Oddest F1 car contest

[DaveKillens]

Upon review by the stewards... I'm late. Oh well .. better luck next time

[Ciro Pabón]

Hats off to Chap and ackszel, but I have a strangest F1 car (actually, two of them).

Honorable mention: BRM 1967, 4 wheel drive (notice the front axles).



Out of the contest: DB Monomille, ran in 1955 at Pau. 746 cc, two cylinders, 85 hp, 350 kg, turbo engine (maybe the first one in history?). Regulations allowed for it but DB was the only manufacturer that dared to. I think is hard to find a car lighter, more underpowered, with a smaller engine or with less cylinders.









How funny that Chaparral, historian extraordinaire, did not remember the little contraption...

Of course, you, young people, may think that six wheels or a turbine are weird, but try to race an 85 hp, air cooled car. BTW, DB won the coveted prize for efficiency at Le Mans (coveted for me, at least ).

Paul Armagnac, the driver, died at Pau some years later at this horrible curve. He did not have to race, he was retired, but how he loved to race...



Finally, some latin corny song I want to sing quietly for Mr. Armagnac:

"Clock, stop in your pathway,
because my life is dimming.
She's the star that lightens my being,
I'm nothing without her love"

-- Lucho Gatica --

[Miguel]

Obviously, the Eagle Weslake T1G:


Oops... wrong thread. Anyway, such a beauty would look odd indeed in today's grid.

EDIT: The real intention behind this picture is showing the stark contrast between the "I don't know what a curve is" Cosworth and a real beauty. I also consider as odd all the Monster Airbox cars from the early seventies: the tyrrel 007:



Not ugly, just odd.

[Ciro Pabón]

Miguel, Miguel, Miguel... you're always the daydreamer! Nice car, anyway. but I just posted a car made of polyester. What do you mean by "obviously"?

[xpensive]

Speaking of which, does anyone have a pic of the first Ligier F1 car (JS07?) of 76, that scoop takes the cake!

[Roland Ehnström]

You're thinking of the Ligier JS5:

[CMSMJ1]

Aint' it 4WD?

Yes, designed by Robin Herd IIRC

Some of the 4wd were pretty nice - the Lotus 56 and 63 were lookers...

My favourite ugly car is the march with the flying saucer nosecone..

[Chaparral]

Heres a few weird ones

The Russians entered this ugly 'overweight Formula Ford' the Khadi in 1971 built to the F1 regs of the day - check the size of that power plant out shame it only delivered 250 bhp versus the Cosworth DFV which was delivering 500 bhp by then.




Or the Ferrari Sigma from 1969 - just plain ugly would not have looked out of place in an episode of Thunderbirds



This one the 312 Spazza never started either way too heavy - I did see a test of the car in a recent issue of Motor Sport UK.

[pedaltometal]

...

[Chaparral]

Ciro blurted How funny that Chaparral, historian extraordinaire, did not remember the little contraption...

Of course, you, young people, may think that six wheels or a turbine are weird, but try to race an 85 hp, air cooled car. BTW, DB won the coveted prize for efficiency at Le Mans (coveted for me, at least ).

I have never seen the Monomille Ciro - Im taking it as Italian (given the Mille context and association of same in the name) - there are many examples from that era that look (externally) not that dissimilar

Whats this young thing I'm not that old sunshine I just have a penchant for history and yes I do recall the 'index of performance' for Le Mans (still probably the greatest test of a car) even today.

I'm not up to speed with Paul Armagnac really but love the old Pau circuit and its history - I'm glad they have a historic annual event that celebrates the circuit - anyone who's close to it should get along and see some spectacular machinery and soak it all in

[Chaparral]

...

Pedal heres some examples of what they tried with the March

Heres the racing version nice





Heres a couple of variants that thank god never hit the track

[modbaraban]

Looks totally like this ->

[donskar]

Ciro blurted How funny that Chaparral, historian extraordinaire, did not remember the little contraption...

Of course, you, young people, may think that six wheels or a turbine are weird, but try to race an 85 hp, air cooled car. BTW, DB won the coveted prize for efficiency at Le Mans (coveted for me, at least ).

I have never seen the Monomille Ciro - Im taking it as Italian (given the Mille context and association of same in the name) - there are many examples from that era that look (externally) not that dissimilar

Whats this young thing I'm not that old sunshine I just have a penchant for history and yes I do recall the 'index of performance' for Le Mans (still probably the greatest test of a car) even today.

I'm not up to speed with Paul Armagnac really but love the old Pau circuit and its history - I'm glad they have a historic annual event that celebrates the circuit - anyone who's close to it should get along and see some spectacular machinery and soak it all in

Count me among those who remember and still love the "old days" of F1 and Group 6 and 7. Currently there is some concern about making up the minimum F1 field - not so terribly long ago there were so many entrants there was a pre-qualifying session to see which cars would be allowed to compete to get into the field!

For weird open-wheelers in general, look to Mickey Thompson's Indy cars. He entered a pair of rear-engined Indy cars the YEAR BEFORE Colin Chapman brought the Lotus over. Very advanced in many ways (tiny tires, advanced aero) MT also entered a car with the driver in a sort of pod mounted alongside the chassis proper! . . .

[donskar]

Ciro blurted How funny that Chaparral, historian extraordinaire, did not remember the little contraption...

Of course, you, young people, may think that six wheels or a turbine are weird, but try to race an 85 hp, air cooled car. BTW, DB won the coveted prize for efficiency at Le Mans (coveted for me, at least ).

I have never seen the Monomille Ciro - Im taking it as Italian (given the Mille context and association of same in the name) - there are many examples from that era that look (externally) not that dissimilar

Whats this young thing I'm not that old sunshine I just have a penchant for history and yes I do recall the 'index of performance' for Le Mans (still probably the greatest test of a car) even today.

I'm not up to speed with Paul Armagnac really but love the old Pau circuit and its history - I'm glad they have a historic annual event that celebrates the circuit - anyone who's close to it should get along and see some spectacular machinery and soak it all in

Count me among those who remember and still love the "old days" of F1 and Group 6 and 7. Currently there is some concern about making up the minimum F1 field - not so terribly long ago there were so many entrants there was a pre-qualifying session to see which cars would be allowed to compete to get into the field!

For weird open-wheelers in general, look to Mickey Thompson's Indy cars. He entered a pair of rear-engined Indy cars the YEAR BEFORE Colin Chapman brought the Lotus over. Very advanced in many ways (tiny tires, advanced aero) MT also entered a car with the driver in a sort of pod mounted alongside the chassis proper! . . .

[ben_watkins]

© ben watkins