Failures of Motorsports - Car Designs, Team Mistakes and More

[MIE1992]

Stars and racing stripes: Six American teams that failed to crack F1

Several teams have tried in the past to become the flagship American outfit to tackle Formula 1, some even won races.

www.planetf1.com

The real failure here is Planet F1 when it comes to judgement.

Very topical, considering that I was just reading this headline a couple days ago about how there's supposedly been notable progress in letting Andretti/Cadillac into F1 for 2026.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

Very topical, considering that I was just reading about how there's supposedly been notable progress in letting Andretti/Cadillac into F1 for 2026. That is, unless the article mentions that exact development...

The article is from October 2023.

Topical, but a bit harsh I feel, considering half of those teams won a race at least.

Funny you should mention Reynard, their stillborn F1 design of the early-1990s begat both a success (the Benetton B194, correct me if I'm wrong) and a failure (the Pacific PR01), the latter racked up only 7 starts out of a possible 32 (none in the last 10 races) and no finishes in 1994. Bertrand Gachot actually declared he was glad to never have to drive the PR01 again after the inevitable double-DNQ in Adelaide.

Only at the season-opener in Brazil did a Pacific qualify on merit in 1994, inevitably in Gachot's hands.

Gachot was guaranteed to qualify in Imola thanks to Rubens Barrichello's accident. Paul Belmondo respectfully didn't take the late Roland Ratzenberger's place on the grid.

Both drivers were guaranteed to qualify in Monaco after Williams only ran Damon Hill and Simtek ran only David Brabham and Sauber withdrew after Karl Wendlinger's accident.

Both drivers were guaranteed to qualify in Spain after Sauber ran only Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Andrea Montermini crashed his Simtek and broke his ankles.

Gachot was guaranteed to qualify in Canada after Simtek again only ran one car for Brabham. To show just how little actual racing Gachot and Belmondo got to do that year, Belmondo covered the most distance in a race either driver would manage all season at Monaco, lasting 53 laps before retiring due to being physically fatigued!

Truth be told, the car was originally designed for 1993 with Michael Bartels (and Gachot? Or possibly David Coulthard since he drove for Pacific in F3000 that year?) driving but a lack of finance meant their entry was delayed until 1994 so the car was already a year out of date before it had even raced (and possibly even older as the Reynard F1 car was intended for 1992).

Reynard was also involved in the construction of the unraced DAMS F1 car.

On a minor note, regarding the Pacific team's 1995 launch, how long does it take to open a bottle of champagne?

 

[Har1MAS1415]

Formula Acceleration 1

It ran for one season in 2014.

For all intents and purposes, it was an attempt to resurrect A1GP as it utilised the Lola-Zytek B05/52 that had been used in the first three seasons of the latter series.

The difference was the drivers weren't required to drive for the team representing their nation (for instance, Spaniard Dani Clos drove for the UK), although China was the only nation not to have a representative all season.

Nine meetings were planned but only five took place, largely due to lack of entrants, with grid numbers peaking at 14 for the final meeting at Assen.

12 Nations took part in all, but only 10 contested the full season as Venezuela dropped out ahead of Assen, the UK took their place and notably secured a fastest lap and a 2nd to take 10th in the standings.

The season was a straight fight between the Netherlands (Nigel Melker) and Italy (Mirko Bortolotti) with Melker winning the driver's title by default after Bortolotti withdrew. The pair won 8 of the 10 rounds between them. The Netherlands took the Team's honours.

The only other winners were Sweden with Felix Rosenqvist doing the double at Monza.

The series merged with Auto GP for 2015 as that series was also using the Lola B05/52 chassis. But that series also suffered from lack of entries and was canned before merging with the BOSS GP Series in 2016.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

The one which turned and crashed into the wall immediately at Thruxton?

You mean this?

 

[Har1MAS1415]

The event last season was punctuated by tyre issues on the kerbs forcing mandated pitstops (USA 2005 eat your heart out)​

The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix certainly threatened to be one.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

BTCC 2024 News & Rumours - Page 143 - TenTenths Motorsport Forum

Page 143- BTCC 2024 News & Rumours Touring Car Racing

tentenths.com

Now does Team HARD definitely count?

 

[Har1MAS1415]

Nissan had an unsuccessful attempt in Group A Rallying with the Sunny GTI-R contesting just 9 events bewteen 1991 and 1992 with different drivers including veteran Stig Blomqvist and a young Tommi Mäkinen, the car was relatively competitive but had a few flaws mostly being the uncompetitive Dunlop tyres, the awkwardly fitted intercooler which made the engine prone to overheating (to which they tried to fix it by fitting the light pod most of the times) and issues between Nissan Japan and Nissan Motorsport Europe.

The Sunny's best result was 3rd at the 1992 Rally Sweden, at the end of the year Nissan pulled the plug on the project, while it did not succeed in Group A, it did in Group N, winning the title in 1992 with Grégoire de Mevius at the wheel.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

What about Yamaha as an F1 engine supplier? Especially 1989 with Zakspeed, 2 DNFs, 30 DNPQs, one destroyed single seater career of a future DTM legend, one lost sponsor that doesn't reappear until 1997 thus precipitating in the team's demise despite briefly appearing in pre-season testing for 1990 and Yamaha taking a year out.

Zakspeed is an interesting case. They certainly failed in F1 with their own turbo engines (only a single twice-lapped 5th place to show for 4 seasons worth of trying) but the Yamaha OX88 engine they used in 1989 really let them down.

Yamaha: Zakspeed Killer - Grand Prix Rejects

The history of Formula 1 has been littered with deals that looked good on paper but turned out to be utter disasters in practice, often at times of great technological upheaval. One such occasion occurred when the FIA decided to phase out turbo engines in

gprejects.com

Mind you, Yamaha engines only ever yielded two podiums in 7 years of trying from 1991-1997, including Damon Hill's near-miss at Hungary in 1997.

(I will admit my main influence was F1/GP Rejects)

 

[Har1MAS1415]

The Opel Calibra 4x4 Turbo Group A Rally Car

It was the first ever rally car with an active differential. Vauxhall/Opel initially entered the Astra Mk2/Kadett E GTE as their Group A car. It was front wheel drive and although it proved it could cut it against the BMW M3's entered by Prodrive and the Ford Serria RS Cosworth both rear wheel drive by the time Lancia and Mazda had got their act together with the Delta and 323F both 4WD, something with a Turbo and 4WD was required. This was initial going to be the Cavalier Mk3. A car was produced to Group A specification and extensively tested. However, there was a change of mind and the Cavalier Mk3 Group A rally car project was scrapped.

Vauxhall/Opel approached Motorsport Development of Milton Keynes to transform the Calibra 4x4 Turbo into a Group A car. The car was 290bhp via an Xtrac/MSD 6 speed gearbox and variable torque split 4WD system. Michelin also worked closely with the team developing tyres. Brakes were AP ventilated 4 pot disc brakes all around.Motorsport Development advised Vauxhall/Opel that the car needed a big wing, wide arches and a large turbo and presented this in a large dossier to Vauxhall/Opel. However, Vauxhall/Opel said this wasn't required and the car was extremely aero dynamic and a decent size with a nice small Turbo that cut weight and was 4x4.

The Turbo however was to have been the cars downfall. Vauxhall/Opel had little experience of Turbo's at the time and wanted to find a way to reduce the Turbo lag. They came up with the idea of putting the Turbo nearer the exhaust manifold as the nearer it is the less lag there is. So they located the Turbo right inside the manifold, rather than behind it! They were correct about this reducing Turbo lag, however they forgot that the nearer the Turbo is to the exhaust manifold the hotter it will get. This caused massive problems with the Turbo and effected the engines performance and reliability. Power was suggested to be in the region of 290bhp.The car should have made it debut on the Vauxhall Sport International Rally starting from Chester on 21st March 1992 with a full development programme through the year leading to a Group A homologation and full international competiton in 1993.

The car's first and, as it turned out, only event as a works car on the World Rally scene was the 1993 Swedish Rally. An event presumably chosen as it was cool and the Turbo should not have any overheating issues. How wrong could they be though. The car was driven at this event by rallying legend Stig Blomqvist. Stage times were looking good and the car was in the top 10. Which was acceptable for a new car. For the first 20 stages the car ran like clockwork. After Stage 20 Stig informed his mechanics at Service that there was a problem with the head gasket. His mechanics checked everything but could not find any issues. They asked Stig how he knew this and he replied he could smell it. At that point his mechanics declared him mad and sent him on his way to Stage 21. On stage 21 Stig and the Calibra retired with a blown head gasket! After Sweden the car was never seen as a works car again.

 

[Har1MAS1415]

North American Touring Car Championship - 1996 to 1997. Most races in 1996 had 11 or 12 entrants per race and the 1997 season wasn't much better. The series was ended after the 1997 season due to lack of interest.

The North American Touring Car Championship

Yes, even America embraced the Supertouring regs that were all the rage in the 1990s, albeit briefly. Funded by Jerry Forsythe and run from Tampa by Roger Elliott (BTCC boss Alan Gow also providing input), the series kicked off in 1996 as a support series to the road and street course rounds of the CART Series.

Races, teams and drivers announced

us.motorsport.com

Right away, interest from teams and manufacturers was lacking, only 10 cars turned up for the first meeting of the season at Lime Rock Park and only Chrysler was really properly committed via their Dodge brand. Although 8 different manufacturers took part in at least one meeting in that first season, only 4 were works entries and the number of entries all season peaked at 12. Not surprisingly, the series was dominated by American drivers with only Britain's Peter Hardman denying them a clean sweep of wins in Race 2 at Toronto. The most notable entries that year were CART stalwarts PacWest Racing running the late Mark Donohue's son David and ex-Indycar driver Dominic Dobson in Dodge Stratus' and Mario Andretti's other son Jeff in a Ford Mondeo but the title went to Randy Pobst in a Honda Accord.

The series survived into 1997 but, once again, never attracted more than 12 cars. There was even less interest from teams and manufacturers this time around, only 3 works teams and 7 different makes took part. At least there were more meetings (9 as opposed to 8) and more drivers took part (21 as opposed to 20 the previous year) and 6 of them did the full season (as opposed to just 4 in 1996) and the series was popular with fans. The title eventually went to Donohue, but if not for a disqualification at Detroit and missing the Portland rounds, Australian Touring Car ace Neil Crompton could have spoiled the party for the Americans as his 7 wins handsomely outnumbered everyone else and ensured a clean sweep of NATCC Manufacturer's titles for Honda. The only other notable competitor that year was South African lady driver Desire Wilson and for the reasons mentioned above, as well as Dodge pulling out at the end of 1997, the series did not continue into 1998 and folded.

North American Touring Car Championship 1996-1997

www.allpar.com

Though, given the existence of NASCAR, any attempt at a different kind of tin-top series that wasn't already well and truly established in North America was likely doomed to failure right from the very beginning. At least the NATCC actually took off and lasted two whole seasons whereas the American TCR never got off the ground.