SHIFTIN' GEARS: Favourite Race Cars Part 3

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Favourite Race Cars Part 3 - Open Wheelers

With the motor racing off season upon us I found myself questioning... what does the author of a topical motorsport based blog write about when there is no racing??

The first answer I came up with is to talk about what I love about racing, starting with my favourite race cars, so here we go... Part 3... Open Wheelers...

FORMULA ONE

Modern F1 cars are ugly!!

Here are my two favourite Formula 1 cars -

1967/8 Lotus 49 - Cosworth DFV V8, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, great pre-sponsor colour scheme, red steering wheel, gorgeous!

1991 Jordan 191 - OK, the downside is this was Michael Schumacher's first GP car but regardless of who drove it, the 191 goes down as probably the best looking GP of my lifetime! Simple 7up colour scheme, balanced looks; it was a "good looking" GP car!

INDYCAR / INDY 500

All Indy 500 cars should be front engined!! I love Indy Roadsters!! They just look so right!! Loads of power, narrow tires, get it wrong and it will hurt!! Big balls?? You bet!!

As much as I may lament the move to rear engine race cars, my favourite early example has to be the 1965 Lotus 38, driven by Jim Clark. Everything the 49 was for F1, this was for Indy!!

When I was growing up, F1 was boring... CART was not!! My favourite CART car was the 1993 Galles Racing T93 Lola as driven by Little Al! I loved the simple colour scheme and the clear "screen" round the driver... actually I still do!

My favourite IRL era "IndyCar" has to be the 2001 / 2001 IRL Dallara Chevy as driven by Sam Hornish round the outside of anybody who dared to stay low!! As with the Jordan 191, the Dallara was a nicely balanced, low nose modern race car that looked as good on the high Texas banking as it did at Indy. It also raced better than today's IRL cars!

SPRINTS AND MIDGETS