Weird, or unusual racing cars

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Bottom post of the previous page:

The Ferrari-Jaguar 166S hybrid entered by Italian Clemente Biondetti in the 1950 Italian GP. Qualified 25th out of 27 starters and lasted 17 Laps before the engine blew.

[kubakozal]

in the US there were few Ferrari's with Chevy V8 engine in the 50s. after their orignal V12s or R4s expired, guys we swaping them with short block V8, which was cheaper, more reliable and easier to maintain

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The unraced Cosworth 4 wheel drive prototype of 1969.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

I know it was the '70s.
I know it was a prototype that wasn't intended to actually race.
The yellow version of the Alpine A500 F1 car.
Looks almost like a dragster from this angle.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Volkswagen Bora Estate TDi in the 2003 Belcar Endurance series.

[Everso Biggyballies]

I guess this qualifies for the unusual. Also rare and it wasnt around for long, just one race in which it was DSQ'd.

Ferrari 126C2
The Red Team from Italy thought of their own loophole for the race at Long Beach: the rules dictated how wide wings could be, but not how many wings could be fitted to a car. So, they raced with two rear wings – but the ruling body was not impressed, and Villeneuve’s third place was struck off.

[Michael Ferner]

That was an unusual bit of gamesmanship from Ferrari, as I recall. Remember, this was the first race after the water ballast 'scandal', and Ferrari was incensed by the apparent inability of the FIA to police rules effectively. So they tried a 'trick' themselves: the rules don't actually say anything about wings, but generally limit the bodywork width behind the rear wheels (to 120 cm, if I recall correctly). Now, if you look closely, you'll notice that the two wings (both within the 120 cm or whatever limit) sit one behind the other, so that at no point along the longitudinal axis of the car was the bodywork wider then the allowed maximum! Clever!! Clever??? The FIA didn't think so!

It was the famous 'rule bending' exercise, of which Ferrari so often fell foul, and which they provoked this time to highlight the grey area between the 'spirit of the rules' and the written word in the regulations. Unfortunately for Ferrari, the rules in this case were not only written words, but also included sketched design drawings which adequately illustrated the 'spirit', so it was a no-brainer to disqualify the cars. The one time Ferrari wanted to be clever-clever, they merely proved to lack the nous to really bend the rules! That only changed when Ferrari decided to retire their own team and to buy and paint the Benetton team red instead. Benetton had been the 'king of benders', so it was money well invested... and the rest is history (Silverstone '98, Malaysia '99 & '01 etc.)

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Brabham BT34 low-downforce version.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Lotus 76 bi-plane rear wing version.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Graham Hill's Rob Walker Racing Lotus 72. No good comes from running an incomplete Lotus 72. Just look what happened to Jochen Rindt.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The Spirit Honda 201 used as a 'toe in the water' for the Honda Spirit project was at best odd looking.

Not the most successful car, from it lasting but 5 laps at the Race of Champions non Championship race in 1983 in the hands of Stefan Johansson., It ran in half a dozen GPs that year debuting at Championship level at the British GP. It DNF'd, again after 5 laps. Things got better in Germany when it temporarily appeared as the slightly less odd 201C... it lasted until lap 11 before the engine cried enough. A couple of finishes followed before the Italian GP (back to the 201) when it failed to make 5 laps, stopping on lap 4.

[MonteCristo]

at best odd looking.

To be fair, 1983-84 ... cars weren't aesthetically pleasing in general.

[Everso Biggyballies]

at best odd looking.

To be fair, 1983-84 ... cars weren't aesthetically pleasing in general.

Funnily enough I originally wrote '... even by the standards of the time'! I then had a look at the cars of 83 and there were some ok.... I quite liked the 126 Ferrari (a couple at Phillip Island the other weekend may have helped with bias.... same guy owns the Alboreto and also the Johansson cars so he clearly likes them too ). Also the Lotus models were ok).
So I went back and edited that line out!
1984 certainly the ugly stick had been raised and the Ferrari 126C4 was nasty and I was never a fan of the oversize rear wings.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The Spirit Honda 201 used as a 'toe in the water' for the Honda Spirit project was at best odd looking.

Not the most successful car, from it lasting but 5 laps at the Race of Champions non Championship race in 1983 in the hands of Stefan Johansson., It ran in half a dozen GPs that year debuting at Championship level at the British GP. It DNF'd, again after 5 laps. Things got better in Germany when it temporarily appeared as the slightly less odd 201C... it lasted until lap 11 before the engine cried enough. A couple of finishes followed before the Italian GP (back to the 201) when it failed to make 5 laps, stopping on lap 4.

Wasn't the Spirit a converted F2 car more than anything else?

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The 1983 Toleman had a similar rear wing design.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Wasn't the Spirit a converted F2 car more than anything else?

Indeed it was.... the 201 was originally used in F2 in 1982, running a V6 2 litre engine. That RA260E engine used in F2 was in fact the basis of the F1 engine.... the F1 version was based on the 2 litre F2 engine destroked to 1.5 litres, so.physically the same size. Obviously the F1 engine was a turbo so would have had to had all the turbo hardware, intercoolers etc, not to mention a larger fuel tank. I dare say the 201 F2 chassis would have been modified to cope with the extra weight and of course power. But in all essence it started life as an F2 car.

I will add that it was not an unusual process and this would be farfrom the first of that ideology. In fact the March 721G F1 car was IIRC a very hurriedly produced (to replace the 721X F1 car which was a disaster) The 721G F1 car used a March 722 chassis, modified to take a DFV in place of the much more compact 4 cylinder Ford BDA plus the heavier duty transmission that required. Plus the larger fuel tank required for a GP. I said it was produced in a hurry.... the story goes that the car received the G suffix as being G for Guinness. The car was built from an F2 chassis in days and was in March eyes worthy of being in the Guinness Book of Records. Given the car was quite nimble and an improvement over the purpose designed F1 car, March produced another 4 721G's for the other drivers, including Peterson and Lauda.

For a period of years the philosophy of March F1 cars were in fact based an upgraded F2 chassis. Actually the first F2 (772) derived 721G (721G/1) built for Mike Beutler to use in 1972 went on to be relabelled a March 731 (731/3) the following year and was used by David Purely in the Lec Refrigeration colours at the 1973 Monaco GP! Another (721G/3) became 731/3 and was sold to Hesketh to run James Hunt at Monaco
1973.

F2 cars repurposed as F1 cars was not new when Honda did it with the 201.