Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (also known as AGS and Gonfaron Sports Cars) was a small French racecar constructor that competed in various racing categories over a period of thirty years, including Formula One from to .

AGS survived as a prosperous Formula One driving school, in Le Luc, near Gonfaron.

Foundation The team was founded by the French mechanic, Henri Julien, who ran a filling station, the "Garage de l'Avenir", in Gonfaron, a provincial French village.As of 2011, it remains in existence. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Julien regularly attended racing events in minor classes. Although not an outstanding driver, the technical knowledge he gained eventually prompted him to start constructing racing cars.

First car

Julien's first car, the AGS JH1, saw the light of day in 1969. It was a small single-seater, intended for the category of "Formule France". The car was designed by Julien's former apprentice, the Belgian mechanic Christian Vanderpleyn, who had been with the garage (and the racing team) since the very late 1950s and who would stay on until 1988. Soon, AGS went progressed and manufactured its own Formula 3 cars, which were ambitious but not good enough to compete seriously with the state-of-art Martinis which dominated the series at the time.

Formula 2

AGS took another step ahead in 1978 when the team started competing in the European Formula 2 Championship. Still, the car - by now the AGS JH15 - was self-penned (by Vanderpleyn), self-built and self-run. Formula 2 was a difficult task for the small team, racing 1978 and 1979 without scoring any championship points. The early 1980s were somewhat better. AGS was one of the few teams who ran its own cars (Maurer, Minardi and Merzario were the others), and eventually the team was able to score points regularly. Soon some victories came, too. AGS made history when works driver Philippe Streiff won the final race of Formula 2 in 1984, using an AGS JH19C.

Formula 3000 In 1985, AGS switched to Formula 3000 with the JH20, based on the Duqueine VG4 Formula 3 chassis. The JH20 used a Cosworth DFV engine supplied through the Swiss tuning firm Mader. Results were mediocre in 1985 and 1986.

Formula One

Beginnings By late summer , AGS entered the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, its first Formula One race. Its structure was somewhat bizarre: The team had no more than seven employees and was still operated from the Garage de l'Avenir in Gonfaron.

AGS appeared with a car that was once again penned by Vanderpleyn. The JH21C was a strange mixture between former AGS F3000 vehicles and Renault F1 parts which were used extensively. The car was powered by a well-used Motori Moderni turbo engine (the only time these Carlo Chiti-developed engines were given to a customer team) and driven by Italian Ivan Capelli. A few weeks before, the car had been tested at Paul Ricard by Didier Pironi, driving an F1 car for the first time since his leg-breaking accident in the 1982 German Grand Prix. Due to technical difficulties, neither in its first attempt nor in the following race in Portugal did Capelli see the finish.

For the team's first full F1 season in , Vanderpleyn penned the JH22, which used a normally-aspirated Cosworth DFZ but was otherwise much the same as the JH21C. The car was initially driven by Pascal Fabre, who had driven for the team in Formula 2 in 1982. He proved to be a reliable driver, finishing eight of the first nine races, but was never in serious contention for scoring points and failed to qualify on three occasions. AGS improved in the last two races of the season when Fabre was replaced by the Brazilian Roberto Moreno (who saw his first chance in Formula One since 1982 when he had failed to qualify a Lotus works car). In Adelaide, Moreno scored the first championship point for AGS, which meant that the team finished the season equal on points with the better-financed Ligier and the returning March team.

Takeover

In , AGS started with a new car, the JH23, and Philippe Streiff as the team's only driver. Streiff drove quite powerfully and qualified well, but he saw the chequered flag only four times; in all the other events of that year technical failures or accidents were recorded. Financially, the year started well and ended with a disaster. AGS had a solid sponsor - the French Bouygues group - which promised to support not only the racing activity but also the completion of a new factory outside Gonfaron. After AGS had started work on the new facility, Bouygues withdrew from the team, leaving Julien without any support. To save the team, he eventually had to sell it to Cyril de Rouvre, a French entrepreneur with various ambitions.

Difficulties and second takeover Things went soon from bad to worse. The new team management changed frequently (Vanderpleyn for instance went to Coloni) and brought a lot of disorder. Worse was to come; Streiff was paralysed in a testing accident in Brazil before the season.

Streiff was replaced with Gabriele Tarquini, who surprised with some great performances in the first half of the season. He was very close to the points in both the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix and 1989 United States Grand Prix, but retired in both races. Then things went better in the 1989 Mexican Grand Prix, where he finished sixth and scored his first point. But after these highlights, the team was never able to be as competitive again.

In the second part of the 1989 season, the team had to prequalify - a task that was nearly never achieved by Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas. AGS then finished 15th in the Constructors' Championship, equal with the Lolas used by the Larrousse team. During the summer months, there were strong rumours that AGS would soon use a new W12 engine developed by the French designer Guy Nègre. This strange MGN (Moteurs Guy Nègre) machine saw the light of day in late 1988 and was tested in an old AGS JH22 chassis in the summer of 1989. It was clear that AGS was not related to these tests; they were completely private attempts by Nègre. The engine never found its way to a Grand Prix but it was announced to be used in a 1990 Le Mans car called Norma M6. The car was presented and attempted to race, but failed to qualify over engine issues.

Finally, AGS had to use Cosworth engines again in . That year brought no improvement at all, Dalmas's 9th in the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix was the best result and by the beginning of the season the team was obviously close to its end. The team lacked money – at the first two Grands Prix of 1991, in Brazil and Phoenix the team's mechanics had to pay for their own hotel rooms. In the race itself, Tarquini finished 8th, which was the last finish ever of an AGS car. De Rouvre sold his team to some Italian entrepreneurs, Patrizio Cantù and Gabriele Rafanelli. Both changed little except for the driver line-up (Stefan Johansson was replaced with newcomer Fabrizio Barbazza) and the colours of the car (which were now blue, red and yellow instead of white). A new car, the JH27, was raced in the early autumn, but by then the team was in rags again, so the Italians closed the doors after the 1991 Spanish Grand Prix.

Complete Formula Two results (key) Year Chassis Engine Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 131978JH15BMW THR HOC1 NÜR PAU MUG VLL ROU DON NOG ENN MIS HOC2 Richard DallestNCDNQ11Ret16DNQ José DolhemRetRetDNQ1979JH15JH16BMW SIL HOC THR NÜR VAL MUG PAU HOC ZAN PER MIS DON José Dolhem14 JH15JH17 BMW THR HOC NÜR VAL PAU SIL ZOL MUG ZAN PER MIS HOC Richard DallestRet10Ret91DNS8715Ret4 JH15JH17JH18 BMW SIL HOC THR NÜR VAL MUG PAU PER SPA DON MIS MAN Richard DallestRetRetRetRet7Ret955 Patrick GaillardRet Tiff Needell11 JH18JH19 BMW SIL HOC THR NÜR MUG VAL PAU SPA HOC DON MAN PER MIS Philippe Streiff10Ret5RetRet2Ret4Ret524Ret Pascal FabreRet121316163DNQ19RetRet689 JH19JH19B BMW SIL THR HOC NÜR VAL PAU JAR DON MIS PER ZOL MUG Philippe Streiff58Ret5843Ret233 Fulvio Ballabio Ret712Ret59NC6 JH19C BMW SIL HOC THR VAL MUG PAU HOC MIS PER DON BRH Philippe StreiffRet53Ret112Ret2Ret71 Stefano LivioRet

Complete Formula 3000 results (key) Year Chassis Engine Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1985 JH20 Cosworth SIL THR EST VAL PAU SPA DIJ PER ZEL ZAN DON Philippe Streiff Ret Ret 10 5 5 Ret 9 Ret 5 3 5 1986 JH20B Cosworth SIL VAL PAU SPA IMO MUG PER ZEL BIR BUG JAR Alain Ferté 13 Ret Ret 14 3 7 18 Ret Ret Ret Richard Dallest 4 13 DNQ Ret

Complete Formula One results (key) Year Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Points WCC JH21C BRA ESP SMR MON BEL CAN DET FRA GBR GER HUN AUT ITA POR MEX AUS 0 NC Ivan Capelli Ret Ret JH22 Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5 V8 BRA SMR BEL MON DET FRA GBR GER HUN AUT ITA POR ESP MEX JPN AUS 1 12th Pascal Fabre 12 13 10 13 12 9 9 Ret 13 NC DNQ DNQ Ret DNQ Roberto Moreno Ret 6 JH23 Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5 V8 BRA SMR MON MEX CAN DET FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 0 NC Philippe Streiff Ret 10 Ret 12 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 10 Ret 9 Ret 8 11 JH23BJH24 Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 BRA SMR MON MEX USA CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 1 15th Philippe Streiff WD Gabriele Tarquini 8 Ret 6 7 Ret RetDNQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ Yannick Dalmas DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ JH24JH25 Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 USA BRA SMR MON CAN MEX FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 0 NC Gabriele Tarquini DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNQ Ret DNPQ 13 DNQ DNQ DNQ Ret DNQ Ret Yannick Dalmas DNPQ Ret DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ 17 DNPQ DNQ DNQ DNQ NC Ret 9 DNQ DNQ JH25BJH27 Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 USA BRA SMR MON CAN MEX FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 0 NC Gabriele Tarquini 8 Ret DNQ Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNQ Olivier Grouillard DNPQ Stefan Johansson DNQ DNQ Fabrizio Barbazza DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ Sources:

References

Bibliography

External links

AGS Formule 1 Chequered Flag Motorsport's profile of AGS