What is the weirdest lookin car ever?

[crash]

What is the worst looking car ever? I am not talking about the livery, but the actual shape. For me the worst looking car has to be the 1976 Ligier with the tall air-box:

[IMG]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197603_jacques_laffite_01.jpg[/IMG]

It is unbelievable that cars used to look so stupid. I also don't like cars from around 1980. You wouldn't think that thing on the top would make it go any faster, would it? Also does anyone know why they got rid of the tall-air boxes in 1976?

BTW, I think the cars from 2000 and from the 60's are the nicest cars.

[Dani]

i have to agree with u on that one!! I was gonna say the ones the likes of Stirling Moss drove! I hate them cras they look so crappy and boring! I was talking about this with my mum, and i was saying how can the F1 cars now look any better in the future, but i suppose i will look back in 20years and think the cars now were ****!!

[Sparky]

Stirling Moss, Lotus 18/21 Nurburgring 1961.




"Crappy and Boring..."?

I think not.

[Dani]

I find it ugly!!

Maybe not boring but eww its not a very nice looking car!!

[crash]

Sparky, I have to agree with ya. No way are the 50's and 60's car's crappy and boring.

I bet if all the drivers from the 50's were here today, I bet they'd think today's cars are boring.

Have a mega day!

[crash]

They say a good looking car is a fast car.

This car, the 1980 Ferrari, was a slow car . . .

[IMG]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_198006_jody_scheckter_01.jpg[/IMG]

Yuck

[Dani]

Well i dont like them!! Its just difference in opinion!!

I agree with the Ferarri!!!hehehe

[Sparky]

Dani, you are entitled to your opinion, of course, but to dismiss these cars as boring really misses the point.
These are among the last true car designs, before they sprouted wings 'n' things.
I'll bet, that if the cars of the last few seasons were ALL painted red, more than a few of us would be hard pushed to identify the constructor.

You simply cannot mistake a BRM for a Lotus, or a Cooper for a Ferrari. These cars were built, and the aluminium bodywork flowed over the chassis like silk. Angular Carbon fibre designs just don't come close...

Todays cars are indeed awesome machines, and no I wouldn't say 'no' if I was offered one for the living room, but they are cookie-cutter clones honed to within a millimetre to comply with a regulation. How anyone could prefer todays cars over those of the sixties on the grounds of aesthetics is beyond me...

[Sparky]

An ugly car? how about the '69 Matra, Lotus et al? The ones with the four foot tall wings...

...FRONT AND REAR!!!

[chow wei hsien]

my memories of F1 don't go back that far.

in 1992, I thought the Benetton team has produced a really weird car , coz if i am not mistaken, it was Benetton team who first started the high nose concept.
but since then, it was the way to go for the designers, and from finding high nose weird and abit ugly in 1992, i seem to like it now.

[LYM]

The weirdest 'F1' car ever? Napier 30 HP


It's not ugly, just weird.

[Airhead]

I'm with Sparky

the 61 Lotus is a work of art, simple yes, but beautiful. Not unlike some of my wife's family...

[Tris]

Hi all especially crash!

The "Teapot" Ligier Matra JS5 had to be redesigned to get rid of that air box after the rule changes that came into effect after the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix that stipulated a total chassis height of 85cm. The rules came into slow the cars down. Cars also had to have a cushion zone in front of the drivers feet, a second roll-over hoop had to be fitted over the instruments, raer wind overhang was also reduced from 100cm between the wheel hub and the furthest point of the wing to 80cm. Oh yes and the total width of the car had to be reduced to 215cm. Apparently Gitanes, Ligier’s sponsors did not like the rule change for obvious reasons

How about this for an unusual car.. The Frank Costin designed March 771

[crash]

Hello Tris,

Thanks for the info on the Ligier. I've thought of a few other odd cars:

* Tyrrell from 1997, with it's funny X-wings
* the Hesketh that James Hunt drove in 1975
* 1996 Forti, featuring a weird, fat nose cone
* Also, don't forget the six wheel tyrrell!
* Brabham fan car

Have a mega day

[jarama]

Tris,

The pictured March actually was the 711, nor the 771, though I suppose it's been only a typing mistake.

Back to the topic, the bulky Ligier JS5 was amongst the weirdest, while I agree too with all of those '69 F1 cars with front and rear spindly aerofoils.

[White Van Man]

Originally posted by chow wei hsien
in 1992, I thought the Benetton team has produced a really weird car , coz if i am not mistaken, it was Benetton team who first started the high nose concept.

I think you're very much mistaken...

I seem to recall sitting at Euston station waiting for a train in about 1989/90 and seeing a sketch in Autosport of the new Tyrrell... with high nose...

[Tris]

Hi Jarama!

Yes that March was the 711 and not the 771... I wish I could get may damn fingers to work correctly! Damn all my typos. (It does not help that I am severely dyslexic!) I think the 721 was even weirder with the same wings with it’s tiny side mounted radiators and the tall air-box. How about the Eifelland teams modified March 721 with the special body designed by Luigi Colani with it’s high single rear vision mirror! (see below)

Back to the topic... the 69 cars were strange. Especially the Matra with it's adjustable wings! (For those of you who do not know the front nose-wings were mounted on to the suspension. the angle of teh wing increased ender acceleration to generate more down force and the pitch angle became shallower under braking. The rear wing was also mounted on the suspension but it's angle of pitch was controlled by electric motors which increased the angle when the bakes were applied or changing to lower gears.. ie when more grip was required. Pretty fiendish stuff though!

[Dani]

I never said the cars were boring i said in my opinion they LOOK boring!!!

[chow wei hsien]

After seeing the pictures of these weird looking cars in the past, i am glad that the FIA imposed very strict regulations and rules when it comes to the design of the car.

Today's F1 car look so much better than the past. and yes, I really love the look of F1 cars when you compare it with Champ car, the Champ car design looks dated(like the cars of the 80s) and they are huge.

anyway, which type of design do you guys think is prettier?

the new high nose front wing design or the conventional low nose design of the late 80s and early 90s?
I remember a magazine (Autocar) commented that the look of the 1996 Ferrari is very nice and the editor praise its low nose front wing design. I prefer high nose

[angst]

How can you even begin to see these things (current F1 cars) as anything other than ugly, homogenised monstrosities? Compare the Lotus 25,49 or 72 or 79, or Ferrari 312('67)312B, 126C2,C3, C4, Maserati 250F to current cars. I loved the seventies when cars looked different from each other, they were individual. Brabham BT45, Lotus 78, Mclaren M23, Ferrari 312T/2 etc. - you knew what you were looking at without the sponsors. And you could see the drivers work, you could see how they drove.

[jarama]

chow wei hsien,

If today's F1 cars are pretty equals, it's not only due to FIA regulations, but imposed by arodinamic reasons as well.

BTW, I agree with angst, I miss the diversity. And, I wonder how many of us would be able to distinguish any of today's F1 cars if painted in the same colo(u)rs?

[Sparky]

Exactly guys, a point a made way up there at the beginning of this thread...

I'll bet, that if the cars of the last few seasons were ALL painted red, more than a few of us would be hard pushed to identify the constructor.

You simply cannot mistake a BRM for a Lotus, or a Cooper for a Ferrari. These cars were built, and the aluminium bodywork flowed over the chassis like silk. Angular Carbon fibre designs just don't come close...

Todays cars are indeed awesome machines, and no I wouldn't say 'no' if I was offered one for the living room, but they are cookie-cutter clones honed to within a millimetre to comply with a regulation. How anyone could prefer todays cars over those of the sixties on the grounds of aesthetics is beyond me...

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by chow wei hsien
my memories of F1 don't go back that far.

in 1992, I thought the Benetton team has produced a really weird car , coz if i am not mistaken, it was Benetton team who first started the high nose concept.

You are mistaken. It was Dr Harvey P and the Tyrrell.

Silliest car? The Kausen 1979.

[White Van Man]

Is there an echo in here ? Oh no, it's a Mallett...

[EERO]

angst, Sparky, jarama, my sentiments exactly. I find the current cars not only homogenized and boring, but a little ugly as well. I always thought that the high-winged cars of 68-69 were among the most dramatic and exciting, I have a few votes for funny looking cars, The Brabham BT 34, first driven byGraham Hill in 1971, and put on the pole in Argentina in 1972 by Carlos Reutemenn in Argentina. It always looked worse to my mind in the brg and yellow Brabham livery than it did in the white Ecclestone era livery Reutemann drove. In 1973, as Techneo were trying desperately to field a competive car, a Chris Amon drove one to sixth place at Zolder that I always thought one on the most ungainly cars going. (It was so difficult to drive and the conditions so bad, that Amon was hauled unconcious from the car at the conclusion of the race.)


Below is an early test version of the Amon F1, a startlingly ugly car from 1974.
[img]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197400_test_chris_amon_01.jpg[/img]


The 1973 Tecno[img]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197305_chris_amon_01.jpg[/img]




and finally the lobster claw:
The 1971 Brabham BT 34[img]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197105_graham_hill_01.jpg[/img]