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Classic Motorsport Photos
- Thread starter Liquid
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today yes, in the 80s no
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That's exactly what they did in the 80's.
Roo
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"Mosport 1961, Gendebien, Rodriguez, Ryan, Bradley, Clark. "Most bizarre and enteraining dice of the day came in a three-lap contest between six Austin 850's driven by Messrs. Moss. Gendebien , P. Rodriguez. Ryan, Clark and Bradley. The buzzing minicars squealed around the course swapping positions at virtually every corner to the delight of the crowd, and when the flag fell Olivier Gendebien had won his first race on Canadian soil. Dire reports circulated afterward that a certain English driver had been using his fire extinguisher to spray competitors on the back straight"
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28th May 1983
Qualifying for the 29. Internationales ADAC 1000-km-Rennen 1983 (held on the 29th May)
Driver Stefan Bellof
Porsche 956 (Group C)
Nürburgring-Nordschleife (20,832 km short Nordschleife only variant)
6.11,13 min - 202,07 km/h (126.6 mph) average
On 28th May 1983 Stefan Bellof drove the fastest lap ever on the Nordschleife in the qualifying for the 29. Internationales ADAC 1000-km-Rennen 1983. The first driver who achieved over 200 kilometers per hour average on the Nordschleife. It took 35 years until 2018 when Porsche beat that time with the 919 Evo. Nevertheless the record remains by Bellof since the 919 didn't participate in an official event without any technical or sporting regulations. The following day the last Group C race ever was held on the Nordschleife.
They had to start the race on the Döttinger Höhe 2,832 km (look at that number 😎) prior to the start/finish straight due to the contruction work on the modern GP-Track:
At the time of this race - after Niki Laudas fire accident - the modern Grand Prix track of the Nürburgring was build to hold F1, Group C, etc. in safer conditions which was opened the year after on 12th May 1984. On this day the first race on the new GP-Track was held with 20 identical Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 touring cars driven by various racing chaps of that time like Niki Lauda, Jack Brabham, Phil Hill, James Hunt, Alan Jones, Jody Scheckter, Keke Rosberg, James Hunt, Stirling Moss, Jacques Laffite, Carlos Reutemann, John Watson, Alain Prost and Elio de Angelis. Also Emerson Fittipaldi should participate but had to give his seat to a fairly unknown young F1 driver with the name Ayrton Senna. While Lauda had to start from the back missing the practice session overtook 18 opponents to finish second the young Ayrton won the race.
Two important days in the rich Nürburgring and German racing history.
Sadly both "protagonists" died the following years while doing what they loved. Bellof died on 1st September 1985 at the 1000km race of Spa-Franchorchamps. Crashing the Porsche 956 into the barriers at Eau Rouge while trying to overtake Jacky Ickx on the outside. Senna passed away on 1st May 1994 after an accident during the F1 Grand Prix at Imola. Both will live on in these pictures and the storys around them in our hearts as long as we continue to share them in this wonderful thread 🤩
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McLaren
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Interesting to add-on: the following year, Senna would go on to purchase his own 190E for personal use. In 1986, Team Lotus Int. would then purchase two 190E 2.3-16s for him, Chapman, & others to use, implying he was quite smitten with the car since his win in '84. 1 of those 2 cars just sold in July with the claim it was the vehicle Senna personally used while at Lotus.
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3 days later 28th March 1993
Brazilian Grand Prix - #0 Williams FW15C with Damon Hill behind the wheel following the first official F1 safety car, a Fiat Tempra with a whooping 113 hp. Bono the safety car is too slow. 1993 was the first season with official sc-rules.
Not sure but could be Charlie Whiting on the passenger seat?
Canadian Grand Prix 23rd September 1973
The first ever F1 safety car, a Porsche 914 (probably 914/6 with 110 hp), in front of Howden Ganley #25 in a Frank Williams Racing Cars (the team before he founded Williams F1 in 1977) Iso-Marlboro-IR2
Problem was Ganley was only 8th in the race at the time of the sc-deployment so the first 7 cars did nearly gain a complete lap for free while the safety car catched Ganley. It took many hours after the race to correct the times and figure out who actually won and it went to become one of the most controversional races in F1 history. Revson won in front of Fittipaldi in the end.
Brazilian Grand Prix - #0 Williams FW15C with Damon Hill behind the wheel following the first official F1 safety car, a Fiat Tempra with a whooping 113 hp. Bono the safety car is too slow. 1993 was the first season with official sc-rules.
Not sure but could be Charlie Whiting on the passenger seat?
Canadian Grand Prix 23rd September 1973
The first ever F1 safety car, a Porsche 914 (probably 914/6 with 110 hp), in front of Howden Ganley #25 in a Frank Williams Racing Cars (the team before he founded Williams F1 in 1977) Iso-Marlboro-IR2
Problem was Ganley was only 8th in the race at the time of the sc-deployment so the first 7 cars did nearly gain a complete lap for free while the safety car catched Ganley. It took many hours after the race to correct the times and figure out who actually won and it went to become one of the most controversional races in F1 history. Revson won in front of Fittipaldi in the end.
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LeGeNd-1
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Interestingly, I just listened to this podcast on Jackie Oliver the other day (racing driver and one of the founder of Arrows F1 team). He claimed that he actually won that race instead of Revson and the official lap charts were wrong. Now I know the (potential) reason why. I guess it's just one of those racing controversies that will never get solved like the Ken Miles/Bruce Mclaren Le Mans finish.
From 25:40 but the rest of the podcast is very interesting as well 👍
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Roo
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I can't find much info about this but at some point in the early 80s, Porsche ran some demo runs of the 956 on the Isle of Man. I'm assuming it's during the Manx Rally and has something to do with Rothmans sponsoring both the 956 and the Opel Mantas.
In high downforce spec, on a different event?
In high downforce spec, on a different event?
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There weren't many rules in Group C but one was the maximum dimensions of 4800mm length, 1900mm width (incl mirrors) and 1000mm roof height (1000mm = 40 inch -> GT40, I think everyone knows this reference!? GT40 was called 40 due to the roof height and the predecessor in the 2000s with the Ford GT couldn't be named GT40 again because the roof was higher. Wasn't this told in Ford vs Ferrari movie?).
Funny thing with these dimensions is that they are still very close for the hypercars today with 5cm shorter 4750mm length, still 1900mm width and 1050mm for the highest part of bodywork (back than it was only the roof as you see with the high downforce wing beeing higher than the roof on the Porsche).
There were only other 3 rules in Group C besides the dimensions: 820kg minimum weight, max 100 litre fuel cell and and a maximum fuel use of 600 litres for a 1000 km race. The joy and success (who can't build sth with these few parameters?) and the death (due to the exploding development costs without any rules for engines, suspension, aero, etc.) of Group C in 4 simple rules
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1998 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship @ Fuji (2 Races in 98, May + August)
May:August
Not many pictures from the race in May are available since a very bad accident happened (only luck prevented no one died) in the wet and very foggy conditions while still on the warm-up lap behind the safety car. With a good stomach videos are available via google. Race was aborted without a winner but I think pictures of these Gran Turismo 2 Legends are still nice to add here with the GT500 beasts + Diablo and Viper GT300 class cars. And sadly accidents are part of the game. On the other hand it may teach people that racing in F1 at Spa some weeks ago just wouldn't have been a good idea.
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I remember coming across footage of the wreck on YouTube completely by accident. One of the scariest things I've ever seen in racing. I remember reading that Ota (the driver of the red Ferrari that was hit and burst into flames) actually sued the promoters and race organizers due to their lack of urgency in putting the fire out on his car, which he was trapped inside of the whole time. It apparently got to a point where other drivers came over to put the fire out well before the marshals and fire crews arrived. Also the safety car was reportedly running at ~150 km/h, rather than the 60 km/h that was expected in poor conditions, and that was a major factor in what caused the wreck.
In any case, I genuinely cannot believe that he survived an accident as severe as that.
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1994 Brazilian Grand Prix
Drivers (L-R): Ayrton Senna BRA, Jean Alesi FRA, Michael Schumacher GER
Cars: Williams FW16 (3.5L Renault V10), Ferrari 412 (3.5L Ferrari V12), Benetton B194 (3.5L Ford-Cosworth V8)
Finished: DNF (spun off), 3rd, 1st
Drivers (L-R): Ayrton Senna BRA, Jean Alesi FRA, Michael Schumacher GER
Cars: Williams FW16 (3.5L Renault V10), Ferrari 412 (3.5L Ferrari V12), Benetton B194 (3.5L Ford-Cosworth V8)
Finished: DNF (spun off), 3rd, 1st
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- DolphDrago
Those early 90's cars were the most beautiful F1 machines IMO. The shape at least. Some of the liveries were questionable.
