F1 racecar Heyday

yellowperil · 02-09-2018, 05:26 AM

Some of my favorites, when the men and cars were ballsy

And any car Senna sat in.

herr_oberst · 02-09-2018, 08:03 AM

I will second the above - all gorgeous cars, and add the MP4/4 to the mix. An aerodynamic undertray so sticky that the front wing was just a trim tab.

Buckterrier · 02-09-2018, 09:43 AM

I'll 3rd the above and add the late 60s cars also especially pre-aero era. Wasn't it Gurney or Clark or someone said, maybe Stewart said he was driving a Ronson lighter?

Actually I'm building the Gurney Eagle from his F1 win at the Belgian Grand Prize from 67', 1:20 scale.

motion · 02-09-2018, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellowperil

Some of my favorites, when the men and cars were ballsy

And any car Senna sat in.

+1000 !!!!

These were amazing cars. Huge horsepower, sounded great, no gimmicks. Just pure racing machines.

Aerkuld · Aerkuld's Garage

It's difficult to pin down an era of F1 cars I like the best. I like different things for different reasons.

I like the old pre-wing cars for their beautiful lines and elegant simplicity. The Eagle someone posted was great, but the Lotus 49 was my favorite. Before my time to see these racing except in historic races, but just stunning cars.

The 70's was when my dad started taking me to watch races. I like the cars here for the sheer variety of appearances and the wild experimental era where anything was tried to try and gain a competitive edge. There were some real mingers, but the JPS Lotus just looked right. I liked the Wolf too for the color scheme. Similar to the black and gold, but a very dark blue and gold. Still, the Shadow was one of my favorites, probably because I had a model of one and they were my first Scalextric cars.

Speaking of Scalextric, I think some of my favorite F1 cars were influenced by which were my fastest slot cars. I didn't like the Ligier - it's French for goodness sake ;-) - but it was always the fastest slot car, so I like it. It's another elegant shape, and I like the details like the aluminium front wing, the louvres on the top front of the sidepod, etc.

Moving into the turbo era, I was a huge fan of the Brabham and Nelson Piquet. I think the BT52 is a fantastic looking car. I love the aggressive angles, that huge arrow-shaped front wing, and the contour of the nose.

The newer cars are too fussy. I like the detail and all the little aero tweaks, but they're just too busy to be pretty. The last of the good looking, clean cars was in the 90's and my favorite of these is for totally biased reasons. The Tyrrell 022 was a car I worked on during a very brief spell at the team as a junior engineer. I feel partly responsible for cluttering up the cars with aero as I did the drawings for the barge boards on the 022 early in the season for a wind tunnel test. Still, this is just a clean elegant design in my opinion. This was 1994 and we all know how that season turned out. Things were never the same after that.

yellowperil · 02-09-2018, 11:02 AM

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That last one is Mansell at Dallas, I think, after puishing his car toward finish line. This kinda put on the map for stardown, shortly thereafter.

Jon B · 02-09-2018, 11:52 AM

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Someone (who knows how) needs to post that Shell Ferrari commercial. Best commercial of all-time. F1 cars from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s, and 00s. They're all great.

https://youtu.be/iItzJc-NHI4

Dan Gurney's '67 Eagle is probably my favorite, but the cigar-shaped cars from the 60s, the early aero cars of the 70s, and the turbo beasts of the 80s were all great.

yellowperil · 02-09-2018, 12:30 PM

What do the following have in common, Madam, Otto, racecar

Won · 02-09-2018, 01:57 PM

My favourite, from the early 2000's. Probably because this is when I first started to watch F1. Modern F1 silhouette, yet simple flat shape, minimal aero.

But now I have to drink the Koolaid. Pre-Halo goodness:

Honestly, I think the 2017 spec is not a bad looking one in recent history. Who would have thought it would be a 1-year only look before the Halo.

KNS · 02-09-2018, 05:28 PM

I started watching F1 in 1983 (stopped watching a few years ago - just can't get into it). One of all time favorites is the Brabham BT52 as shown above. Also the Ferrari 126C from the same era:

And I would follow Eddie Cheever, the Alfas looked good too but were thirsty.

Heel n Toe · 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noah930

Someone (who knows how) needs to post that Shell Ferrari commercial. Best commercial of all-time. F1 cars from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s, and 00s. They're all great.

All ya haffs ta do is right click on the video after it starts (which will give you a list), then left click on *Copy embed code* then come to your post window, right click to open another list, then left click *Paste* and it's done.

look 171 · 02-10-2018, 12:30 AM

I always have a hard on for those Mclarens with the Honda engines from that era. Beautiful machines

yellowperil · 02-10-2018, 11:44 AM

And also some good looking Indy Cars at that time

Won · 02-11-2018, 03:28 AM

Anyone like the high airbox cars? They look too much like Hot Wheels cars (I had one, incidentally) with monster tyres and wings. Isn't that what they were trying to bring back "spiritually" with the 2017 reg? The old ones just look too bodged together, neither here nor there. I guess technologically that's exactly where they were, sort of midyear cars.

Ok, this one looks good:

I do like this one: