New F1 Rules.

[Neil]

I'm with Dr. S--LeMans type racing is my favorite, always plenty of excitement and much passing-unlike F1 which tends to be a single file procession from start to finish. The moving wing is not new, Jim Hall first used one on his Chapparral CanAm car in the '60s. I remember watching it fly down the straight at Riverside Raceway and then pop the wing down at the end of the straight and drive around the outside of the competition through turn 9!

It's the sort of thing that was attempted with the F-Duct, though, without having illegal movable aero (accepting they allowed movable front wings, this season). Stall the aero for the rear wing for long fast straights, yet still have the downforce for corners.

The movable rear wing (under conditions) will likely be the reason for banning F-Duct type aero stalling of the rear wing - I just think it's all getting a bit too contrived, just to try and get some overtaking.

Sure, aero of modern F1 cars makes things difficult - but in recent years, they've had working groups trying to alleviate it. Some of the problem is some tracks.

Making it too contrived is going to make it more like a video game to watch.

And Neil-the BMW F1 did make 1000 BHP in racing trim!

Well with enough blocks to blow (so to speak) and no real limit on how many you use, and with turbos, then high outputs are likely - but having some reliablity (regulated by engine change rules) or limits on boost (as was used in CART) provides some middle ground between almost drag racing type screamers, and engines that can do one or more race distances.

Personally, part of the majesty of the F1 engines, was the whole high-revving thing. Forcing them down to around 12k revs and using turbos, may be more indicative of what's happening for petrol road cars. Evidence and display of relevance - I'll buy - but really, that's just lip-service.

I honestly think too much compromise will end up pleasing a diminshing proportion of the fans.

 

[FairfaxPat]

You know, reliability problems aside, the BMW engine won 9 races for Brabham in the early-mid 80's. As far as I'm concerned, I've always thought that F1 should be Formula Libre---that is, run what you brung! THAT would produce some great technical advances plus hella fast racecars!

 

[Dr S]

Bring back CAN AM. One rule..... it had to have a driver

1000bhp twin turbo Flat 12 Porsches anyone

 

[FairfaxPat]

Yeah CANAM, my all-time favorite! 1000BHP, Wings, SuckerCars! Jacky Stewart used to drive around the McLarens on the outside of the turns in the 2J! I was a Tech. Inspector at the race in the pic of Jim Hall in the #66 Flipper car that year at Riverside Raceway.

 

[JamesM]

Bring back CAN AM. One rule..... it had to have a driver

1000bhp twin turbo Flat 12 Porsches anyone

Thunder Saloons, they were mad too!!! There can't have been much in the way of rules there either.

 

[Dr S]

Those Chaparrals were crazy looking cars from the rear. It looks like a huge air conditioning system from a Bond Villian's lair in that first pic.

 

[FairfaxPat]

Another pic of the 2J Sucker Car. You can see the sliding Lexan side skirts that ride in channels in the sides of the lower bodywork so they are always in slight contact with the ground to help the snowmobile engined vacuum to achieve a tight seal. Jim Hall said that the major advantage they had was .5 G more downforce in the low speed turns (30-90 mph), of which they had plenty on CanAm courses of the day. This allowed them to carry a lot more corner exit speed and, thus, faster straightaway speed too!

 

[T'boo Ted]

enjoyed this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUXRBK4y ... r_embedded

 

[WD Pro]

Another pic of the 2J Sucker Car. You can see the sliding Lexan side skirts that ride in channels in the sides of the lower bodywork so they are always in slight contact with the ground to help the snowmobile engined vacuum to achieve a tight seal. Jim Hall said that the major advantage they had was .5 G more downforce in the low speed turns (30-90 mph), of which they had plenty on CanAm courses of the day. This allowed them to carry a lot more corner exit speed and, thus, faster straightaway speed too!

Until a skirt stuck in the up position

 

[FairfaxPat]

They never had much trouble with the sliding skirts-very simple mechanism-but the snowmobile motors gave them a fair bit of trouble. In the end, it was banned because the other competitors complained that it threw up a lot of debris behind it and they didn't want to have to develop their own suction systems at great expense to keep up! A few years later, in 1978, Brabham came out with the BT46B F1 car, dubbed the fan car. It had a fan to suction air from under the car-they claimed it was to aid in cooling, wink wink, nudge nudge! It ran in only one event, the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp, where it won, piloted by Niki Lauda, and was then declared illegal by the FIA.