This Ralt RT3 played a pivotal role in the racing career of the late Ayrton Senna, being the first Formula Three car driven by the future three-time Formula One World Champion. After Senna’s sensational drive, the car would also help another young driver to reach his dreams of competing in Formula One: Gerhard Berger.

Powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder Toyota engine producing 165 bhp mated to a five-speed Hewland gearbox, the RT3 tips the scales at just 455 kg. Although the model got off to a slow start in its debut season, rolling changes over the ensuing years helped to make the RT3 a frontrunner in both European and British Formula Three. Amazingly, in 1982 approximately three-quarters of the British Formula Three field was made up of Ralts, with their cars sweeping the podium in nearly every race. This would have been a thrill drive for the two burgeoning drivers, testing their endurance and sharpening their skills just shy of the Formula One level, and surely would be just as thrilling for any historic racer today.

Chassis number 291, the car offered here, was initially driven by the Argentinian Enrique Mansilla for West Surrey Racing in the later part of the 1982 British Formula Three Championship. He managed to place 2nd overall in the championship, just three points behind Tommy Byrne. It was driven by Mansilla across ten races that season, only finishing off the podium once on his first drive in the car at Silverstone for round seven, finishing fourth. Mansilla managed four wins in a row in this RT3, at Mallory Park, Oulton Park, Silverstone, and Snetterton.

Simultaneously, a relatively unknown Ayrton Senna da Silva had been noticed by West Surrey Racing’s Dick Bennetts. Senna made an impression on Bennetts in the lower Formulas and

Bennetts took the gamble to give the young Brazilian a shot at the final round of the season at Thruxton in November 1982.

That morning Senna was treated to the Thruxton paddock in one of Motorsports’ great moments (of which Senna produced a few!) … having never set foot in a Formula Three car, and having probably never heard of Thruxton—let alone driven a lap! Senna put the car on pole position, a gigantic seven tenths quicker than any other driver, including that year’s F3 Champion. Ayrton had arrived.

During the race, he continued his dominance over the field, setting the fastest lap of the race, and would claim the checkered flag, not only leading newly crowned champion Tommy Byrne, but finishing thirteen seconds ahead of second place, and within a year, he would sign his contract to become a Formula One driver with Toleman for the 1984 season.

More than pleased with his results that day, that drive confirmed his place in West Surrey Racing’s team for 1983, which he would win, having notched up 10 victories, battling to the end with Martin Brundle.

While chassis number 291’s history would split from Ayrton Senna and West Surrey Racing at the end of 1982, the RT3 found a new owner in Helmut Marko, who sent a young Gerhard Berger to collect the car and then compete in it. Berger would, of course, later become Senna’s teammate at McLaren in Formula One a decade later. Berger picked up the car in the UK and trailered the car home to Austria in preparation for the 1983 European Formula Three season. It would be driven by Berger across three races in 1983, all of which were podium finishes; 3rd at Zolder in April, followed by 2nd-place finishes at both the Osterreichring in his native Austria in May and Ring-Knutstorp in Sweden in August.

The RT3 was restored approximately fifteen years ago in the UK at a cost of £75,000, and returned to the same livery it wore with Senna at Thruxton in 1982. Following the completion of the restoration, the car was raced by a previous owner at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix in 2012. Presently residing with a collector in the United States, this is truly a landmark car in Senna’s early career.