Hi, I am Ross McAlpine, I compete in the NSW Formula Race Car Association’s NSW Formula Car Championship, a 5 round series conducted at Sydney Motor-Sport Park and Wakefield Park. Plus I also race in other selected events such as Irace, in 2012 I was the Irace Formula Tasman Champion.
My car is a 2002/4 Formula 3 Dallara running a Renault Sodemo engine. These engines comply to the international F3 rules which means they must be based on a 2 litre normally aspirated production engine. While modifications can be made they are governed by a 26mm air restrictor, mainly to keep costs down. They produce around 210 to 220 bhp at the rear wheels. While this doesn’t sound a lot these cars are the quickest racing cars in Australia, being some 6 seconds quicker than a V8 Supercar around Phillip Island and Sydney Motor-Sports Park and 3 seconds quicker at Bathurst. Until the recent 12 hour at Bathurst, a F3 held the outright lap record. They should regain it at Easter, not bad for 210 bhp.
We have used Powerplus 102+ for the last 12 months, previously using a much more expensive alternative. In that time we have had the identical performance from Powerplus. When the engine was recently rebuilt we found no issues that could be attributed to the change in fuels. As they say on the Powerplus web site we recommend that you map your engine to the new fuel.
So in summary Australian made, same performance and less costs, can’t argue with that!
– Ross McAlpine
