Historic F1 Racing

They had a couple of Ferraris running in 2012, now it seems to be solely Cosworth DFV powered cars.

 

I see a number of mid to late 1970's F-1 cars for sale in Motorsports Magazine - I think they would be around $200K ish... depending on the provenance. buying them is the easy part, running one is $$$$$$$$

de tuned DFV - $150k to purchase - figure about 25 - 60 Hours per rebuild, $20K avg.... and then Avon tires - several sets a year, etc... so running cost about $475 hr. give or take. brakes, pads, etc... not to mention gear boxes and gear sets..

I was thinking the same thing... but doing it as a track day demonstration run - sell a ride in an F-1 car for 4 laps $1000... thing... but I never could work out the math that made any sense.

once you get into the ground effect cars - then physical conditioning comes massively into play - even if they don't let you run skirts... the suspensions are so stiff, with very little give. and then size wise - you have to pretty small to fit. If you get into an early 80's car, or even early 90's car the performance envelope is huge - so the cars only really work in a narrow band... its a catch - you have to drive 8/10ths of the cars performance to get them to work right - but that means usually way more skill than the guys running the car...

by the time you are into a mid 80's or early 90's F1 car - the driving is all about line and not scrubbing speed off, and if you make a mistake - the penalty is huge & safety not so much.

by the 1986 - computers and take a larger role - and getting the right ones to talk to the car is even more difficult. Although you can get DFV Control boxes to run with modern Pc's... its just $$$$

 

was this in support of the USGP at COTA?? this is more of a reason to go than anything else!! i would love to see those cars in action.

 

This series is run in Europe and it is a delight to see (and hear) the cars from the mid 60s through 1986.

FIA Masters Historic Formula One Race Series

The drivers seem to be a mixture of second tier former F1 drivers and very experienced amateurs. There are also teams of very experienced race mechanics on hand - as you would expect at this level.

No Ferraris in the series as far as I know but Uwe Meissener of Modena Motorsport in Germany runs occassional track days for his F1 customers, when again there are teams of PC wielding mecahnics on hand to start and adjust the cars' running!

As the man says, lots of $$$$ to have fun at this level!

 

Yes - There is a reason I keep saying the golden era of F-1 was from 1979 to 1991. the cars were diversified, sounded great ( even the turbos) and they all looked different. ... today its about a spec series.

 

My mechanic runs an older formula 2 car and he indicated it costs 8k for 3 hours of run time based on engine rebuilding. That seems like hourly on a charter jet...

Robb

 

They've run a historic (1970s-early 80s) F1 group at Monterey the last few years with a wide variety of cars, but mostly Cosworth V8s. Don't know what the operating costs are but I'm sure a sports car racer guy could handle it with some help - and plenty of money A name I noticed in the vintage F1 group was Dan Marvin, an ex professional who raced Formula Atlantics back in the 70s and 80s. Still very quick.

Some of the entrants:
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Understood

I strongly recommend you go to the Historic GP of Monaco, held every two years before the F1 GP

 

it really is a shame that the regs have made ever car look near identical and the only visual difference, from any distance, is the livery. you are absolutely right that F1 is pretty much a spec series these days! can you just imagine if they threw the rule books away and said "bring your best effort next year - no restrictions". that would be an Australian GP to watch!!!!

 

The F1 cars usually run on Sunday at the Monterey Motorsport Reunion (formerly named the "Historics") so it fits well with attending Concorso Italiano on Saturday then Laguna Seca on Sunday.

Having said that, I LOVE Saturday at the track. Its the big day with cars classes from 1930s Bentleys to 1970s Cameros. (I remain miffed that Concorso moved from Friday to Saturday a few years ago.). The paddock is very accessable to stick your nose under the hoods of most cars; saw a Niki Lauda F1 car with most of the body off a few years ago; have seen the 6 wheel Tyrell there. During the lunch intermission I've seen Mario Andretti himself drive "demonstration" laps in his John Players Special, have seen Stirling Moss chauffeur (ha!) a scared looking Jay Leno around in the Mercedes SLR he won the Mille Miglia, and have seen Ricardo Zonta break the track record in the then-new Toyota Formula 1 car.

Its a good place to chat with owners about costs and the experience. It looks like tremendous fun.

 

Great pictures. Who ever owns the 312t2, has the wrong cowling on it. the top section is from the 1976 car, and the sides & rest of Chassis is from the 1977 car.... details I know but still if you own the car - get it all right! ( i'm just plain jealous as its one of my favorite F-1 cars!)

 

Love classic F1 cars.

Rob - Wasn't 2011 the year you flew into WI for Oshkosh and met the Milwaukee F-Chat crew?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5uJFVJ5U7I[/ame]

 

Back in the old days the cheapest way into F1 was to buy a March tub, Cossie engine and Hewland box.
I'd bet dollars to doughnuts its still the same.
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The Brambilla car was on display at the Italian GP a couple years ago where I saw it

 

"Brambilla" reborn at Monterey 2013 . . . .
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Totally agree. Accessibility and viewing well worth the price of admission. Whether they're driving or wrenching these guys are living the dream, I'd say.
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Very nice.

Occasionally at Euro GPs the historic cars show up as well and they are a different group from the ones stationed in the US

 

+1 probably correct

 

Some classic action at Turn 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj2MuJCcuoI&feature=youtu.be

 

The cheapest way to get into Historic F1 is to buy a chassis with no pedigree, like March, Ensign, Fittipaldi, Trojan, Arrows, they are relatively affordable.
But if you want a Williams, a McLaren, a Lotus, a Tyrrell or ... a Ferrari, you pay for the prestige attached to the make.
In the end, most cars share the same components (DFV + Hewland), and get longer development time than they received at the time.

The pleasure you get in Historic F1 is often not proportional to the money you spend on the car, but rather on the time you spend to sort it out.

 

I saw the European Historic F1's at Silverstone a couple of years ago for Friday's free practice day when it was a wet session, and it quickly became apparent who had the money/talent to run/race the cars, and who didn't.

There was a single Ferrari 312 on the programme that I was looking forward to seeing and hearing, but it was quickly announced that due to the wet weather, the Ferrari had been withdrawn from the event (It was a wet day, not torrential, but I could understand the owner not wanting to risk damaging a car so precious!).

Of the other cars that did participate, certain cars were just tootling around for lap after lap barely making any effort at all, whilst other cars were tanking round the circuit, with their back ends sliding out, lapping the more cautious cars time after time. (And this wasn't a case of later cars simply being naturally faster, one of the quickest cars was a 70's Tyrell that was pulling off some glorious wet weather power slides coming out of the last corner onto the start/finish straight!).

The other thing that stood out was the smell of burning fuel /oil. You could smell oil and fuel burning with the modern F1 cars, but it was even more noticeable with the historic cars - A proper "old school" engine smell!