Greatest designer of all time?

From old eras one might wish to consider:

Vittorio Jano
Whoever was responsible for the pre and post WWII Mercedes W cars.
Ettore Bugatti
Lampredi should get some consideration with the 375 F1 and then the 500s

Jeff

 

Mostly Rudy Uhlenhaut. A great engineer (and test driver) but it´s said that the budget of the Mercedes F1 team for 1954 and 1955 was higher than the sum of all the other teams´ together, so it´s hard to tell if he was the best.

Barnard introduced carbon monocoque chassis and semi-auto gearbox, but had a lot of flops in his latest years.

Gordon Murray´s Brabham fan car was not an original idea (the Chaparral came first) and his McLarens were somewhat based on Barnard´s work.

I´d vote for Colin Chapman, he kept trying for almost 30 years, although he had a lot of bad ideas too.

 

Gabriel Voisin (France), first monocoque

Jim Hall (USA), first composite chassis

 

Had no idea that Voisin did a monocoque. When was that?

Did Voisin compete in GP (not called F1 in that time)?

To the best of my knowledge Jim Hall never did an F1 car.

Jeff

 

1923 ACF GP (France), Voisin Laboratoire.

The 3 cars entered broke, but it's the first time a monocoque was raced.

Voisin never raced in GP after that.

 

Previous era- Chapman

Current era- Newey

 

+1

 

Chapman old ERA, and Newey in the new era, no pun intended.

 

I think that the earliest Lotus F1 cars were Chapman designs, but I he had a lot of help from Maurice Philippe on the 39, 43, 49, and especially the ground-breaking 72. Philippe should be on the list also. I would also include Derek Gardner, who produced some great designs for Ken Tyrrell in the early 70s.

 

Hands down Colin Chapman...unafraid to try new ideas and when he got it right...he really got it right...light weight cars...then the wings in 68...then the 'wing car' concept in the late 70s...

When he got the ideas right, it rendered everyone else's cars obsolete and they HAD to follow in his footsteps...

Frank

Newey is a brilliant aerodymacist, but even he must concede that whereas his ideas were evolutionary, Chapman's were REVOLUTIONARY...

 

+1 overall. But "hands down" may be a bit of a stretch - There's been some very clever guys over the years. It's a shame Jim Hall never did an F1 car (?) - Another REVOLUTIONARY thinker.

Byrne & Barnard and to a lesser degree, Murray - Not so much - "Right place at the right time". I always had a soft spot for Derek Gardner, but he also lives with the above guys.

(IMHO ) Cheers,
Ian

 

There is no doubt that Chapman was brilliant, but he was a concept guy rather than a detail "designer". Maurice Philippe did the detail work on many of Chapman's cars, including the 72, and while the wing car concept for the 78 was undoubtedly Chapman's, he had two gifted engineers, Tony Rudd and Ralph Bellamy, to actually design the car.

 

I hear you, and he certainly became a concept guy. But I'm pretty sure he did it all in the early days. Let other guys do the "boring" stuff as he got successful.

Cheers,
Ian

 

You show your knowledge with the names mentioned

Cheers back to you mate!

Frank

 

Re-reading the above, I think it sounds a little "harsher" than intended!..... All of 'em built multiple WC cars - They're very, very, good, but As Frank noted not "blue sky" thinkers like Jim & Colin.

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Thanks for the kudos Frank!

 

Hard to say, since I have been watching F1 (early 90's) I would say Rory Byrne. He just was dominate in the late 90's to mid 00's. In a era of very quick, modern cars with tuff rules.

 

And for most of that time he had the GOAT doing the driving / testing & development with him.

Having said that, I'd love to see him back at the Scuderia.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I´m not sure, but I think that Chapman only introduced spoilers in F1. The first cars with real wings (supported by struts "Chaparral style") were a Brabham and a Ferrari.

Not original ideas anyway.

 

Indeed - Good question!

It was also driven by the "other" GOAT & the Professor of course.....

No disrespect intended (he's certainly a great designer) but those two were *awesome*.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Well, he did design the Lotus 72 which was pretty innovative and had excellent results from late 69 through 74. He did come out with the Skirts that revolutionized Aerodynamics. He did the car within a car Lotus 88 that was banned. He improved on the Rear Engined Cooper concept to a point that he won Indy in 1965 and probably should have in 1963 as well.

 

With another brilliant design - The "off-center" car..... Subsequently outlawed of course.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

I was talking only about the wings, not about all the other creations of Colin Chapman.

 

I believe you're right.

However, and this is a WAG, was he the first to mount 'em to the chassis? [In the early days of wings they often fell off as they were mounted to the hubs! IIRC.....]

Cheers,
Ian