British Formula 3 1987
At last Eddie Jordan Racing won the title. After five years of losing out to West Surrey Racing, Dave Price Racing and Madgwick Motorsport, Jordan secured continued sponsorship from Stelrad, and added the driving services of highly regarded Johnny Herbert. For many years, F3 had seen little technical variation, with Ralt RT3s and John Judd Volkswagen engines being the standard choice, but the emergence of Reynard and the arrival of new engines from Toyota and Alfa Romeo meant that the key in 1987 was getting the right package. The EJR package of Reynard 873 and Spiess-tuned VW gave Herbert a narrow edge which he exploited by winning five races.
Ralt and Reynard shared the 18 race wins evenly between them. Ralt's leading runner was Bertrand Gachot, but Gary Brabham, Martin Donnelly and future World Champion Damon Hill all won races in the new Ralt RT31. Field sizes were down slightly from 34 to 32, and concerns were expressed about the level of promotion from the BARC and BRDC. A threat was expected from the new Vauxhall/Opel/Lotus series which, with the benefit of hindsight, need not have given anyone sleepless nights.
The races
08 Mar 1987 > Silverstone
15 Mar 1987 > Thruxton
05 Apr 1987 > Brands Hatch
12 Apr 1987 > Silverstone
20 Apr 1987 > Thruxton
04 May 1987 > Silverstone
17 May 1987 > Brands Hatch
25 May 1987 > Thruxton
07 Jun 1987 > Silverstone
28 Jun 1987 > Zandvoort
05 Jul 1987 > Donington Park
12 Jul 1987 > Silverstone
02 Aug 1987 > Snetterton
09 Aug 1987 > Donington Park
16 Aug 1987 > Oulton Park
31 Aug 1987 > Silverstone
06 Sep 1987 > Brands Hatch
13 Sep 1987 > Spa-Francorchamps
18 Oct 1987 > Thruxton
1987 Lucas British Formula 3 Championship table
| 1 | Johnny Herbert | Eddie Jordan Racing Reynard 873 - VW Speiss | 79 pts | 5 wins |
| 2 | Bertrand Gachot | West Surrey Racing Ralt RT31 - Alfa Romeo Novamotor | 64 pts | 3 wins |
| 3 | Martin Donnelly | Swallow Racing Reynard 873 - VW Intersport Racing Racing Ralt RT31 - Toyota 3S-G TOMS | 61 pts | 2 wins |
| 4 | Thomas Danielsson | Madgwick Motorsport Reynard 873 - VW Madgwick Motorsport Reynard 873 - Alfa Romeo Novamotor | 56 pts | 3 wins |
| 5 | Damon Hill | Intersport Racing Racing Ralt RT31 - Toyota 3S-G TOMS | 49 pts | 2 wins |
| 6 | Gary Brabham | Jack Brabham Racing Ralt RT31 - VW Brabham | 37 pts | 2 wins |
| 7= | Philippe Favre | Reynard R&D Reynard 873 - Alfa Romeo Novamotor | 22 pts | 1 win |
| 7= | Perry McCarthy | Madgwick Motorsport Reynard 873 - VW Brabham Madgwick Motorsport Reynard 873 - Alfa Romeo Novamotor | 22 pts | |
| 9 | Steve Kempton | Terropol Promotions Reynard 873 - VW Reynard R&D Reynard 873 - Alfa Romeo Novamotor | 18 pts | |
| 10= | Niclas Schönström | Swallow Racing Reynard 873 - VW Neil Brown | 17 pts | |
| 10= | Peter Kox | Mike Rowe Racing Reynard 873 - VW Mike Rowe Racing Reynard 873 - Toyota 3S-G TOMS | 17 pts |
Points table from Autosport 10 Dec 1987 p42 (and checked against Autocourse 1987/88 p265). The points system was 9-6-4-3-2-1 with an extra point for fastest race lap.
Although Johnny Herbert used Siegfried Spiess's VW engine to win the title, VW's hold on F3 was being loosened. As well as the Toyota 3S-G powerplant being used by Martin Donnelly and Damon Hill at Swallow Racing, West Surrey Racing had Novamotor's new Alfa Romeo twin spark unit in Bertrand Gachot's Ralt RT31, as did the Reynard R&D team. Madgwick Motorsport converted their Reynard 873s to this powerplant during the season.
VW engines were used in a total of seven race victories, Alfa Romeo in seven, and Toyota in four.
There was a Class B championship run "for cars pre-March '87 without electronic management systems or six-speed gearboxes" which was won easily by Gary Dunn in a Reynard 863-VW.