- 2,810
- Tasmania, AU
- stigsdaddy
To be fair, the P34 was never banned itself. It actually competed, relatively competitively, for two full seasons. It was never banned, it just didn't provide the winning formula that Tyrrell had hoped it would, so they brought a conventional design to the 1978 season. March tested two versions of a 6 wheeled F1 car, the 2-4-0, during the '76 and '77 seasons, with four rear wheels, all driven, for extra traction, but they were never raced strangely.
Williams, in the early '80s, built a 6 wheeled prototype, the FW07D, with a March-like 4 driven rear wheel concept, but Williams took it to a whole new level. By then, all teams were running "ground effect" cars, with side pods full of venturi tunnels, but Williams found that by using four driven rear wheels, they could put the smaller front wheel sized wheels on the rear axles, which allowed the venturi tunnels to run all the way to the rear, without needing a cutout for the rear wheels. This meant they could run skirts all the way to the back of the car, significantly increasing downforce.
They built their car for the following year, the FW08B, around these concepts, with full-length venturis and skirts, and four driven rear wheels. When testing these cars in the wet, they also discovered that they could run the rear-most pair of wheels with slicks, as the front pair of rear wheels would clear enough water from the track surface for them to do so. This would have given them an enormous advantage in wet races. But even in the dry, with four driven wheels, smaller, less drag-inducing rear wheels, and longer venturis sealed by full length skirts, Williams would have utterly dominated 1983 if the FIA didn't step in. The FIA had the car banned before it could race though, by banning four wheel drive, mandating cars have a total of 4 wheels, banning skirts, and mandating completely flat floors.
With all that in mind: The only 6 wheeled F1 car that was actually banned in F1 was the FW08B. Tyrrell ran their 6 wheeled concepts unsuccessfully for two seasons before abandoning the idea on their own, and March never raced their 6 wheelers for whatever reason, despite the FIA being totally fine with 6 wheeled cars in the years where March was testing their prototypes.
I do share your sentiment though: I'd love to see some banned race cars like the 2J, BT46B, FW08B, and the Lotus 88, appear in a racing sim. That would be epic!
Sorry for the off-topic banter guys, just getting a little excited for this.
Keep it up The American, I'm on a different time zone 
