Thread: Great racing cars from the past

to me it is beautiful. I think Gordon described it as having the perfect wheel base to wheel track ratio.

The Wikipedia article on it is quite interesting.

Apparently the same idea as Murray tried with the Brabham BMW a year or two earlier, but was hurt by the engine being a slant 4. He said at the time the concept would better suit a V6, and the little Honda proved the point.

Speaking of Hondas, or more accurately the remnants of the Honda F1 team, what do we think to the BGP001 as run by BrawnGP for the 2009 F1 season?



Perhaps not notable as a car that was completely unbeatable, more one that is a symbol of the achievement of the team that fielded it, and indeed Ross Brawns ability to lead his team.
BrawnGP started their first race from pole, and finished 1-2, going on to win 6 of the first seven, and overall 8 Grand Prix from 17 entered, along with both drivers and constructors titles, the only team with a 100% win rate for both titles.

Impressive in that up until a few weeks before the first race that year there was still doubt over wether the teams cars would be there to compete.
Also notable as being the 4th incarnation of the team that began life in the late 60's as Tyrrell F1.

Originally Posted by DasLandRoverMan

The Wikipedia article on it is quite interesting.

Apparently the same idea as Murray tried with the Brabham BMW a year or two earlier, but was hurt by the engine being a slant 4. He said at the time the concept would better suit a V6, and the little Honda proved the point.

Yep, the lowline Brabham was hampered by Murray laying the little BMW over too far, can't recall which way now, but in long corners in one direction it had oil pooling problems which obviously hampered reliability and power.
The first iteration of the Brabham/BMW lowline didn't work, he had the rads at the back just in front of the rear wheels, the car looked like a dart, whereas everyone else had the radiators in long sidepods. (as they'd been for years in the tunnel cars)
He soon had to change the design as he found that even though they were using flat floors (tunnels had been banned) you were still able to generate downforce from increasing the floor area, so the Brabham sprouted sidepods early in the season.

He was able to 'perfect' the concept with the McLaren.
having a much bigger budget helped too, as did having two of the all time best drivers on your squad.

In my eyes the MP4/4 is a thing of beauty.

Ok, so not much love for the Brawn, how about the Tyrell P34?

This should fit right in here,,

turn the sound up to 11

Honda celebrates the life of Ayrton Senna the best way it knows how - Autoblog

Awesome idea. On a par with the Shell/Ferrari Around the world advert.

Gotta love the sound of racing engines running at full chat, racing wheel to wheel or chasing the last few tenths on a qualifying lap.

It helps you understand Senna when he said this;

It was pure driving, real racing. And that...that makes me happy.

Found the Ferrari one for those who can't be bothered to look.

Ferrari Shell Commercial High Quality - YouTube

Originally Posted by DasLandRoverMan

It helps you understand Senna when he said this;

It was pure driving, real racing. And that...that makes me happy.

and IIRC he was actually speaking of kart racing when he said that