Here is a brief look at each manufacturer and the entrants.  There are two categories in the HF3EC, Category 1 is for cars from 1971 to 1978 and Category 2 is for cars manufactured between 1979 and 1984.

There is more information on each manufacturer on the website f3history.co.uk, which is accessible by following the links below.

Chevron

Derek Bennett began his career as a racing car constructor by building a midget racer for his own use in speedway racing in the mid fifties and then moved on like so many other famous constructors to building cars for the 750MC formulae. The first Chevron, the B1, was built in 1965 to clubman formula specifications and won first time out, a promising beginning.  The Chevron name was something Derek spotted in a copy of the Highway Code.

Chevron's first single-seater would be the 1967 B7 a F3 car, although it would be several years before the Chevron name became as important in single-seaters as it was in Sports Cars.

CLICK HERE for more information

There will be three Chevron chassis taking part in the 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup

3          Chevron B38                 No8 Rob Moores                                   Category 1

            Chevron B38                 No13 Michel Arbeit                               Category 1

            Chevron B38                 No30 Hugh Price                                   Category 1

Dallara

Gian Paolo Dallara left the Milan Polytechnic in 1959 with an aeronautical engineering degree and went to work for Ferrari, during the next few years he also worked at Maserati and Lamborghini, at the latter he was responsible for the Miura.

The first Dallara F3 car was actually the Wolf car built for Walter Wolf racing in 1978 which as the renamed Emiliani won the 1980 Italian F3 Championship. The first true Dallara was produced in 1981 and within a dozen years Dallara had seen of all-comers including Ralt and Reynard. Their dominance has continued since then and despite the occasional competition from companies like TOM's and Martini they seem immovable.

CLICK HERE for more information

There will be one Dallara chassis taking part in the 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup

1          Dallara 382                   No18 Angela Grasso                              Category 2

GRD

As Lotus withdrew from the production side of racing car manufacture there were a number of personnel in the Hethel area of Norfolk looking for new employment. Several of these ex-Lotus employees, notably Mike Warner, designer Dave Baldwin and two leading technicians, Derek Wild and Gordon Huckle formed Group Racing Developments by linking together with local engineering company, Griston. To finish the group Jo Marquart joined from Huron as designer. With Lotus, and soon Brabham, leaving the production racing car market things looked good for GRD and initially they had a lot of success and in 1973 joined up with Denys Dobbie's DART operation with grand plans for the future. However, Dobbie pulled out in early 1974 and by the end of the year production ceased as prospects for the following year were not good. Three former employees set up a service operation and in 1975 Van Diemen took over this and the 375 F3 car (of which a modified version became the Van Diemen F3 car).

CLICK HERE for more information

There will be two GRD chassis taking part in the 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup

2          GRD 373                       No7 Falk Künster                                   Category 1

            GRD 373                       No26 Marco Fumagalli                          Category 1

March

March sprang into life in 1969 with four men from various racing backgrounds coming together to start a company whose ideas were nothing if not grand. Max Mosely, lawyer and average racing driver, Alan Rees, quite an accomplished racing driver, Graham Coaker, former Hawker Siddeley employee and Robin Herd, F1 designer, the initials of their surnames gave the March name.

The first March was the 693 F3 car produced at the end of 1969 and driven by Ronnie Peterson but for 1970 F1 cars were built for the works team of Chris Amon and Jo Siffert, the Tyrrell team of Jackie Stewart and Francois Cevert, the STP team of Mario Andretti and the Antiques Automobiles car of Ronnie Peterson, a very impressive line-up for your first year in F1. By the end of the season March had won their first GP (Stewart in Spain) and the March name was securely established.

CLICK HERE for more information

There will be five March chassis taking part in the 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup

3          March 783                    No16 Valerio Leone                               Category 1

            March 783                    No17 Davide Leone                               Category 1

            March 783                    No22 Gianluigi Candiani                        Category 1

2          March 793                    No29 Iain Rowley                                  Category 2

            March 793                    No46 Marcel Biehl                                Category 2

Martini

Tico Martini's first racing machine was a kart-like 650cc Triumph motorcycle powered hill climb machine that he built in 1962. Within a year this naturalised Frenchman of Italian parents was looking after the technical side of the Winfield Racing Drivers School at Magny Cours and he began building his first cars at a garage at the track. All the Martini chassis have since had either the MW, (for Martini-Winfield) or MK (for Martini-Knight) designations. 

The first Martini F3 was a car designed for the school team and this was followed by a succession of F3, Formule France and Formule Renault machines depending on what the French market demanded at the time and by the end of the 70s Alain Prost in the ORECA run Martini MK27 Renault was the dominant force in F3. Over the next few years Martini continued to build F3 cars as well as being very successful in F2.

CLICK HERE for more information on Martini

There will be six Martini chassis taking part in the 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup

3          Martini MK34               No15 Manfredo Rossi Di Montelera       Category 2

            Martini MK34               No28 Larry Kinch                                   Category 2

            Martini MK34               No59 Frederic Rouvier                           Category 2

2          Martini MK39               No1 Christian Olsen                              Category 2

            Martini MK39               No9 Tom Olsen                                     Category 2

1          Martin MK42                No11 Michael Ringstrom                      Category 2        

Ralt

Ron Tauranac was the designer behind the Formula 1 World Championship winning Brabham Grand Prix cars of the 1960's and when Bernie Ecclestone bought out the company and after doing a number of freelance projects Tauranac decided to set up business on his own account. Ron started in racing in 1946 in his native Australia when with his brother Austin Lewis (Ron + Austin + Lewis + Tauranac= RALT) he began building cars for local competition events.

After a period that included designing the Trojan F1 and F5000 cars and working for Frank Williams Ron decided he wanted to get back into designing customer cars so in 1974 Tauranac set up the Ralt factory at Woking in Surrey and in 1975 the first Ralt, the RT1, was produced.

CLICK HERE for more information on Ralt

There will be twelve Ralt chassis taking part in the 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup

4          RT1                              No5 Keith White                                   Category 1

            RT1                              No12 Pierre Merche                              Category 1

            RT1                              No25 Stefan Schroyen                           Category 1

            RT1                              No93 Ernst Rudolf                                 Category 1

8          RT3                              No2 David Thorburn                              Category 2

            RT3                              No3 Daniel Hornung                              Category 2

            RT3                              No6 Heinrich Langfermann                    Category 2

            RT3                              No19 Giuseppe Bossoni                         Category 2

            RT3                              No20 Fraser Gray                                  Category 2

            RT3                              No23 Stefan Scho                                  Category 2

            RT3                              No31 Thomas Weidel                            Category 2

            RT3                              No32 Marc Klein                                   Category 2

The 2019 FIA Historic Formula 3 European Cup will take place at Zandvoort in The Netherlands on 6-8 September 2019 as part of the Historic Grand Prix Zandvoort event.  CLICK HERE for more information on the event.

All background information courtesy of www.f3history.co.uk/ Gerald Swan