F3-BEATING PACE PROMISED FROM NEW VAN DIEMEN
Firman has high performance for accessible cost with new FIA F3-based track-day car
Ralph Firman Jr has promised Formula 3-beating pace for a competitive price from the new car with which he is relaunching the Van Diemen name.
Ex-Formula 1 driver Firman, son of Van Diemen co-founder Ralph Sr, is relaunching the famous brand initially with a chassis competing in Sports Car Club of America’s P1 category and a track-day version available in the UK.
The cars will be produced from the old Van Diemen factory near Snetterton with the head office at Silverstone. The first cars will be delivered in February.
The track day car, the RF350, has a 2.3-litre Ford Ecoboost engine with three power options: 350bhp, 440bhp and 550bhp.
Firman Jr told Motorsport News: “It’s exciting to be relaunching the family heritage company. We’ve designed the cars around FIA
F3 chassis, that can be used to pitch to multiple championships and multiple markets. [It’s] a two-pronged attack with the same car: race championships and trackday market. We expect the standard track-day car to be lapping faster than a Formula 3 car given its downforce numbers, we’ve done lots of CFD testing, it’s been quite a substantial project.
“The car is going to be the best-performing car at the price point, Radical’s probably our biggest challenger, and we’ll have an FIA halo as well so up to modern safety standards.
“It would be nice to see if we can lower the cost in some small way of racing and see if we can get a wider audience back into it.”