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 1986 to 1991.

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

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. 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.

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.

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.

1986

By late summer 1986, 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.^[3] 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.

JH21c

The AGS JH21C was the first Formula One car used by the French AGS team. It was designed by Christian Vanderpleyn and Michel Costa and entered into two races of the 1986 Formula One season, in Italy and Portugal, driven by Italian Ivan Capelli.

The single JH21C was built around a 1983 Renault RE40 monocoque that had been acquired by team owner Henri Julien. Its chassis number was 031. It was fitted with a Motori Moderni V6 turbocharged engine and Pirelli tyres, and painted in the white livery of the team's main sponsor El Charro, an Italian fashion company.

Before the car made its Grand Prix debut, it was tested at Paul Ricard by Didier Pironi, driving an F1 car for the first time since his leg-breaking crash at Hockenheim in 1982. However, Pironi saw this test as a one-off and thus did not compete for the race seat with Capelli.

In both races the car was entered into, Capelli qualified 25th and retired - suffering a puncture at Monza after 31 laps, and a gearbox failure at Estoril after six laps.

For AGS's first full F1 season in 1987, the JH21C was replaced by the JH22.

The car is now on display at the Manoir de l'Automobile in the commune of Lohéac, Brittany.

1987

For the team's first full F1 season in 1987, Vanderpleyn penned the JH22, which used a normally-aspirated Cosworth DFZ but was otherwise much the same as the JH21C.^[3] 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.

JH22

The JH22 was noted as a development of the Renault-based JH21C^[3] that the team had used in two races towards the end of 1986. However, while the JH21C had been fitted with a Motori Moderni turbocharged engine and Pirelli tyres, the JH22 was fitted with a normally-aspirated Ford-Cosworth DFZ V8 engine and Goodyear tyres. It also carried a 1970s-style airbox aft of the fuel tank, although this was replaced with a smaller and more conventional air intake as the season progressed.

As in 1986, AGS chose to enter one car for the season, and so built only two chassis, labeled #32 and #33. Italian shoe and clothing company El Charro [it] continued as the team's main sponsor, and so the car, numbered 14, was painted in a white and red livery with a large rose above the nosecone.

At the end of the season, AGS were equal 11th in the Constructors' Championship and third in the Colin Chapman Trophy.

1988

In 1988, 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.

JH23

The JH23 was a Formula One car built and raced by the AGS team for the 1988 Formula One season. It was powered by the Ford Cosworth DFZ engine. A single car was entered, driven by experienced Frenchman Philippe Streiff.

The JH23 proved to be a good car for the small French team, in only their second full season in Formula One. The car managed to qualify for all 16 races including 12th at Monaco, and 10th in Canada where before retiring with suspension failure on lap 41, it was only the power of the Honda V6 turbo in Nelson Piquet's ill-handling Lotus 100T that kept Streiff from passing the reigning World Champion for 4th place. However whenever it got close to scoring points, the car broke down. Streiff only managed to finish 6 races, the best result being 8th at Suzuka.

The car was updated with a Ford Cosworth DFR engine for the 1989 season, to become the JH23B and for the first time the team entered two cars.

1989

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.

JH24

The JH24 was a Formula One car built and raced by the AGS team for the 1989 Formula One season. It was powered by the Ford Cosworth DFR engine. The car only managed to qualify for one race. The cars were driven by Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas, who replaced Joachim Winkelhock in the middle of the 1989 season.

The car was built to replace the JH23, but in its debut in the British Grand Prix, it failed to qualify.

A revised version of the car was entered in the first two races of the 1990 season. The car, being entered without a "B" suffix, ran with a revised suspension and enabled Dalmas to qualify for the 1990 Brazilian Grand Prix in last place, with a 3.8-second gap from the pole lap set by Ayrton Senna.

1990

Finally, AGS had to use Cosworth engines again in 1990. 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 1991 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.

JH25

The AGS JH25 was a Formula 1 car designed by Michel Costa for the French AGS team and used in the 1990 season, with a refined "JH25B" version used in the first twelve races of 1991. Powered by a Ford-Cosworth DFR V8 engine, it was driven by Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas in 1990, and Tarquini, Stefan Johansson, and Fabrizio Barbazza in 1991. While it showed some promise, the car, like the team, struggled with financial difficulties and was eventually replaced by the JH27 in 1991. 

1991

The team had been struggling with financial issues throughout the season. Despite being purchased by Italian businessmen in the summer of 1991, the new management could not rescue the team from its impending collapse. The JH27 was a last-ditch effort that proved unsuccessful, marking the end of AGS in Formula 1. 

JH27

The AGS JH27 was the final, unsuccessful Formula 1 car from the Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS) team in the 1991 season. Designed by Christian Vanderpleyn, it replaced the JH25B at the Italian Grand Prix but failed to qualify for any races. 

Powered by a Ford Cosworth V8 engine, the JH27's poor performance, coupled with the team's ongoing financial issues, led to AGS failing to complete the 1991 season before shutting down. The car never managed to qualify for a race.

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