T – F3History

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Tui

Alan McCall was a respected mechanic at McLaren when he produced the Tui F3 car in 1970, Tui is the name of a small bird from McCall’s native New Zealand. In 1971 a Formula B car was built which acted as base for the 1972 F2 car which Dave Morgan and John Watson showed had some promise. McCall then became involved in building the tub for the Tecno F1 project. The Tui was then converted to run in the North American F Atlantic but without great success and after this Tui were not seen again.

1970

The Tui AM1 consisted of an aluminium monocoque with outboard suspension, the Broadspeed engine acted as a stressed member. Many of the parts used were ex-McLaren including the wheels, uprights and windscreen.
Wheelbase: 84.5 ins.
Track front: 54 ins. Rear: 56 ins.

Bet Hawthorne showed the car had potential but like many of the smaller teams with no budgets getting hold of a decent engine was a problem. The best finish for the AM1 was a fourth in a Lombank round at Brands Hatch.

Drivers:
1970
Bert Hawthorne.

1964

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.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Tom’s

TOM’S was established in 1974 and started life as a tuning shop specialising in Toyota cars, a range of products was soon available including wheels, suspension parts and engine tuning options. The company proved very successful and by 1983 it had set up its own competitions department, still with a Toyota basis. TOM’s first foray into F3 came in 1981 when they began tuning Toyota engines for use in the Japanese F3 championship where they met with almost immediate success. In 1987 TOM’S opened a base in Norfolk in England and began developing their Toyota F3 engine for the European market and in 1988 they won the British F3 title with JJ Lehto in the Pacific run Reynard 883. In 1991 they became a F3 constructor and began to appear in other formula including Japanese F3000 and the World Sports Car Championship where they ran the works Toyota effort. Today TOM’s are still producing their race winning F3 engines as well running their own Japanese F3 team (now using a Dallara chassis), in addition they are competing in the Japanese GT Championship

1991

The first TOM’s F3 chassis, the 031F, was built in England at TOM’S UK base and was designed by Andrew Thorby (who soon after left to join March), Martin Brigden and Kris Dwornik. The tub was constructed from carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb, at the rear a tubular steel subframe took the engine and gearbox. Cooling was by twin radiators mounted in the sidepods. Unsurprisingly it was fitted with one of the company’s own Toyota engines as well as a TOM’s built gearbox. The car impressed everyone with its build quality and cutting-edge design. It ran competitively from the start of the season and Rickard Rydell won the opening round of the British Championship, this was followed by a third and two second place finishes. However it all went wrong thereafter with a several non-finishes and results tailed off. The major handicap for the car, ironically, was its engine which seemed down on power compared with its rivals and was never happy running on the UK spec fuel. Things were better in Japan were the engine wasn’t a problem and Paulo Carcasci, in the works car, took the championship with four wins in the series. Team mate Victor Rosso backed up Carcasci with fourth place and two wins.

1992

A new car, the 032F, was produced for 1982 although it was an evolutionary design. For this new season TOM’S decided to concentrate on the Japanese Championship and other than at Macau the cars stayed in Japan. Changes in regulations regarding the size and positioning of wings initially handicapped the new car. Problems with weight distribution made the car difficult to drive but it was refined during the season and Jacques Villeneuve took the runner-up spot in the standings after winning three times. Rickard Rydell finished third with two wins and in addition he came away with a win at Macau.

1993

1994

It was another 1-2 for TOM’S in the All Japan Championship for the works cars of Michael Krumm and Masami Kageyama. Only Krumm had use of the new 034F which was built to give maximum downforce and he dominated the series with six wins from ten races. Only one other 034F appeared during the year, driven by Tora Takagi from the midpoint of the season it took several top three finishes.

1995

The 035F was designed by Andrew Thorby (who designed the original 031F) with detail work carried out by F1 designer Martin Ogilvie. The car was designed from scratch in only five months. The front suspension layout was unusual in that it used twin dampers but only a single spring. Plans to have up to four cars running in the UK came to naught and with no cars running in Japan the 035F was not one of TOM’S successes.

1996

The 1996 model was the 036F and was once again designed by Andrew Thorby. It proved to be more successful than its immediate predecessor with Dutchman Tom Coronel finishing third in the All Japan Championship with a single win. In the UK a solitary car appeared for Argentinean newcomer Brian Smith who, despite his inexperience, had several good runs with a best finish of third. It was tested extensively during the year by several drivers all of whom seemed quite complimentary about it, mostly suggesting it needed further development to get it right on the pace of the all-conquering Dallaras.

1997

For TOM’S final season as a F3 constructor the 037F was produced. Heavily based on the 036F it featured a modified tub, revised suspension and was fitted with a new gearbox casing. Initially the same aerodynamic package that had been fitted to the 036F was employed. The design revisions were the work of Mark Bailey who was responsible for the Swift F Ford car.
Rather surprisingly TOM’S eschewed the All Japan Championship preferring to run a Dallara for Tom Coronel which in fact was a shrewd move as the won the title. Instead the 037F raced exclusively in the UK, it had problems early on but as the season progressed it showed flashes of promise. Its main weakness seemed to be an inability to get enough heat into its front tyres and it was very inconsistent from circuit to circuit being very quick on one and then slow on another. Kevin McGarrity had the best finish of the year with a third at Oulton Park.
At the end of the year TOM’S ceased building their own cars although they continued in F3 for another year in the UK running Dallaras (and occasionally the 037F). They are still active and successful in Japan, again with Dallaras, in 1998 and ’99 they won the championship.

Drivers:

1991
031F
Paulo Carcasci, Takuya Kurosawa, Victor Rosso, Rickard Rydell.

1992
032F
Naozumi Itou, Tom Kristensen, Victor Rosso, Rickard Rydell, Tetsuya Tanaka, Jacques Villeneuve.

1993
033F
Masahiko Kondou, Tom Kristensen, Hidetoshi Mitsusada, Kazutomo Mizuki, Rickard Rydell, Shinsuke Shibahara, Yoshiyasu Tachi, Toranosuke Takagi, Tetsuya Tanaka, Yoshiro Tani.

032F
Hidetoshi Mitsusada, Yutaka Okano, Shinsuke Shibahara, Yoshio Tsuduki.

1994
034F
Michael Krumm, Toranosuke Takagi.

033F
Michael Graff, Shigeaki Hattori, Yuuji Ide, Russell Ingall, Masami Kageyama, Satoshi Motoyama, Manabu Ootsuka, Hirofumi Sada, Oonishi Taichirou, Toranosuke Takagi, Tsuchiya Takeshi.

031F
Fernando Croceri, Omar Martinez, Ricardo Risatti.

1995
034F
Sebastián Martino, Juan Manuel Silva.

033F
Hiroshi Sasaki, Hidekazu Shigetomi.

031F
Omar Martinez.

1996
036F
Tom Coronel, Syouta Mizuno, Brian Smith, Takashi Yokoyama.

034F
Rubén Derfler, Christian Ledesma, Juan Manuel Silva.

1997
037F
Giovanni Anapoli, Ricardo Mauricio, Kevin McGarrity, Martin O’Connell, Andy Priaulx, Jamie Spence, Darren Turner.

034F
Juan Manuel Silva.

1998 037F
Adam Wilcox.

1999
037F
Gavin Jones.

031F
Javier Catalfo.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Toj

Jorg Obermoser made his money as a supplier of electrical industrial equipment and did some racing himself in saloon cars. In 1972 he became the GRD distributor for Germany and surrounding areas and when GRD designer Jo Marquart switched to Modus so to did Obermoser. The first car to be called a ToJ (ToJ SC02) was a GRD 2-litre sports car design followed by SC03 based on a 1974 Modus project. The bodywork for SC03 was designed by Achim Storz who would continue to carry out the same arrangement for single seaters. ToJ also built some F2 cars from 1976-78 but despite having Keke Rosberg on board the best results were a 4th and two 5ths. ToJ continued in parallel with Modus and kept on for a while after Modus collapsed but within a couple of years Obermoser gave up his dreams of being a constructor.

1975

For 1975 standard Modus M1s were employed except that the had modified Storz bodywork fitted, initially described as Modus/ToJ as the season progressed they were increasingly thought of as ToJ.

1976

The F301 was now a ToJ but sadly it wasn’t too competitive, it was certainly no match for the dominant March/Chevron/Ralt trio that made up most races and even as regards German constructors it was number two to Maco. However towards at the end of the season there was a second place finish at Hockenheim in a German F3 championship round, the field wasn’t very strong and there is some dispute as to the driver, some reports say it was Keke Rosberg others Heinz Lang.

1977

For 1977 the F302 was introduced, it used the existing monocoque chassis plan with a conventional outboard suspension layout. Side radiators were fitted and at the front an unusual flat low nose with side wings was attached. During the season both Toyota and BMW engines were fitted and through a combination of good places and reliability Peter Scharmann took the German Championship. Best results were 2nd at the Nurburgring and a 3rd at Diepholz. Perhaps, all things considered, it was best to go out on a high note as this was the last year of ToJ in F3.

Drivers
1975 Not given as the cars still appeared under the Modus name on German F3 entry lists.

1976 Heinz Lange, Keke Rosberg(?).

1977
F302
Peter Scharmann, Walter Spitaler.

F301
Leopold von Bayern, Manfred Cassani.

16 May, 202110 July, 2021

Toda

Entered by Toda Racing, who also appeared to tune a number of the front-running Toyota engines used in the Japanese championship, the Toyota-powered RS6 took part in four races running at the rear of the field. This seems to have been Toda’s only appearance as a constructor.

Drivers:

1980
Katsuhiko Sugiura.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

TMS

Mats Karlsson and his two brothers ran a self modified March in the 1983 Swedish F3 Championship under the “Swedish Lions” banner, the car took the runner up spot amidst a host of Ralt RT3s.

1983

The TMS 833 began life as a March 803 with 813 rear suspension grafted on, the Carlsson brothers carried out some additional modifications themselves and the car proved competitive in the Swedish Championship. It would appear that the TMS only raced for the one year.

Drivers

1983 Enzo Coloni.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Titan

Charles Lucas Engineering started life at the ex-BRP workshops at Highgate before moving to King’s Lynn and then Huntingdon as their engine preparation and engineering buusiness grew. The team were already very experienced in F3 having run the works Lotus team in 1966 and had continued into 1967 running a private Lotus and Brabham. At the end of ’67 the team announced their own car, the Titan Mk3, the Mk1 was a 2.5 Maserati engined sports-racer raced by Picko Troberg, Mk2 an F2 project that was never realised. The car was a success winning quite a few races and for 1969 an updated model, the Mk3A, was produced, surprisingly only one car was built but the car was no longer as competitive and at the end of the year Titan withdrew from F3. Titan also had success with the MKs 4, 5 and 6 which were F Ford models, over 80 Mk6s were built.

1967

The Mk3 was designed by Roy Thomas and was a conventional late sixties spaceframe based car. Suspension was outboard with double wishbones at the front, at the rear it was a top link with a reversed bottom wishbone and double radius rods. Although the Mk3 did not appear until the dying months of 1967 success was immediate with Roy Pike winning at Brands and finishing second at Oulton Park.

1968

The Mk3 continued unchanged into 1968 and with the late season sucesses of Roy Pike in the previous year several additional cars were sold. The works cars of Lucas and Pike were usually competitive and they won four races during the year with Leo Kinnunen also taking a single victory. However the privateer cars did have a reputation for not being the easiest cars to drive

1969

The Mk3A appeared in the final race of the 1968 season, there were revisions to the suspension, magnesium uprights were fitted and the chassis was stiffened with sheet metal panelling. Only the single car was built and sold to Ben Moore who entered it for Charles Lucas. The car was still competitive, Lucas won at Silverstone, but Lucas Engineering seemed more interested in developing their growing engine building business and the car fell away as the season progressed.
Wheelbase: 94.5 ins.
Track: front 53.5 ins. rear 56.75 ins.
Wheels: 13 ins.

Drivers:

1967
3
Roy Pike.

1968
3A
Roy Pike.

3
Trevor Blokdyk, Peter Gaydon, Leo Kinnunen, Charles Lucas, Roy Pike, Alan Stubbs, Tim Schenken, Ole Vejlund.

1969
3A
Charles Lucas.

3
Mike Campbell, Bill Dunne, Alan Harvey, Leo Kinnunen, Per Kjellberg, Alan Stubbs.

1970 3
Terry Chawner, Mikko Kozarowitsky.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Technic

1977

A lightly revised version of the 1976 Viking (see entry) built by CTG and designed by Len Terry. It only appeared once for qualifying at the Monaco GP F3 support, it didn’t start the race.
It would become the basis for the stillborn CTG F3 project.

Drivers
1977 Rad Dougall.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Tiga

Tiga emerged from the ashes of MRE after the company was taken over by former Antipodean F1 drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley, initially they concentrated on F Ford and 2-litre sports cars. In 1978 Team Tiga was set up to run a team of customer cars in F3 and from this the F3 Tiga was born in 1981. Tiga also built an F2 car in 1980 buy lack of money saw them return to sports cars and lesser single seater categories such as F Atlantic.

1981

The F381 was a conventional Toyota powered car, it ran at the end of the season in weaver’s hands but clearly lacked development despite a 4th place finish at Snetterton. At the end of the year Tiga decided to drop the project.

Drivers
1981 James Weaver.

16 May, 202129 May, 2022

Tecno

The driving force behind Tecno were the Pederzani brothers, Luciano and Gianfranco, famous for their karts which they first produced in 1961, they were soon winning including taking the World Championship four times in succession between 1963 and 1966. In 1964 they produced their first single seater, a Formula 4 powered by a Ducati 250cc engine and in 1966 they produced their first F3 car. Over the next few years Tecno sold a lot of cars especially in Italy and France and in 1968 won almost half of all International races, success continued in 1969 in both F3 and F2 but began to tail off in 1970. By 1971 there were only a couple of victories and most F3 cars were raced in the Italian domestic series as F1 took all of Tecno’s time, their efforts in Grand Prix racing in 1972/73 proving a total disaster that led to the company withdrawing from single seater racing.

1966

The first F3 car was based on Tecno’s karting experience, it was a spaceframe design with the driver sitting far forward between the front wheels. Front and rear suspension was double wishbones and outboard springs/dampers, in addition there were twin radius rods at the rear. Unusually the fuel sat in a tank in the centre of the car, a Cosworth engine was fitted. The car first appeared at Mugello and finished fourth despite braking and damper problems. However the car never handled properly possibly as a result of the fuel tank/driver positioning.

1967

Initially Tecno persevered with a modified version of their central fuel tank car and a couple of experimental tubs were built early on in the year. In March they soon produced a much more normal car that used the same suspension as the previous years car but used a conventional tub design. The wheelbase was very short and the whole package was neat and small, the car was quick in a straight line and now went round the corners properly. At the end of the year Clay Regazzoni scored Tecno’s first international win in Spain.

1968

The 1968 car was almost identical to the 1967 car and with nearly a season’s development behind it this was the car to have in Europe. By the end of the season Tecno had won no less than 32 of the season’s 65 major F3 races. So popular was the car that Tecno built over 50 during the year.

1969

Once again the 1969 car was virtually identical to the previous year’s car, the major change was to make the steering lighter to use, otherwise it was just a case of improving minor details. Although the design was beginning to show its age its virtues of aerodynamic efficiency and controllability (once the driver had got the hang of it) meant it retained its popularity. Once again the car took 30 major wins with Ronnie Peterson taking no less than 15 himself.

1970

Yet again changes were minimal for 1970, smaller brake calipers were fitted to reduce brake disc distortion and there was the option of a strengthened rollover hoop which apparently made engine changing a bit of a chore. The bag tanks were mounted in special flared side pontoons and on occasions a full-width nose cone, based on the F2 design, was fitted There were still plenty of wins but Lotus, Brabham and Chevron were fighting back and results were more equally spread around.

1971

The works model, the TF71/3, was driven by Christian Ethuin but the wins dried up, the team were concentrating on F2 and more importantly F1. There were still plenty of privateers but they found it harder and harder to compete with the latest cars from the other manufacturers. This was the last year that Tecno produced any F3 cars.

Drivers

1966 TF/66
Pino Babbini, Giancarlo Baghetti, Carlo Facetti.

1967
TF/67
Ernesto Brambilla, Silvio Moser, Boley Pittard, Clay Regazzoni.

TF/66
Carlo Facetti, Rosadele Facetti.

?
Mauro Nesti.

1968
68
Pino Babbini, Mike Beckwith, Dieter Bentz, Franco Bernabei, Giuseppe Bianchi, François Cévert, François Chevalier, Chris Craft, “Droopy”, “Dubis”, Franco Galli, Cliff Haworth, Jean -Pierre Jaussaud, Gijs van Lennep, Demetrio Martino, François Mazet, Peter de Meritt, Manfred Möhr, Maurizio Montagnani, Mauro Nesti, Brian Newton, Luciano Nocca, Ronnie Peterson, Pino Pica, Clay Regazzoni, Rolf Scheel, Jean-Claude Véron, Reine Wisell.

1969
69
Bernhard Baur, Jean Blanc, M. Campanini, George Crenier, Jürg Dubler, Alain Franceschi, Giancarlo Gagliardi, Peter Gaydon, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Mike Keens, Lars Lindburg, Freddy Link, François Mazet, Mauro Montagnani, Ronnie Peterson, Gianluigi Picchi, Bernard Plaisance, Jonas Qvarnstrom, Giuseppi Salvati, Renfold Unold.

68
Pino Babbini, L. Battisatello, Bernhard Baur, Giuseppi Bianchi, Patrick Champin, Giancarlo Gagliardi, “Gero”, Egert Haglund, Cliff Haworth, Jean-Pierre Jarier, G. Tommasi, Vitturio Venturi, Ole Vejlund Philippe Vidal.

67
Graham Goodman, Peter de Merritt.

?
Pablo Brea.

1970
70
Pino Babbini, “Gero”, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Jean Max, Peter de Merritt, François Migault, Giovanni Salvati.

69
Jean-Pierre Cassegrain, George Crenier, Wilhelm Geiss, Mike Keens, Freddy Link, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Jean Johansson, Lionel Noghes, Rolf Skohag.

68
Giuseppi Bianchi, Max Bonnin, Alain Franceschi, Jean-Claude Guenard, Freddy Link, Fabrizio Noe, Hermann Unold.

1971
70/2
Claudio Francisci.

70
François Migault, Giovanni Salvati.

69
Mike Keens.

?
Pino Babbini, Jean Blanc, “Canale”, Christian Ethuin, Luigi Fontanesi, Wilhelm Geiss, Carlo Giorgio, Gérard Gourdon, Roberto Marazzi, Marcel Morel, Giancarlo Naddeo, René Scalais, Utz Schad, Armand Truffo, Vittorio Venturi.

1972 ?
Georges Ansermoz, Alceste Bodini, Georges Crenier, Falmini, Luigi Fontanesi, Carlo Giorgio, Roberto Manzoni, Dominique Martin, Libero Pesce, “Pibo”, Wilfried Schmitz.

1973 ?
Georges Ansermoz, Alceste Bodini, Walter Neubauer.

1974 ?
Alceste Bodini, Walter Neubauer.

1975 ?
Alceste Bodini, Walter Neubauer.

1976 ?
Alceste Bodini.

16 May, 202125 May, 2022

Tark

There haven’t been many production manufacturers that have produced more than 1000 cars and where you might think of March, Brabham, Lola, Ralt or Van Diemen you probably wouldn’t think of Estonia’s racing car manufacturer TARK. TARK stands for Tallina Autode Remondi Katsetehas and the completed cars were either called TARKs or more frequently Estonias. The first car was a F3 car built by a small group of enthusiasts in 1958 and in 1960 the Soviet Central Auto Club ordered replicas and production started. Most cars that were built were designed for local formulae such as Formula Vostock but the occasional car that complied with mainline European racing was constructed. TARK were eventually privatised following financial problems and is now known as Kavor Motorsport and now produces custom parts and engines for competition cars.

1971

In 1971 the Mk16 was built to the East European F2 regulations, consisting of a spaceframe chassis clothed in attractive if dated bodywork. It was fitted with disc brakes all round (a rarity in Eastern Europe at that time) and was the first car of its type to have magnesium wheels, it was powered by a 1.5-litre Moskvich engine and it seems there might have been a plan to fit a 1600cc F3 motor. However the Socialist Bloc policy of only racing in formula that would show up national products meant development was switched to the local F3 utilising the 1.2-litre Zhiguli (Lada) engine. Later the Mk16 was modified with side radiators and wings. A new TARK model the Mk18 was introduced and there was no more thought of joining in with the rest of Europe.

1989

Suddenly in 1989 the name TARK returned to the world of F3 when two cars appeared in the German F3 Championship. In fact the connection with TARK was minimal, the project seems to have been part of an unsuccessful plan to use the TARK facilities to produce a formula car to be sold in Eastern Europe. The project ended badly with no cars having been produced.
The TARK Aleko JK173 was a conventional late eighties machine, designed by former Zakspeed employee Johannes Knapp, it was built by the German Eufra team. It had a carbon fibre chassis with inboard suspension and was powered by a VW engine. It was off to a good start in its first race, a non-championship event, when Rosso took second behind one Michael Schumacher and ahead of Karl Wendlinger. Another second in a Championship round at the Nürburgring followed but from then on results fell away and the cars struggled to finish in the top ten. That was the end of the TARK return to championship racing.

Drivers
1966 Ants Seiler (as Estonia Mk9).

1967 Yuri Andreev (as Estonia Mk9).

1989 Ralf Kelleners, Victor Rosso, Meik Wagner.

1992 Tomas Karhanek.

Tui

1970

1964

Tom’s

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

Toj

1975

1976

1977

Toda

TMS

1983

Titan

1967

1968

1969

Technic

Tiga

1981

Tecno

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

Tark

1971

1989

We are always looking for photos, stories and memoribilia etc. to share on this website. Can you help?

Feel free to Contact us.