Attention to detail, now and then.

[xpensive]

Naturally, the different environments are not comparable by a long shot, but I believe these images says something about what a difference twenty years can make in terms of attention to detail.

http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v/Re ... 8.JPG.html

http://users.skynet.be/fa000085/f1t/wal ... 261024.jpg

[timbo]

I think it speaks mostly about money/echnology involved. Not that people back then were not into details.
Here's cutaway pic of F404 engine, introduced @1980 -

[xpensive]

Yes, recognize the F404, as we have a derivate of that in the Swedish Airforce, but only after some more atention to detail was added by Volvo Aero...

Just kidding, it's a great blowtorch,

[Jersey Tom]

I don't know about attention to detail necessarily, but there's certainly the increase in finances and manufacturing technology...

[xpensive]

Agreed, but to my experience finance and manufacturing technology is very often a condition for paying attention to detail.
As an example, the modern Renault seems to use lost-wax precision-casting on components that were either sand-cast, welded or milled twenty years ago.

[timbo]

Agreed, but to my experience finance and manufacturing technology is very often a condition for paying attention to detail.
As an example, the modern Renault seems to use lost-wax precision-casting on components that were either sand-cast, welded or milled twenty years ago.

With so tight regulations as we have now, it is logical that people would go into tiny details to gain advantage in performance. But that also means that more efficient areas for development are either frozen or forbidden...

[Metar]

I know it's also a variable of the technology, materials available and nature of the cars these days, but just look at the amount of mechanical failures they had.

Look at the two Renault engines. Those thick welds aren't homogeneous, and surely some sides of the weld would've expanded different compared to the other parts under heat. Those lines, that don't seem very attached, are placed near moving parts, near hot and cold parts. The whole contraption looks amateurish, by today's standards - like something you'd see in a home-tuner's project car.
Then look at the RS26 engine and see a tightly-packaged, closed, far more efficient engine - that failed less, too.

[xpensive]

This is what I mean by attention to detail, look at the injection hoses, ignition lines or what I suspect to be an oil-tank fabricated from aluminium.