Vanwall VW5 F1 1958

[Sick Cylinder]

Above in typical four wheel drift the 2.5 litre four cylinder Vanwall takes the bend! The car was designed by Colin Chapman (Lotus) with very advanced aerodynamics by Frank Costin (later Marcos and Cosworth) - to our left on the bonnet you can see the NACA duct inlet for the engine, which relies on a region of high pressure air to obviate the need for a scoop. The engine manifold exits the bonnet in a spread pattern on the opposite side to the NACA duct to minimise drag. The drivers mirrors double as air scoops. It was the fastest F1 car in a straight line and won the first ever F1 constructors championship in 1958. Also in 1958 Stirling Moss almost won the drivers championship in the Vanwall losing out by a single point to Mike Hawthorn with his team mate Tony Brooks third.

The four cylinder engine was designed by Norton man Leo Kuzmicki and was closely based on the Norton GP motorcycle engine of the time. The Vanwall was the first F1 car to pioneer the use of alloy wheels in place of wire spoked wheels (Wikipedia describes them as steel wheels).

The Vanwall was the brainchild of Tony Vandervell the manufacturer of Vandervell thinwall bearings who previously backed BRM (British Racing Motors) and then a team of modified Ferraris known as "Thinwall Specials". It is amazing that a non-factory team could produce the fastest F1 car and win the F1 manufacturers championship.

I would like this car to battle against the Maserati 250F - the Vanwall had more speed and the Maserati had better handling.

A great machine and one of the last of the front engine F1 cars. More information from the Wiki link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanwall

Short clip from 1958:

 

[StarLight]

Another beauty from Sick Cylinder
Awesome mate will add these one too my thread as well.
👍

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Moss has a tea break during testing at Silverstone in 1957!

Simple, but well thought out cockpit - mirror bodies double as air scoops which bring fresh air into the cockpit via nozzles with adjustable angle.

Engine bay detail - 4 cylinder 2.5 litre gave 290bhp at the peak of its development.

Spaceframe chassis designed by Colin Chapman weighed just 87.5 pounds, but was extremely rigid. Car was tall because driver sat above the driveshaft. Chapman overcame this in the later Lotus 16 by canting the engine and running the shaft beside the driver, but by that time the Cooper had come and the reign of the front engine F1 car had ended.

Below front suspension and brake detail. Brakes were Girling discs all round, inboard at the rear air cooled by ducts.