You know, I love the way they work on those old F1 cars out in the open, seemingly in the middle of a muddy field. It does make them look low-tech and simple. I have to say that the looks are probably deceptive. Those late 60's / early 70's F1 cars, alot of them with their DFV engines, used mechanical fuel injection which needed a whole range of different mechanical parts to swap around adjust how they behaved for optimum performance. With a modern car you just hook up a computer and select a different map. There are a lot of things that were far more complicated on those old cars than you would think.

I was thinking about this thread driving home this evening and the comment about it being Colin Chapmans fault (which I thought was funny). In some ways though this might be true as by painting his cars in a corporate color scheme and bringing sponsorship onto the scene, he started to turn racing into much more of a profit making business with serious amounts of money at stake. Before that it was very much a manufactures battle with little more than bragging rights as the prize.

What do you think?

There was a push to shore up poor market performance by AMC in the late 60's thru the late 70's and one effort was the Penske F 5000 and Bobby Allsion NASCAR (also Penske) Matador and another was Warner Hodgen and Mike Curb taking a stock block AMC Turbo to Indy. One of these involved some hanky panky in the City of Industry with the tax payers footing the bill.

regards

To drive a modern F1 car, you need tremendous skill just to be able to approach the car's minimum operating parameters. Check out this video of Top Gear's Richard Hammond trying out a Renault R25.

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this thread is getting me excited for the vintage grand prix at the Glen in a few weeks. :p

Yea, those old cars were pretty simple....:D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219489240.jpg

OK, here's Donahue's first F1 car at The Glen; broke something and DNF'd.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219506284.jpg

Jochen Rindt - Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219506378.jpg

One of Mark's other cars - Bridgehampton
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219506462.jpg

And another
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219506570.jpg

Chris Amon, I think
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219506657.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219507136.jpg

I think Parnelli Jones drove the #15, this may be George Follmer
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219507177.jpg

Clay Raggazoni on Glen skidpad
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219507219.jpg

Brabham, I think, early 70s at Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219507261.jpg

Today's finds, all from the Glen:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219625277.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219625355.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219625438.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219625624.jpg

Dan Gurney's Plymouth at Bridegehampton
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219685445.jpg

Mark Donahue Javelin with Penske on pit board - Bridgehampton
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219685659.jpg


Jo Siffert 908 at The Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219685764.jpg

One of the first 917s in US at the Glen - correct me if I'm wrong
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219685822.jpg

For Sir Jackie Stewart fans:

CanAm Lola
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219686094.jpg

This IS a Matra, I think
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219686131.jpg

Tyrrell
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219686156.jpg

And Sir Jack Brabham
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219686278.jpg

Wow!! I'm not sure how I'd missed this thread to this point. I love the old cars even though they were before me (DoB 1970). The new ones are amazing, but they are no where near as sexy or visceral as the early cars. Some great photos here. I occassionaly lurk on the vintage portion of atlasf1.com. I'll have to check out the ferrarichat thread. Keep it up guys.

WOWOWO man that 917 at the Glen photo is wicked awsome.

I dream on this site from time to time

http://www.race-cars.com/index.htm

http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/ot...53629989lc.jpg

David Hobbs CanAm at the Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219779853.jpg

This may be Jim Hall at Bridgehampton, Ed Leslie also drove one of these.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219779959.jpg

Remains of Graham Hill's Lotus at The Glen, no serious injury as I recall
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219780035.jpg

John Wyer's Ford GT40 at the Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219780071.jpg

Al Holbert's CRC March CanAM
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219780566.jpg

Tom Smother's Carrera 6 at the Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219780621.jpg

Lothar Motschenbacher - Bridgehampton
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219780710.jpg

917 on back straight at Sebring
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219780781.jpg

Tony Dean? I'm guessing
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219781311.jpg

I just have to thank you for taking the trouble of posting these.

Vern, those are some great photos! Please keep posting more. I was at a lot of those same races and I'm really enjoying your collection. SmileWavy

I hope this thread has not gone too far off track; I mean the original poster talked about Indy and Formula cars. He did mention some of the CanAm and TransAm drivers though, so I'll keep looking. These are slides stored in boxes and might otherwise never have been seen again. Keeps me out of other kinds of trouble, too.

Emmo at the Glen
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219814851.jpg

Uh oh
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219814975.jpg

Ferrari prep after practice
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219815045.jpg

And this IS George Follmer, with Parnelli Jones - mid 70's - check out the trou
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219815116.jpg

It's a Mirage. Seen the "Can Am: The Speed Odyssey" DVD yet? Lots of Bridgehampton footage (Sam Posey put it together; here's to his health!). As a West-Coaster, I saw Can Am's and F5000 at Laguna but never got to see the Makes cars and had to wait for F-1 at Long Beach (lousy for photography). This stuff from the Bridge and the Glen (+Sebring) is fabulous -- not just the formula stuff but the Can Am and Trans-Am stuff as well! Keep 'em coming!

This thread brought back a lot of memories. The first race I ever attended was the inaugural California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway. It was the first of many.

The date was September 6, 1970, Labor Day weekend...our seats were in turn 4 where A. J. Foyt hit the wall.

I kept the poster I bought:cool: Sorry for lame phone pic.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219853777.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219853802.jpg

Pic of AJ after the wreck (I did not take it).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219853826.jpg