What is the weirdest lookin car ever?

[EERO]

Mr. Mallet's Kausen, though I have heard of an ealier version which is supposed to be hideous that I cannot find:

[img]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197905_gianfranco_brancatelli_01.jpg[/img]

[Tris]

Hi all!

I bet I could tell today's cars apart if they were all the same colour!

I think today's cars are good looking in their own way. I think that they are as individual as the cars of the 70's but you just have to look harder. I wager I could I identify a car from a small detail like it's front wing endplate.

I think the rules now are too tight. Harvey Pothelswaite had a good idea. He stipulated there should be “black box” on the car. These were to be areas on the car defined by their dimensions and location where a designer could do anything he likes! Now that sounds like a good idea!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by EERO
Mr. Mallet's Kausen, though I have heard of an ealier version which is supposed to be hideous that I cannot find:

[img]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197905_gianfranco_brancatelli_01.jpg[/img]

Thanks for that. If memory serves it never actually raced. The original car was designed at the end of 78 to take advantage of Chapman's advances in aerodynamics. It looked weird mainly because it had no front wings at a time when all cars (including the '79) had front wings. However, you can see the heaviness in its design from this picture.

[angst]

Bugatti T22 barrel - now that's wierd, Voisin Grand Prix car of 1923. Has anybody ever seen the BRM P203 - the alleged ground effect car built by BRM before their sale to Jordan(not Eddie Jordan).I ask because from descriptions the car sounds wierd, and also because I've always been a BRM buff.
Oh, and the Cosworth 4WD. What were they thinking?

[Minardi fan]

From the modern lot it would be the 1995 McLaren, which looked like a submarine gone wrong. The '95 Forti was also an ugly beast. Eurgh.

[Ralf's Girl]

A submarine gone wrong...haven't heard that one before.

[Carla O]

weird? wasn't there a 6 wheeled car a long time ago? A ligier wasn't it?

sorry, my memory for details isn't that good...

the car i liked more was the JPS Lotus around 85 or 86 (in terms of looks, not aerodinamics, performance, speed or anything... it was a great looking car, and Senna drove it!

xxx

[TimD]

A LIGIER?

Ahem, perhaps the six-wheeler you are thinking about might concievably be the 1976-7 Tyrrell Project 34.

A race winner, too, I might add. Only stymied by the fact that regular tyre technology outpaced the development of the small sized front tyres Avon were making for it.

There have been six-wheeler March and Williams too, but they were just testbeds and never entered in F1 races.

[jarama]

Hi, Carla O,

for sure you're speaking of the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34, not a Ligier. The Tyrrell was the only 6-wheeler ever racing in F1.

[Sparky]

*Warning* Anorak alert!!

Did you know...

Avon have just started to reproduce 6-wheel Tyrell front-sized tyres again after twenty five years, just for Mini racers. Apparently, it's the only tyre for the job.

Ahem.

*End of Alert!*

[TimD]

And it also means that the Tyrrell has the boots to go racing in the Thoroughbred GP historics series. And it's as quick as ever it was.

Which makes me a very happy bunny.

[Neil C]

As Sparky states, I too prefer the cars from the days when aerodynamics were an intuitive art instead of a windtunnel, CAD generated science. It seems to have also changed the art of driving fast into a technical exercise.

Too bad.

[EERO]

Originally posted by jarama
The Tyrrell was the only 6-wheeler ever racing in F1.

Jarama, you win points for accuracy. Technically, both Williams and March developed 6-wheelers with 4 wheels at the rear, using front wheels to reduce frontal area.


[img]ftp://24.1.234.196/photos/motorsports/f1/f1_197700_car_march_02.jpg[/img]



Anyone care to post the Williams?

[Tris]

Here is the Willaims 6 wheeler. Here is also a picture of the 6 wheeler that Ferrari developed. it was tested by Reutemann but it was never raced. I have the model myself but I have never seen a photo of the actual car!

[Tris]

Here is the willaims... god know why it did not work last time!

[Carla O]

Originally posted by TimD
A LIGIER?

Ahem, perhaps the six-wheeler you are thinking about might concievably be the 1976-7 Tyrrell Project 34.

SORRY!
in 76 i was 3 years old... i probably read about it afterwards and i dunno, i was under the impression it was a french car! SORRY!!!!

[EERO]

Thanks, Tris. I was having a bear of a time finding a Williams pic that would post.
Yours is better than the ones I found.

[Tris]

Originally posted by EERO
Thanks, Tris. I was having a bear of a time finding a Williams pic that would post.
Yours is better than the ones I found.

No problemo!

I have actually seen the real car at the Willaims factory! I went a couple of years back! Here is an even better pic of it!

[Danielsun]

Six-wheeler? How about the aforementioned P34:



There ya go...

I know I'm gonna get a grilling for this, but I really hate this year's Ferrari with Michael Schumacher's new helmet design. It's nothing against MS (you all know I despise him anyway) but it really is horrid. As for the 1980 Ferrari, well, just look at that pic: whose name is on the side of it? Doesn't that just explain everything.....?

[Ralf's Girl]

You mean you don't just love TGF's new pink helmet??? Can't think why...

[EERO]

Dan'sun, I hear ya', I thought this year's Ferrari looked like a porpoise. And that red helmet....feh.

[Ralf's Girl]

My God! It's red???

[zetta]

Hi. I'm new here (I usually post in the Cart forum). This is a very interesting topic. It surprises me that nobody has mentioned the six wheeled Tyrrel from the early seventies (teh one that had 2 small wheels on each side in the front). I think this was undoubtely the weirdest looking F1 car ever.

[djb]

This isn't F1, but what came to mind was the 50-whatever Cadillac or Lincoln that was at Le Mans, great big boat of a car, with a very goofy squared-off long back and front end...well not exactly square, tapering downwards a bit, but just long, long, long...you could just imagine it doing a Citroen 2CV imitation around corners(re:body roll)
Or how about the turbine-engined jobbies that nearly won the Indy 500 in 60-something. One was a wedge shape (red I think, STP major sponser) and the other was blue-wish I could put pictures for anyone who hasn't seen any...
Or those short little American dirt track thingees with the humongous rear wings that regularly go flying off into the night... There's my two cents worth

[crash]

Come to think of it, I think the late 1960's cars with the high wings are the weirdest looking. Very odd indeed.