Senna's old F3 car: You Know You Want To
This Ralt RT3 is the first car Senna drove in Formula 3 and recently restored too. Why not?
Witness the £70,000 recently paid for a used Senna crash helmet, or how about the outrageous £100,000 it costs for a Senna-soiled McLaren Honda race suit? The Tag watch once photographed being worn by the Brazilian? That'll be £40K please.
455kg, 165hp, 150mph - proper racing car
In case you need a bit of relevance to tell you how and where the Ralt racer fits in the Senna biopic, let's rewind back to 1982.
Back then the 22 year-old Ayrton Senna was living as he raced - flat out. He'd moved to England in 1981, gotten married, separated, won the Formula Ford 1600 championship, then promptly announced his retirement and moved back to Brazil. Of course he quickly changed his mind and flew back to England to race (and win) the Formula Ford 2000 Championship before wisely signing to Dick Bennetts' West Surrey Racing (WSR) team to give the British Formula 3 series a go.
Now this will blow your mind but in the good old days if you won an F3 championship - or even came runner up - you would almost certainly be rewarded with an F1 drive. So back in '82 only one season of racing separated Senna from his life's goal - to compete in F1.
Feeling talented?
But Bennetts had a plan to help gently introduce him to what lay ahead. At the end of the '82 season, with second place in the championship safely in the bag Bennetts asked Enrique Mansilla if he'd mind politely sitting out the last race to let the young Senna cut his teeth with the big boys. Mansilla, the gentleman he was, agreed but what happened next was astonishing - even for Senna.
That's how the Brazilian and this car, chassis number 291, met. It wasn't luck that found Senna at WSR. Everyone knew the Ralt RT3s were the best cars in the championship, especially when they were powered by the 2.0-litre four-cylinder Toyota lump. Pushing out just 165hp, there were other lighter engines - but none as durable as the Japanese motor that channelled its power through the 5-speed Hewland 'box. Don't let that power output put you off either; weighing just 455kg, the RT3 topped out at over 150mph - much faster if you gathered up a good tow.
In a previous life...
The answer is less than a lap because Senna and #291 were made for each other. Not only did he nail pole, he won the race and racked up one of his trademark fastest laps.
It was the making of the beautiful relationship. For the next season he drove another car, a mildly updated RT3 and continued winning, racking up a mighty ten consecutive wins in the F3 series. But then it almost went very badly wrong for the Brazilian, thanks to a certain Martin Brundle.
Tired of constantly finishing second to Senna, Brundle suddenly got to grips with his identical Toyota-powered Ralt RT3 and he started to fly. Taking his first win at Silverstone halfway through the season, Brundle was so quick Senna fell off the circuit trying to keep up.
There are track day toys and then track day toys
The season culminated with a race where either Senna or Brundle could claim glory. The pressure on both drivers was off the scale. What followed was almost cruel.
Somehow Senna had exorcised his demons over the short break between races. When he climbed behind the wheel of his RT3 for the final time the pace he extracted was unbelievable. It must have been humiliating for poor Brundle. Senna drove like he had another 50hp and was simply too quick for the Brit to mount a challenge.
Well it has to be Thruxton first, right?
Today chassis 291, that was also campaigned by Gerhard Berger, is all that's left of Senna's time in F3 - the '83 car was scrapped after the season adding to its rarity.
Whoever buys it really should race it - it would a crime for it to be screwed on the wall beside an old race suit and smelly, sweat-soaked crash helmet - a far more fitting tribute would be racing it at this year's Monaco Historique on the old street circuit Senna loved so much.
RALT RT3 (1982)
Price: POA (est. £150K)
Why you should: A piece of Senna memorabilia that isn't poor value and will be incredible to drive.
Why you shouldn't: An expensive piece of Senna memorabilia if you don't want to drive it.
See the original advert here.
I also think this is the car that Senna parked on Brundle's shoulder as they were battling for position during that season. Some footage somewhere....
EDIT: Maybe not - unless the livery was changed during that season: http://youtu.be/RIr1EJa7TP0
One for the lottery win I think
I also think this is the car that Senna parked on Brundle's shoulder as they were battling for position during that season. Some footage somewhere....
EDIT: Maybe not - unless the livery was changed during that season: http://youtu.be/RIr1EJa7TP0
d who ends up buying this doesn't just stick it in a museum...I also think this is the car that Senna parked on Brundle's shoulder as they were battling for position during that season. Some footage somewhere....
EDIT: Maybe not - unless the livery was changed during that season: http://youtu.be/RIr1EJa7TP0
Difference being that when Senna wasn't clattering into people, he could also race an F1 car. 
I also think this is the car that Senna parked on Brundle's shoulder as they were battling for position during that season. Some footage somewhere....
EDIT: Maybe not - unless the livery was changed during that season: http://youtu.be/RIr1EJa7TP0
In the video he is in this car at Oulton and Brundle is in the blue car that looked not dissimilar to the Senna blue liveried car.
That "50 bhp" will be BS though. These things breathe through a restrictor so in those days all you'd get was about 165 bhp whatever you did. We've got a Novamotor Alfa 75 Twinspark engine in work that despite all the trickery makes 165 bhp yet with a pair of 45s on a simpler Twinspark build were getting 215.
Doesn't rule out the possibility that Mr Senna had some extra holes in his airbox (say...) for the last race.
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