Solved NIC#365 - 1950 Este F3 race car

[nicanary]

Straight to the Experts. A very obscure car, but what is it?

[nicanary]

Pros?

[Paul Jaray]

I'm pretty sure I saw this before...let's start: British?

[4popoid]

It looks tiny, Formula 3 (500cc)?

[nicanary]

I'm pretty sure I saw this before...let's start: British?

Not British.

[nicanary]

It looks tiny, Formula 3 (500cc)?

And yes, built for the 500cc Formula 3.

[Paul Jaray]

French?

[nicanary]

French?

Not French.

[Paul Jaray]

Europe?

[nicanary]

Europe?

Yes, from continental Europe.

[Paul Jaray]

Italy?

[nicanary]

Italy?

Not Italy.

No clues for someone of your experience! This car does not appear on the "usual" site, so don't waste time looking. I'm going to work now, and will return at 11.45pm British time.

[4popoid]

Not too hard to locate on the net.  It's an Este from 1950.

[nicanary]

Well, I'm surprised that this has been solved so quickly. Before I posted the puzzle I tried various different "search" words, and could not locate the image on the net. I've just typed Este F3 car and the picture appears! That'll teach me a lesson.

Nontheless, well solved. I have a feeling that the car never raced, since there are no records of entries that I can find.

[4popoid]

Thanks for the point Andy. 

I was a bit surprised as well.  After it was established that the car was a 500 cc Formula 3, I tried Googling "images of Formula 3 racing cars" to no avail.  So I changed the Google to "images of 500 cc racing cars" and the first listed result was a Flickr pool which had the image I posted on the first page of pictures.  Some times one gets lucky, I guess.

As for the participation of the Este in competition, I have no idea except that I am very familiar with the Crosmobile engine.  Of course I never heard the name Crosmobile, it was just Crosley to me, but I understand the export model was called Crosmobile to avoid confusing it with Crossley.  In any case, I owned a '49 Crosley in 1957 and rebuilt the little engine (before I got bored and replaced it with a '41 Ford 60 hp V8).  Actually, the Crosley was a gorgeous little engine (overhead cam driving the valves directly-no pushrods or other intermediate lifters), which, with the addition of a decent carburetor (frequently a side draft Weber), would easily turn 10,000 rpm.  The locals in my area (central Illinois) found the Crosley engine to be very competitive when used in Class H sports car racing.   

[Paul Jaray]

Not too hard to locate on the net.  It's an Este from 1950.

Well, easy was not! I tried in that website about f3 cars, plus in a couple of magazines archive because I recognize the pic cames from a mag (motor sport and automobile revue) and then a combination of keywords, like F3, 500, Formula 3 togheter with all the European countries still available...no good results at all!
I saw it before because it was in the same page of the CRM, but I forgot to bookmark it and  it slipped away.
Nice found!