Coloni C3

Christian Vanderpleyn designed the Coloni C3 as a replacement for the Coloni FC188 in 1989.[3] One notable difference from the FC188 was the presence of an airbox in place of the older car's rollbar.[3] The C3 used a 3.5-litre Cosworth DFR V8 engine.[3] However, the car arrived late, and was quite underdeveloped; in particular, it was lacking in straight line speed, which was most noticeable at Monza and Spa-Francorchamps.[3] After Vanderpleyn quit the team, freelancer Gary Anderson was tasked with extracting some more performance from the C3; he developed a new nosecone and front wing, and this helped the team to its best ever qualifying position at the Portuguese Grand Prix.[3] Even with the new configuration, however, the car still lacked straight line speed, and results did not noticeably improve after Portugal.[3]

Following the poor 1989 season, Enzo Coloni struck a deal with Subaru prior to the 1990 season to become the Japanese manufacturer's works team.[3] This deal, where Subaru bought half of the Coloni team, meant that the Cosworth DFR was replaced by Subaru's 1235 flat-12 engine.[3] This engine, which was of Subaru's typical boxer format, was developed by Motori Moderni, and had originally been intended for Minardi.[3][4] However, the engine was not a noticeable improvement over the DFR; it only produced a modest 417 kW (559 hp; 567 PS), with Motori Moderni targeting a power output of 447 kW (599 hp; 608 PS),[3] and it was also overweight, weighing 159 kg (351 lb).[4] Although this was only 10 kg (22 lb) heavier than the old DFR, the complete engine assembly was actually 112 kg (247 lb).[3] To make matters worse, it would also prove to be unreliable, and prone to failure.[4] The engine was designed to use a Minardi gearbox.[3] The C3 was updated to the C3B specification in order to accommodate the new engine, and was actually quite a major change; for example, the airbox was removed, and replaced by two sidepod-mounted air ducts, which led to the sidepods being taller and longer.[3] The weight of the Subaru engine also caused the C3B to have somewhat unpredictable handling, as the weight balance was quite heavily centred towards the rear of the car.[3]

After just eight races, Subaru and Coloni's relationship broke down; following some political wrangling between the two companies, Subaru pulled out altogether.[3] Coloni thus reverted to using the Cosworth DFR engine prepared by Langford & Peck in an updated version of the C3, known as the C3C; this chassis had been designed with the Subaru engine in mind, but was much closer to the original C3 than the C3B, with its airbox and low sidepods.[3] The C3C was a noticeable improvement over the C3B, and, although still unpredictable, it did lead to a modest improvement in the team's fortunes.[3] For the Belgian Grand Prix, an updated engine cover was brought, but it failed to make a major difference to the C3C.[3] For 1991, the C3C was updated into the C4.[3]

The C3 took a while to be developed, and this led to an updated version of the FC188, the FC188B, being used until the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix.[3] It would prove to be a mixed début for the car; Pierre-Henri Raphanel finished dead last in pre-qualifying, but not only did Roberto Moreno manage to qualify the car, he managed to complete 57 laps before succumbing to gearbox trouble.[5] However, neither driver managed to qualify for the following race, which was the 1989 French Grand Prix.[6] Moreno did manage to qualify for the 1989 British Grand Prix, but only lasted two laps before suffering another gearbox failure.[7] It was not until the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix that Coloni managed to qualify again;[8] by then, Raphanel had been replaced by Enrico Bertaggia, whilst Moreno qualified 15th in what would prove to be Coloni's best qualifying session ever.[3] However, after Arrows' Eddie Cheever wiped out the C3 on Saturday, the updated front wing was destroyed, and Moreno struggled until electrical gremlins forced him to retire on lap 11.[9] This would be the last time a Coloni made it onto the grid in 1989.[8]

For 1990, the new-look Subaru Coloni team slimmed down to a single-car effort, driven by Bertrand Gachot.[3] Things started inauspiciously for the team, when Gachot pre-qualified dead-last for the 1990 United States Grand Prix.[10] In fact, Gachot failed to pre-qualify in each and every race that he drove the Subaru-powered C3B, and also the 1990 German Grand Prix and 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix in the new Cosworth-powered C3C.[8] By the 1990 Belgian Grand Prix, however, things had improved marginally; Gachot pre-qualified a Coloni for the first time in a year, but was still 30th and last in qualifying proper.[11] From then onwards, Gachot would regularly pre-qualify his C3C, but never once managed to get through qualifying proper, and Coloni finished the season without ever actually competing in a race.[8]

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  1989 Coloni C3
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  1990 Coloni C3C

(key) (results shown in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)