Top 5 Most Beautiful F1 Cars

Ligier of 1980 in Brands Hatch pitlane. A real race car with skirts, tons of downforce and slicks. The blue of sponsor Gitanes matches the blue of the car's nation. Perfect!

 

Another beauty: Alain Prosts Ferrari (the one that is also in the design museum in NY) at the Galleria:

 

But here is my favourite: The turbo era. Look at those wings! Necessary to keep the 1,000+ hp on the ground. You can shovel snow with those things. Patrick Tambay in practice around the Casino 1983 in Monaco.

 

Absolutely gorgeous. I drive one of those in "Grand Prix Legends" ('67 F1 racing simulator) practically every weekend.

 

Heh tifosi12 F1 cars have always been the peak of vehicle technology ... back in the 50's etc that was where their thinking was ... and we have learnt a lot since then.

I have to say the 250F Maserati is the bext looking and the last Barnard/Prost Ferrari (F399 I think) is the last good looking modern F1.

While I accept that the 2003GA was okay looking, all modern F1 cars put style and look way second and if a brick was found to produce the right downforce, etc. then that is what they would look like ... thus you cannot include ANY modern race car as the best looking F1 car, because no longer are they styled.

Which I guess points to modern technology being about getting functionality out of the shape. In the old days they did not know enough (ie. the technology had not advanced enough) and thus all they worried about was frontal area and slipperyness ... thus we ended up with some real pretty cars, like the 250F, the Gurney Eagle, like the Lotus 25, etc.

Which ever way you look at it, WINGS are fug ugly ...

Pete's opinion

 

Pete, I know. I was touching on the age old discussion about reigning in the F1 cars, driver or technology in charge. Today's street cars can drive circles around the shark from the sixties (well, not all street cars, but good ones). But NOBODY can drive circles around the turbos or the skirted cars. Nobody. Fastest F1 or cars in general of all times (maybe not at Bonneville, but around a track). Of course the question is, do we want to put the driver in charge (sixties F1) or the car (Mansell's championship winning Williams). That's why those cigars from the sixties don't really do it for me. A M3 would blow by them like there is no tomorrow (and of course any modern Ferrari anyway).

As far as your statement about the wings goes, well let's agree to disagree. To me an inverted wing is a genius and beautiful thing and something every serious race/car should have. Or to look at it differently: I'm getting serious doubts about Ferrari's current way with the 360 and Enzo. Hidden air channels underneath the chassis to create the downforce. Purists might like the missing wings of the car (I don't), but once they go over a bump, the car looses all its downforce and off you go. Probably what caused Jens & Amar's accident and what killed the woman in Spain last week (ok the fact, that she was doing 150 in the city didn't help either). Liking wings or not is a matter of personal preference, but from a safety perspective I think a good old wing on top of the car is a lot safer than a vacuum underneath, which you might loose. After all Enzos and 360s drive on regular streets with bumps. Just my $ 0.02.

 

Could not agree more!. Things like ground effects and carbon brakes have no application whatsoever on a bumpy normal road ...

Pete

 

These are great pictures....the history continues....lets see the new Ferrari January 26th....I wish I could be there....

 

The most beautiful F1 car of all time is Ayrton Senna's JPS lotus, the black and gold combined with his chartreusse helmet plus wings and huge slicks. What a site and sound.
2. ferrari of 1986
3. Piquets Brabham bt52 of 84 or 85 sleek and aggressive
4 bennetton ford late 80's wild paint job
5 Piquets camel lotus renault

 

I noticed a few people have been giving credit to the 156 Sharknose. Check this model out. It is truely a peice of work. Would definitely be a must have for any model collectors here. (still dont know the cost!!)

Have a look.

http://www.carmodeller.au.com/1961_Ferrari.html

 

Wow. So many cool cars over the years, and one of the aspects of modern F1 I dislike is the homogeneous styling of all the cars. Anyway, in no particular order, some of my favorites are:

Williams FW07 (Probably my alltime favorite--don't know why)

Lotus 78 (Hard to beat the JPS livery, and I preferred the edgier 78 over the Champion 79)

Ligier from '80

Red and Blue Martini Brabham that Lauda drove.

Every Ferrari that Lauda drove.

82 McLaren (Maybe it was Lauda...)

OK, basically anything driven by Lauda and Villeneuve

Anything from '67

The orange and white Arrows from 80, I think.

Early 80s Alfa Romeo with that big fat nose.

 

I got to help out with the restoration of this car a few years ago. It's a Brabham BT-24, from the 1967 championship season, shown here with Jack Brabham at the wheel at Adelaide. Pretty car.

 

1. 1967 Eagle-Weslake V12

2. 1970 Ferrari 312B

3. 1965 Lotus 33-Climax

4. 1967 Ferrari 312

5. 1989 Ferrari 640 (tie)
1977 Ferrari 312T2 (tie)

 

Lotus Type 49, hands down the best...

first car to have the engine as a stressed member of the mono...

beautiful, pure, simple and debut of the Cosworth DFV, most successful racing engine ever

 

Lancia D50 had a stressed engine quite a few years ahead. The 25 (?) was not also the first racing car with a monocoque chassis ... that goes to some English club racer and his home built special.

But having said all that the Lotus's of that period were bloody awesome packages!

Pete

 

Yes but that car did not look so beautiful at the end of its only race . Both drivers complained about not being able to judge the position of the car and thus hit the corner markers ... and hence it was never raced again (I believe).

Pete

 

The Mercedes W196 'Stromlinienwagen' did two Grand Prix, finishing 1-2 in the French GP at Rheims in 1954, and then struggling in the British GP at Silverstone...........but not just because of difficulty in placing the car; the car had an excessive amount of inbuilt understeer, and even Fangio had to fling the car into corners to get the back to break away, hence clipping the oildrums on the inside of the corners as the nose was going from tucked-in to pushing and back again.

My all-time favourites are, in no order:

Eagle-Weslake (saw it win at Brands Hatch in 1967)
Lotus 25
Ferrari 256/1959
Ferrari 156/aero 1963/64 (Bandini winner Austrian GP 1964)
Ferrari 312/66 (Surtees winner Belgian GP 1966)
BRM P261/64
Maserati 250F
Vanwall

The first picture of a Ferrari 156 on this thread, by the way, is the late 1962 interim model without the sharknose, driven by Bandini at the German GP and Mairesse IIRC at the Italian GP.

Macca

 

A couple of photos of the Eagle-Weslake I shot at Watkins Glen in 1991:

 

Is that the year they kept changing the intake air-box regulations throughout the season and the only way to keep up on the fly was to cut away parts of the bodywork to let the air flow out the sides of the ram air duct? That really pissed me off, always thought that was stupid.

 

Santini, I have that game, is that an awesome simulator or what?

 

I'm still working out the technical quirks to get it going with three monitors.

 

Wow, that is a tough task!

I have always loved the old Auto Unions, I think they were aggresively gorgeous. As well as the Fangio-era Mercedes.

I like the early Jordans, painted in the 7-Up green. I think that the Tyrell that Jean Alesi drove, the first of the high-nose, low wing, looks quite nice.

The John Players Lotus that Ayrton Senna drove was gorgeous. So was the last of the Honda-powered McLarens.

Out of the current cars, I do like the McLaren-Mercedes and the Ferrari.

 

I love YELLOW Ferrari F1 cars, Belgian ones from ecurie Francorchamps.....

 

Awesome shark-nose! Lucky guy!