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The problem with the 1,000 cc F3 cars is that there are not so many events you can do with them. Despite being so similar to Formula Juniors the lack of events keeps their prices down.
The single carb engines & 4 speed boxes probably makes them a bit harder to drive than a Junior - the power band will be pretty narrow and the limited number of gears will make it harder to keep in the power band.
It is also possible that the engines need more maintenance, they are high revving engines, and whenever I've seen the French F3 series a lot of people seem to have their engines in pieces over the weekend (have seen several checking crankshafts for example).
A Brabham BT15 should be a great car to drive - my twin-cam powered version (BT16?) was incredibly succesful - 4 different drivers won in it and its worst result was 2nd place!
For the money you are getting a lot of car, that will be easy to run & maintain (all we ever did on my Brabham was put petrol in it and clean it!).
And if the series becomes more popular you will have a car that increases in value.
Things to check are the obvious - condition of the suspension rose joints and other bearings (driveshaft joints etc), wheel bearings and so on.
What state is the cooling system in - if it has been left full of water with anti-freeze in it should be OK, at the worst the radiator might need some attention.
Brakes should just need freeing up (& discs cleaning) - you might want to replace the calliper seals and rebuild or replace the master cylinders since that is a cheap way to be sure about them.
None of these are particularly expensive but if you needed to do something like replace all the rose joints that soon adds up (using cheap rose joints is false economy).
Shock absorbers tend to be OK - if they are original Armstrongs they can be rebuilt, if they were replaced they should be OK and if not new Spax are great value for money.
Condition of the engine & gearbox - if it has sat for 5 years chances are they just need freshening, but if you need a new crank etc you could end up spending 5 grand rather than 1 grand on the engine.
You will need spare gears, so does it come with any spare ratios - what condition are they in (same with the ones in the box and the dog rings), again these aren't terribly expensive, a grands worth should be plenty.
The tyres, fire extinguisher and seat belts will all be out of date, so you need to allow another grand there.
So it looks like a nice car and I would think well worth looking at, but you won't get away with racing it without spending a bit on it.
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