PERFORMANCE HERITAGE – 1990 SUBARU COLONI C3B FORMULA 1 CAR
MANY SUBARU FANS ARE NOT AWARE OF THE COMPANY’S BRIEF FORAY INTO FORMULA 1. ALTHOUGH FRAUGHT WITH OBSTACLES THAT COULD NOT BE OVERCOME, THIS EFFORT PROVED SUBARU A WILLING PLAYER EVEN IN THE MOST EXOTIC OF PERFORMANCE LEAGUES … LEAVING US ONE OF THE RAREST ENGINES IN F1 HISTORY.
The 1990 F1 season was one of the battlegrounds for the legendary rivalry between Ayrton Senna (driving for McLaren) and Alain Prost (driving for Ferrari). Although Senna won the 1990 championship, he did so by only seven points.
Besides showcasing spirited driving, 1990 was the second season of F1’s change to non-turbocharged (“all atmospheric”) engines. Besides the established engine manufacturers of the time – Ferrari, Lamborghini, Honda, Renault, Ford, and Judd among them – a number of others tested the waters of F1. Among them was Subaru.
Fielding a competitive F1 team involves a highly coordinated effort, with the right team members, the most contemporary yet reliable engine and chassis technology, and some good fortune. Even then, results don’t always equal that effort.
Complicating matters was an overabundance of cars showing up for F1 races in the 1990 season. Thirty-nine cars vied for 26 starting positions, with smaller teams forced to “pre-qualify” for the last four spots. Among them were Euro Brun, AGS, Life, Larrousse, and Subaru Coloni.
THE TEAM
The story of Subaru in F1 involves a number of players. Among them were:
Yoshio Takaoka – team president
Enzo Coloni – team owner/manager
Carlo Chiti – engine designer
Bertrand Gachot – driver
Yoshio Takaoka
Director of the 12-cylinder F1 engine project for Subaru, Takaoka was no stranger to motorsports. He was a rally racer until 1985 and had scored the best results to date for a Japanese driver in the World Rally Championship, finishing 5th overall and winning in Group A in the 1983 East African Safari Rally.
Enzo Coloni
A team owner since 1987, Coloni also had been a professional driver, when he had the nickname, “The Wolf.” Winning the Formula 3 Italian Championship was part of his resume. Then, as a Formula 3/Formula 3000 team manager, he also won the European championships.
When F1’s sanctioning body announced that turbochargers were to be banned starting in 1989, Coloni chose to enter the fray with the Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems team. From 1987 through 1989, Coloni attempted to compete in 82 F1 races, but only qualified for competition in 14 of them.
When Fuji bought the team, Coloni continued as vice president.
Carlo Chiti
In the early 1950s, Carlo Chiti began his career working for Alfa Romeo in its competition department. Involved with competition cars and engines, Chiti’s resume also included Ferrari, Autodelta (which prepared competition cars), and the F1 team Minardi. In 1984, Minardi helped fund Motori Moderni SpA (which employed Chiti) as the engine builder for its team and others, but Motori Moderni had limited success.
In 1988, Chiti began designing an engine that followed the rules change in F1 requiring normally aspirated engines. It was a Boxer 12-cylinder, commissioned by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (Subaru).
Bertrand Gachot
Twenty-seven years old, Belgian Bertrand Gachot seemed to be an up-and-coming F1 driver. He began racing in the Marlboro Europe Challenge in 1984, then competed in the English Formula Ford 1600 Championship in 1985. He also drove successfully in British Formula 3 and Formula 3000.
In 1989, Gachot drove for the Onyx-Ford team in five grands prix, finishing as high as 12th.
THE PLAN
Subaru had specific goals when it began development of the Subaru-MM 3.5-liter, 12-cylinder F1 racing engine in cooperation with Motori Moderni of Italy. It intended to create the ultimate horizontally opposed Boxer engine through F1 competition.
Ready for testing by summer of 1989, the engine lacked enough horsepower to be competitive in F1. As development continued, Subaru Tecnica Europe (a subsidiary of Subaru Tecnica International) invested in 50 percent of the Coloni F1 team, which was then officially known as Subaru Coloni Racing SRL (a limited company in Italy).
The team’s first step: a one-car entry for the 1990 season. The first event planned by the team was the U.S. Grand Prix, held in Phoenix March 9-11, 1990.
THE RESULT
Knowing the engine was down on power when compared to the engines of other teams, Subaru and Chiti started another engine that would be ready in the summer of 1990. Meanwhile, the 3.5-liter Boxer was to be fitted to the previous year’s Coloni chassis for the start of the season.
The resulting Subaru Coloni C3B was assembled for the first time in the pits for the Phoenix F1 race. A short practice session was arranged at Firebird International Raceway, and then the car was brought back to the track for prequalification day.
The team suffered from a number of disadvantages: Its engine developed as much as 100 fewer horsepower than the front-running F1 engines, and its chassis weighed as much as 300 pounds more than competitors’ chassis.
At Phoenix and subsequent venues, mechanical problems (gear linkages, clutches, and oil leaks) as well as crashes prevented Gachot from qualifying for a single race. In July, Subaru sold back its share of the team to Coloni.
Instead of Formula 1, Subaru went on to emphasize participation in the World Rally Championship.
But, oh, such a beautiful 12-cylinder engine, with such a sweet sound!
This info and more can be found at: http://www.driveperformance.subaru.com
More info on the Subaru Coloni F1 team:
An unexpected contract with Subaru, the automobile branch of Fuji Heavy Industries, brought substantial monetary backing and additionally an exclusive "works" engine for free. The Japanese took over 51% of Coloni formula, paid the debts and supported the new alliance with a brand new, unique engine. It was a flat-12 engine called the MM series, which in fact was penned by Carlo Chiti. Chiti's Motori Moderni company at Novara had supplied V6 Turbo engines for the Minardi Formula One team from 1985 to 1987, and in 1988 Chiti had penned a normally aspirated V12 engine that attracted Subaru. In late 1988, the Japanese commissioned Chiti to design a new Formula One engine with a "flat" layout - as used in their road cars - that was ready in the Summer of 1989. The engine - now with a Subaru badge - was tested in a Minardi M188 chassis but due to a severe lack of power Minardi very soon lost interest. After a few months of searching, Subaru found the Coloni team. Eventually, the "Subaru Coloni" Team was founded with Enzo Coloni staying on board as the man for operational business.
By the beginning of 1990, the "Subaru" flat engine was not producing more than 500 bhp, so the Coloni Subaru was by far the least competitive machine regularly competing in Formula One in 1990. Subaru and Chiti agreed to build a new V12 engine for Summer 1990 together with a completely new chassis, but in the meantime the flat engine should be used by the "Coloni Subaru" Team in a carry-over chassis. Early in 1990, a handful of Enzo Coloni's mechanics worked on a single C3 and tried to put the Subaru engine in it. The work was not done until the day the FIA started shipping the Formula One material to Phoenix. In the pits at Phoenix, the car was assembled for the very first time, and a short private "practice" took place on a parking area of an American supermarket. On prequalification day of Phoenix the world saw Coloni's "new" model C3B which wore a white, red and green livery. Without an airbox but with wide, long sidepods, it looked like a tank, was overweight by 300 pounds and nearly impossible to handle. Neither at Phoenix nor at any other event, did Bertrand Gachot, Coloni's new driver, manage to prequalify the car. As the season went on, improvements were few and results stayed nowhere. Meanwhile, no success could be seen at Coloni's plant in Perugia where obviously nobody worked seriously on a new car. In May, Enzo Coloni was sacked by Subaru, but no improvement came. In June, the Japanese company withdrew completely and sold the team back to Enzo Coloni, debt free, but with no sponsors and no engines. By the German Grand Prix Coloni had arranged a supply of Cosworth engines, prepared by Langford & Peck. An improved car also appeared in Germany. The "new" Coloni C3C was simply a 1989 C3 with minor changes in aerodynamics. The car was quicker, but not enough to achieve any serious results. Gachot was usually able to prequalify his car, but the "main" qualification was still out of reach. By the end of the season, Coloni had not taken part in a single Grand Prix.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBSh9qecTHQ&feature=player_embedded
Apparently that H12 engine was for sale at one stage and it went for around 30k BARGAIN!
