The engine was a 982cc Fiat-based unit with a four-speed gearbox, a Weber 40DCD carburetor was used and power was quoted as 88bhp at 7900rpm.
For whatever reason, perhaps the F3 engine wasn’t up to the job, the Abarth never raced.

Drivers

1970 Brendan McInerney.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Narval

Bernard Lagier, a former F3 driver, introduced this car in 1972, and two versions were made, a F3 chassis and one for use at the Hubert Hahne racing school. The racing school version can be seen above, compared with the F3 version it had a narrow nose with wings, a BMW 2002 engine and Dunlop “long-life” tyres.

1972

The Narval was loosely based on a Brabham BT35 (Lagier was a Brabham agent), it had a space frame chassis with conventional outboard suspension, it was rumoured to actually use many parts from a BT35. A single works JC3 was run and Christian Ethuin managed a 3rd at Chimay ahead of Tony Brise and James Hunt, he also ran very well at the Monaco F3 race qualifying for the final. A second car for François Migault was announced but apparently did not run.

Drivers

1972 Christian Ethuin.

F3 History

Category: N

Northstar

Northstar

Drivers

Nike

Nike

Niemax

Niemax

Drivers

Nova

Nova

1978

Drivers

Nemo

Nemo

1981

Drivers

Narval

Narval

1972

Drivers

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