Formula Three Specs

[mjt57]

I just received my daily Racenews emails. In it were the performance times for an F3 car at PI.

The times are somewhat impressive, for standing start, 1/4 mile, etc.

What are the specs for an F3 car? Engine size, type, car weight, etc.?

Thanks

[DAVID PATERSON]

The engines are based on production units, but highly developed. They are 2 litre 16V DOHC with programmable EFI etc. I think they run a Yokohama slick control tyre. Not sure of the weight, would estimate around half a ton.

Qld Raceway was designed and built for V8 Supercars, but F3 cars are 3 seconds a lap quicker.

[mjt57]

Hmm. What's the F3 class in Europe? Isn't based on the old F1 class of 3litre engines, before they went to turbos, then back to non-turbo'd 3.5l engines?

Pity that Oz formulas can't follow international standards.

Anyway, I was impressed with the straight line times. First 4 wheeled vehicles that I've seen that will give sportsbikes a run for their money (F1 aside).

[GTRMagic]

F3 in Europe is the same as here, the 2L air restricted, EFI, Datalogged DOHC, carbon tubbed rocketships.

There are 2 classes in Europe, the main series for current evolution cars, and Scholarship for the previous evolution cars.

Australian F3 cars have taken the Scholarship spec on board in the interests of costs, basically meaning all chassis coming here are more than a season old...

Plenty of powerplant makers are interested in it, with Ford (Swindon), Mercedes (Manor) amongst others looking to join Opel, Renault, Mugen-Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and others in the category.

The whole point of F3 in Australia, and indeed why it is so much better than F4000pbH, is that it is an international formula, it uses chassis the same as the overseas equivalent, engines the same, everything the same... with the control tyre concept (if not supplier) the same as overseas as well.

[Aircon]

The Aust. F3 Championship is run to the international FIA specs. And no, F3 was never based on old F1 equipment. They are purpose built to an exacting formula written by the FIA. The only way we differ to the Euro's is that we haven't allowed the current chassis in yet and we run free engine management and data systems to control costs.

For full details refer to the CAMS 2003 manual or http://www.fia.com/regle/REG_TEC/Ann...xtes/275-a.pdf for the full deal.

As for lap times, in 2003 the F3's were lapping in the mid 27 to low 28 durng the race versus low 35's for the supercars. So a deficit of seven to eight seconds a lap is fair to say at PI. At QR the deficit is more like five and a half seconds (P.Hackett 1.06.46 V G.Tander 1.11.00). Pretty darn quick!

The specs for that particular car the performance figures were taken from are;
Chassis Dallara F399 (updated to F301)
Engine Renault/Sodemo F7R (2002 spec)
Capacity 1998cc
Comp Ratio Lots!
Bore/Stroke I could tell you but I'd have to kill you.
Max Pwr approx 220hp
Max Torque approx 270Nm
ECU Magneti Marelli MF4L (to be replaced soon)
Data Acq Magneti Marelli DAS3 (to be replaced soon)
Wheelbase 2678mm
Front Track Adequate
Rear Track Adequate
Overall width 1750mm
Weight 548kg (used to be less but we had to fit an oil cooler. With driver and ballast. As measured after that race.)
Tyres (F) Yokohama A005 200/50/VR13
(R) Yokohama A005 240/45/VR13

That engine was also found to be seriously faulty in a routine inspection post race (insufficient cylinder sealing) so it probabaly didn't have the stated power figures. It was consequently rebuilt for the next round. The cause was due to an assembly fault by a local engine builder.

We'll try it again in pre season testing and I'll post the results.

Cheers,

Pat Cahill
Aircon Racing

[GTRMagic]

So what are you guys replacing the ECU & data systems with? A local MoTeC solution?

[Aircon]

Nope. EFI Technology Race 1.9 with Level 3 data loggers and steering wheel displays. This is similar to what Dorricott use in Formula Atlantic and what Mugen used to use before the FIA mandated ECU came into force.

Tried Motec before with "mixed" results.

[Aircon]

And you forgot to mention Nissan in the list of engine manufacturers.

[GTRMagic]

Well since Nissan=Renault....

[Aircon]

No no, Nissan = Nissan, Renault= Renault.

They each have their own.

[GTRMagic]

Corporately they are the same organisation, with some Adsteam-esque cross shareholding.

Same way a Mercedes F3 powerplant could become a Mitsubishi, Dodge, Chrysler, Mercedes or Freightliner

[Aircon]

Now that's an interesting idea. A bit like how an Opel becomes a Holden.

But seriously, one is the Renault F7R/F4R and the other is the Nissan SR20VE.

[DAVID PATERSON]

What's the difference between an SR20VE and an SR20DE?

[Aircon]

They are basically the same engine except the VE has variable timing. Why they use this engine designation is beyond me as they don't use the variable camshafts in the race engines anyway as they are a waste of time and weight.

[GTRMagic]

Conceptually then you could raid the family Nissan and build an F3 engine?

[mjt57]

Originally posted by Aircon
The Aust. F3 Championship is run to the international FIA specs. And no, F3 was never based on old F1 equipment.

Thanks for the excellent feedback, Aircon. I've never really followed the formula. Given that it gets bugger all airtime, I s'pose this is to be expected.

I remember watching them at PI though, at the 99 ATCC round (when I had VIP status in the timing box). Bloody impressive, looked and sounded good too.

As for the comment about ex-F1, yeah, I got my wires crossed. Was thinking of F3000.

[Chucky]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
Conceptually then you could raid the family Nissan and build an F3 engine?

Conceptually , you could raid the family Vectra, S2000, Integra, Alfa, Clio, Benz, Focus, MR2 or Pulsar and with a few trick bits and a lot of hard work build an F3 engine.

Realistically, what goes into these engines' development would put that far out of reach of most.