The most beautiful F1 car ever made

Nice picture tim...and a great driver.

QUOTE indistinguishable rolling billboards ?? well then...what´s distinguishable bout a tube of metal ohh...my mistake...it´s....round i guess.

OK - lets try this - On this and other forums (fora?) there have bee numerous examples of roundly praised "conversions" of one F1 car to another - mostly by the simple artifice of producing new decals and paint jobs - and the results are quite convincing simply because physics and regulations have conspired to make most current cars fall into a narrow range of size and shape.

Now, take a Vanwall and paint it silver, a Mercedes W-196 in green and array an Auto Union in blue regalia and I am quite certain that most people would still be able to discern their origins.

There is no question that technology has advanced significantly in 50 years - and this advance has its benefits but it also exacts a price.

EM

Ecurie Martini.. I agree with you on the fact that most cars today look about the same..and that´s to bad. But i have also said in a post a while ago that i prefer older cars, and that is still true. However the cars in the 70´s still didn´t look the same as the cars do today. And when it comes to the Lotus 78 I think that that car is the best compromise between the old and the new. One more thing, you stated that "regulations have conspired to make most current cars fall into a narrow range of size and shape"..that was the case back in the 50´s aswell. They also had the "same" look. One must compere each car in its own time and with its own rivals at that time, i think. And if one do so...they look...the "same". But if you compere the cars in the 50´s with the cars in the 70´s...thats diffrent and in a way more correct.

Nobody has mentioned the Maserati 250F and that is a very demure picture of Diana Rigg. I remember her in a tight leather catsuit.

QUOTE Nobody has mentioned the Maserati 250F and that is a very demure picture of Diana Rigg. I remember her in a tight leather catsuit.

The Maser is certainly right up there - although truth be told, i prefer the "middle" body to the later Fantuzzi bodied cars which always looked to me to be drooping a bit front and rear.

Yes, I chose a restrained photo of Ms. Rigg - thought posting her on the forum was enough of a stretch of the rules without bumping into anyone's sensibilities. The black leather was nice but I preferred the "suit" she wore in a London production of "Abelard and Heloise" that I saw in 1971.

EM

"but I preferred the "suit" she wore in a London production of "Abelard and Heloise"

A suit marking her age, eh Al? Shocking!!! And she drove a Lotus too!!

I agree about the earlier 250Fs. Mac P's resin version is VERY nice.

mp

Hello David L

Maybe the question should had ben the best F1 car since good looks are so subjective, had an "argument" with Ecurie Martini about what looks good and what don´t...maybe I missunderstood the man..if so..sorry mate. Well from one thing to another...David..I was woundering if you have worked some more on your track now when you have finished your "house" ?. Hope you don´t mind me asking, just interested thats all.

cheers
Eric

Is it just me or do ugly F1 cars never win anything and the beautiful ones win everything, supporting the old adage, if it looks right it is right.

Speedieweenie, It is my recollection that the suit wasn't as much worn as displayed.
Alfetta

To me, the current crop of F1 cars are interesting because of their 1930's, end of the biplane era, box kite wings. I fly kites, too, it isn't just slot cars.
The single-plane cars of the '70's look a little spare to me. Those square wings look like pieces of wall board.
My favorite cars are from my "youth" which was the mid sixties. But even then, I liked the thin tire, front engine cars with the torpedo backs (the type of streamlining that never knew a wind tunnel). And if you depart from the Maseratis and Alfas, you find the great honking Auto Unions lurking as an awe-inspiring prewar premonition of what the Germans were about to wreak upon the world.
I like the Lotus 25, agree that it was striking and minimalist, but the more eccentric (or some would say characterful) proportions of the concurrent BRM "say" more to me. I like them better.
Favorite? Diana Rigg, hands down. She seems more like a '62 BRM than a Lotus 25, in or out of the catsuit.