Whatever happened to....

[Roninho]

The old f2 cars after msv/fia ended the championship at the end of 2012?

I dont see these cars in any amateur racing or hillclimbing competition. Are they collecting dust?

And the same for the gp3 cars. With a new car for 2016, will the old one go to a different continent or also collect dust?

[Mekola]

GP3 cars or F2 ones should go to South America. Now with no more import restrictions, Argentina and Brazil could have a series about fast formula cars, over Brazilian F3.

[andrewc]

The F2 cars are in storage at Motorsport Vision's Bedford Autodrome, and several are wheeled out each year to be used in the BRDC McLaren Autosport young driver awards - the short listed members are given track time in a DTM car, a McLaren GT car and the MSV F2 car, with the winner getting a fat cheque and a McLaren F1 test.

[Roninho]

Thanks Andrew, did not know that.
Are they not allowed to sell them? (by the fia as part of the tender) Because i would imagine they could fetch a few 10k per car to be used in trackdays or in BossGP.

And do you know if they still have the former FPA cars in storage? Never seen them on a track again as well.

Originally Posted by Mekola

GP3 cars or F2 ones should go to South America. Now with no more import restrictions, Argentina and Brazil could have a series about fast formula cars, over Brazilian F3.

Not sure about GP3 since those were expensive cars and i don't think the south american f3 grids are full of money. F2 could work, since they had a 250k euro budget which is much lower compared to european f3 budgets. Although a big part of the low operating costs was due to the centralized team running all cars iirc.

[andrewc]

I think the Formula Palmer Cars are now what PalmerSport call the "F3000" used on their experience days at Bedford Autodrome, but powered by a Jaguar sourced V6 instead of the Audi turbo engine.

The FIA F2 cars were also maintained centrally, and I suspect if someone wealthy enough came along and made an offer, they could be sold, because you would be buying a ready made race championship with cars and spare parts that would require minor upgrades before being race usable again.

I'm not sure what happened to the old GP3 cars. I presume the tubs were owned by the individual teams or drivers, and I would expect engines to be leased, but what about electronics / gearboxes?

[Roninho]

Thanks for the info.

As for GP3, the old cars are technically not yet abandoned, i think the new car will only arrive in february, and the GP3/10 car was used for the GP3/13 car (The monocoque of the GP3/10 car was used as base for the GP3/13 car and teams were provided with an update kit).

So the initial cars, albeit in an updated version, raced in GP3 a few months ago. I have no idea if they are going to collect dust, or maybe they will be used in an asian series like GP2 asia or Aisan series by renault (or something like that, think they had it for a few years).

The initial engines were replaced in 2013 (was 280 hp 2.0 l ithink, now 3.4l). The new car will have a new engine as well. So in theory the engines, ecu and gearbox would also be available.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by Roninho

Not sure about GP3 since those were expensive cars and i don't think the south american f3 grids are full of money. F2 could work, since they had a 250k euro budget which is much lower compared to european f3 budgets. Although a big part of the low operating costs was due to the centralized team running all cars iirc.

In that mood, the help of "sinhor Orestes" (Oreste Berta) will be VERY useful to have capable engines for the cars. Even he has a V8 to use.