Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
stefan_
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Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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The long F1 brake this summer is already taking its toll on me and I came up with the idea for this thread. I found another one that is kind of similar but it's quite old and doesn't have much in it. If it's the case, this post can be merged with that thread.
So, let's dig up and shed some light on those obscure machineries that were built but never raced. Or semi-raced in some cases.

1981 Williams FW07D
Here with Alan Jones behind the steering wheel testing at Donington Park.
The FW07D was an experimental six-wheeled test car (4 driven rear wheels, and 2 non-driven front wheels) that was tested by Alan Jones on one single occasion.
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1982 Williams FW08B
The FW08B was a six-wheeled (4 driven wheels at the rear and 2 undriven wheels at the front) variant that originated from the FW07D (also six-wheeled). It never raced. Patrick Head specifically said that the reason it was banned was because "someone in a FOCA meeting said it would drive up costs and cause chaos during pitstops". The FIA promptly limited the number of wheels for all cars to four, of which only 2 may be driven.

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1981 Lotus 88
The Lotus 88 was an innovative ground effect Formula One car designed by Colin Chapman, Peter Wright, Tony Rudd and Martin Ogilvie of Lotus in an effort to maximise the downforce produced by ground effects cars.The 88 used an ingenious system of having a twin chassis, one inside the other. The inner chassis would hold the cockpit and would be independently sprung from the outer one, which was designed to take the pressures of the ground effects. The outer chassis did not have discernible wings, and was in effect one huge ground effect system, beginning just behind the nose of the car and extending all the way inside the rear wheels, thereby producing massive amounts of downforce.

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More on the car here

1995 Lola T95/30
The Lola T95/30 is a Formula One motor racing car which was tested by Allan McNish during 1994 and early 1995. The car, however, was not raced during any Formula One races. The car was designed as a prototype ready for Lola's arrival in Formula One. Lola, instead of racing the car in the actual season, chose instead to test the car while a search to find a big-name sponsor was carried out as money inside the project dried up.

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More on the car here

1995 DAMS GD-01
Here pictured with Érik Comas behind the steering wheel (probably the first and last time he sat there) at the car's launch in 1995 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France.

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More on the car here

1996 Dome F105
The Dome F105 was an unraced Formula One car designed and built by the Japanese motorsport constructor, Dome.
The F105 was launched at the Spiral building in Tokyo on March 18, 1996.

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More on the car here

1997 Lola T97/30
Powered by a Ford ECA Zetec-R 3.0 V8, this car holds the "record" of participating only in the 1997 qualifying session where it failed. Bad - because it had the aerodynamics of a brick. Later that year

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More on the car here

1999 Honda RA099
Here pictured with Jos Verstappen behind the steering wheel, it's probably the most normal car in this list that was capable to race.
The project was looking promising, with the prototype machine setting competitive midfield times in tests alongside better funded and more established F1 teams. However, the project was aborted indefinitely after Postlethwaite's death from a heart attack at one of the Jerez tests, and the Dallara built tubs were no longer required.

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More on the car here

2010 Toyota TF110
The Toyota TF110 was an un-raced, prototype Formula One car designed by Toyota Racing for the 2010 Formula One season. The car had been designed, and two chassis produced before Toyota officially decided to pull out of Formula One at the end of the 2009 Formula One season. One chassis was damaged by former team principal John Howett, while the other was used for a shakedown test. Various teams have attempted to purchase the chassis.

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More on the car here

If you have more examples (and there are others), feel free to post them.
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe." Murray Walker, San Marino 1985

Pup
Pup
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Joined: 08 May 2008, 17:45

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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Newey's MP4-18 certainly comes to mind - revolutionary but far too fragile to race...
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Also, another Lola - the MB-01. Developed for 2010, but they were beaten out by Hispania for the slot...
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And maybe USF1's half-built entry is best forgotten...
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Sorry, wrong image...
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Last edited by Pup on 29 Jul 2013, 23:12, edited 1 time in total.

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RicerDude
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Joined: 10 Sep 2012, 20:21

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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This Ferrari 312 B3 never raced, thankfully.

stefan_
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Joined: 04 Feb 2012, 12:43
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Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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^ Also nicknamed "the snowplough" or something like that if I remember well.

Anyway, another add-up.

1964 Honda RA270
The Honda RA270 was a prototype Formula 1 car built by Honda. The car made its first tests in February 1964. The most notable thing about the car is it featured 12 separated exhausts for the Honda V12 engine.

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1975 Maki F101C
Participated in several qualifying sessions but failed in each of them

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1976 March 2-4-0
The March 2-4-0 was an experimental six-wheeled Formula One racing car built by the March Engineering company of Bicester, UK. It was constructed in late 1976 and tested in early 1977.
The car followed on from a the successful use by Tyrrell Racing of a six-wheeled car, named the Tyrrell P34, to Formula One racing. However, the engineering concept behind the 2-4-0 was quite different.

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More on the car here

1977 Ferrari 312T6
The six-wheeled 312T6 used four tyres at the rear, specially developed for the purpose. It was one of a few six-wheeled designs during that period, although Tyrrell's P34 was the only example which raced. The car followed in the footsteps of the Tyrrell P34, but instead of four smaller front wheels, the T6 used 4 normal sized rear wheels on one rear axle.

The car was tested by both Niki Lauda and Carlos Reutemann in 1977, but never raced. Quite apart from the fact that it was far wider than the regulations permitted it also proved a challenge to drive. During one test at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track Reutemann crashed the car then it burst into flames on his 12th lap of testing, and suffered a rear upright failure on another occasion. Needless to say the Argentinean was not impressed.

Following the 312T6 experiment articles appeared in the Italian press with pictures and illustrations depicting a secret Ferrari Formula 1 car, dubbed the 312T8. They showed four wheels at the front, like the Tyrrell P34, and another four at the rear, like the March 2–4-0. The idea was evidently crazy and no such car ever materialised. Many years later, these pictures were revealed to be a mock up, released by Ferrari itself (although not officially) to keep attention high.

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"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe." Murray Walker, San Marino 1985

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flynfrog
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006, 22:31

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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great thread.

If you dont have it already. Scollins used to post here and writes for racecar engineering. This book is a must have imo

http://www.amazon.com/Unraced-Sam-Collins/dp/1845840844

stefan_
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Joined: 04 Feb 2012, 12:43
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Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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^ Interesting book.
I think we can trhow in this thread the McLambo or the MInardi Subaru too.

1988 Minardi M188-Subaru
This is a Minardi M188B which was fitted with a Subaru Flat-12 engine designed by Carlo Chiti, the owner of Motori Moderni (who provided 1.5 V6 turbo engines to Minardi during 1985 to 1987) for testing purposes.

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1993 McLaren MP4/8B - Lamborghini
During 1993 the McLaren team built a modified version of the MP4/8, dubbed the MP4/8B (and often nicknamed McLambo), to be used as a test car for the Lamborghini V12 engine. After a handshake deal between Ron Dennis and Bob Lutz of Chrysler (who at the time owned Lamborghini), the modified car carried the 710 bhp (529 kW; 720 PS) V12 engine (dubbed the Lamborghini 3512) that was also supplied at the time to the Larrousse team. Lutz explained that after after four years in Formula One, Chrysler wanted to test whether the V12 had the potential to be a winner in F1. To that end it was decided that a top team was needed to test that potential and a set of V12 engines were supplied to McLaren for testing.

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More about the car here

1991 Honda RC100 (RC-F1 1.0X )
The Honda RC100 was a prototype Formula One car built by engineers from Honda, although not as an official project. The car was completed in 1993 and tested at Honda's Suzuka Circuit before being destroyed in a crash test. Two more cars, known as RC101 and RC101B, were also built and tested before the project ended.

1992 Honda RC101 (RC-F1 1.5X)
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1996 Honda RC101B (RC-F1 2.0X)

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More on these Honda cars here

2001 Premier 1 Prototype

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Interview about the car here
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe." Murray Walker, San Marino 1985

j2004p
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Joined: 31 Mar 2010, 18:22

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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Wow, is that an exhaust blown diffuser on the last Honda?

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flynfrog
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006, 22:31

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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j2004p wrote:Wow, is that an exhaust blown diffuser on the last Honda?
yep pretty common for the cars of the era.

wesley123
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Joined: 23 Feb 2008, 17:55

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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that actually was around the era when teams started to move the exhaust away from the diffuser
"Bite my shiny metal ass" - Bender

Huntresa
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Joined: 03 Dec 2011, 11:33

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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Just me doesnt those 2 black Hondas look like pretty good F1 cars, eventho we cant tell by the looks they dont look "bad".

xpensive
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Joined: 22 Nov 2008, 18:06
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Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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The Carlo Chiti designed flat-12 "Subaru" engine is perhaps the most grotesque F1 powerplant ever built, bar the BRM H16.
"I spent most of my money on wine and women...I wasted the rest"

beelsebob
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Joined: 23 Mar 2011, 15:49
Location: Cupertino, California

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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wesley123 wrote:that actually was around the era when teams started to move the exhaust away from the diffuser
Yep, IIRC the 1998 Ferrari started exiting the exhausts up and over, and caused a huge stir.

Huntresa
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Joined: 03 Dec 2011, 11:33

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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beelsebob wrote:
wesley123 wrote:that actually was around the era when teams started to move the exhaust away from the diffuser
Yep, IIRC the 1998 Ferrari started exiting the exhausts up and over, and caused a huge stir.

Wasnt it cause they couldnt get the stable exhaust flow they could in 2011 so it made stuff more unstable then gains.

beelsebob
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Joined: 23 Mar 2011, 15:49
Location: Cupertino, California

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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Huntresa wrote:
beelsebob wrote:
wesley123 wrote:that actually was around the era when teams started to move the exhaust away from the diffuser
Yep, IIRC the 1998 Ferrari started exiting the exhausts up and over, and caused a huge stir.
Wasnt it cause they couldnt get the stable exhaust flow they could in 2011 so it made stuff more unstable then gains.
I'm not sure I'm convinced by that – if that were true, why would they position them there in the first place?

That said, I have no knowledge either way.

timbo
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Joined: 22 Oct 2007, 10:14

Re: Built but unraced Formula 1 cars

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I remember hearing/reading that the shift in the exhaust position was due to power/packaging advantages.

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