Favourite Grand Prix Car of the 1970s

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.

Favourite Grand Prix Car from the 1970s

Lotus 72 (Golf Leaf)
1
11%
Lotus 72D (JPS)
2
22%
Lotus 78
0
No votes
Lotus 79
0
No votes
Ferrari 312B1
1
11%
Ferrari 312B2
0
No votes
Ferrari 312T1
0
No votes
Ferrari 312T2
0
No votes
Ferrari 312T4
0
No votes
Tyrrell 003
0
No votes
Tyrrell 006
0
No votes
Tyrrell P34
3
33%
McLaren M23 (1974 version)
0
No votes
McLaren M23 (1976 version)
1
11%
Brabham BT44B
0
No votes
Brabham BT46
0
No votes
BRM P153
0
No votes
BRM P201
0
No votes
March 701
0
No votes
March 761
0
No votes
Williams FW07
1
11%
Wolf WR1
0
No votes
Hesketh 308
0
No votes
Matra MS120
0
No votes
Surtees TS9B
0
No votes
Hill HG1
0
No votes
Shadow DN5
0
No votes
Shadow DN7
0
No votes
Penske PC3
0
No votes
Fittipaldi FD03
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 9

User avatar
PTRACER
Forum Administrator
Forum Administrator
Posts: 42491
Joined: 21 years ago
Real Name: Paul
Favourite Motorsport: Formula 1
Favourite Racing Car: Lotus 49
Favourite Driver: Gilles Villeneuve, James Hunt
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X JDM
Contact:

Favourite Grand Prix Car of the 1970s

#1

Post by PTRACER »

The 1970s are hard because there are so many to choose from, but let's give it a try.

Previous threads:
Favourite Grand Prix Car of the 1950s: viewtopic.php?t=16345
Favourite Grand Prix Car of the 1960s: viewtopic.php?t=16588
Developer of the 1967v3 Historic Mod for Grand Prix Legends: viewtopic.php?t=17429

King of the Race Track, Destroyer of Tyres, Breaker of Lap Records
User avatar
MonteCristo
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11676
Joined: 9 years ago
Favourite Motorsport: Openwheel
Favourite Racing Car: Tyrrell P34/Protos
Favourite Driver: JV
Favourite Circuit: Road America
Location: Brisbane, Australia

#2

Post by MonteCristo »

There can only be one.
Oscar Piastri in F1! Catch the fever! Vettel Hate Club. Life membership.

2012 GTP Non-Championship Champion | 2012 Guess The Kai-Star Half Marathon Time Champion | 2018 GTP Champion | 2019 GTP Champion | 2024 GTP Accuracy Champion
User avatar
erwin greven
Staff
Staff
Posts: 20641
Joined: 20 years ago
Real Name: Erwin Greven
Favourite Motorsport: Endurance Racing
Favourite Racing Car: Lancia Delta 038 S4 Group B
Favourite Driver: Ronnie Peterson
Favourite Circuit: Nuerburgring Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Ford Fiesta 1.3 8v (2008)
Location: Stadskanaal, Groningen
Contact:

#3

Post by erwin greven »

Was a very difficult one. The Williams or the Lotus 72/79. I voted the Williams.
Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 52657
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#4

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

MonteCristo wrote: 1 week ago There can only be one.
I suspect its the one with lots of wheels.

Funnily enough I was going to post this for you so might as well post it here.....



From their archives here is a bit of a track test of the car, as published in Motorsport Mag back in 2011
Tyrrell P34: Driving the six-wheeler F1 car

When Tyrrell sought an 'unfair advantage', there was an ingenious solution: two extra....


Image
When I say there will never be another track test like this, I say so with a confidence inspired not simply by the subject’s unique, six-wheeled selling point. It’s also because what I’m sitting in can be seen almost as more a historical document of record than a racing car.

I’ll explain. What you’re looking at here is Tyrrell-Ford P34/2, the first of the six-wheeled racers (P34/1 being the unraced prototype) which made its debut in May 1976 at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, the fourth race of the season, and effectively retired to unused T-car status after the 1977 US GP West at Long Beach a little less than a year later. And while it didn’t win any of the 14 grands prix it contested, it did put Patrick Depailler, the only man ever to race this car, on the podium on five of those occasions. So we can agree it is quite an important car.

Combine this with the five podiums scored by Jody Scheckter’s P34/3, including a top step at Anderstorp, plus four more achieved by three other P34 chassis, and what we have here is not quite the failure that history suggests it was.

Image
P34 nomenclature illustrates Tyrrell’s unsureness about its new car


But even this is not really the point. The thing about P34/2 is that after its final season it became frozen in time, ending up as a long-term exhibit in the Donington Collection. Every single thing you can see on or in this car with the sole exception of the tyres was there in 1977. And I don’t just mean engine, gearbox and chassis, I mean wishbones, wings, wheels and wiring, seat, belts, switches and dials. It is a time capsule.

“Even our own Denis Jenkinson, who was never short of a sentence, admitted to being ‘speechless’ when he saw it”
Of course there are other cars in other museums in similar condition. The difference here is that this one runs. Bought by Roger Wills after the death of Tom Wheatcroft, he commissioned WDK Motorsport to see if they could get it going in time for the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed. “We cleaned out the fuel system as best we could, changed the oil and put a match to it,” says WDK’s Ian Cox only slightly metaphorically. Somewhat remarkably, P34/2 sparked up as if it had been days, not decades, since she last ran. Roger and Joe Twyman drove it up the hill and now it’s sitting in the Silverstone pitlane waiting for me.

It looks frail, probably because it is. The 1977-spec bodywork with its front oil coolers is scored, pitted and blistered. The foam headrest support has perished almost entirely, and when the body comes off, exposed and ancient wiring makes me pleased this is a gentle test at a wide and safe Silverstone. At least I don’t have to think about the state of the suspension; this is one test where caution will be my watchword.

What has occupied my thoughts, not just in the run-up to driving the P34 but for years beforehand, was the thinking that led to its creation. Even our own Denis Jenkinson, who was never short of a sentence, admitted to being ‘speechless’ when he saw it for the first time.

Like many others I had bought the line that it was all about reducing frontal area, but a quick chat with its designer, Derek Gardner, soon set me straight on that. “We found ourselves in a straitjacket. Almost everyone had the same engine, gearbox and tyres; we needed an unfair advantage, and the six-wheeler was it. But it was never about frontal area: that was determined by the width of the rear tyres.”

Instead it was about grip. Four small wheels put more rubber on the road than two conventional wheels; you also gain a greater swept area of brake disc. Better, because a wheel and tyre exposed to a moving flow of air will generate a force at right angles to its cylindrical axis, and the size of that force is directly related to the size of wheel and tyre, so the smaller the wheels the lower that force will be. In short, small wheels meant less lift, which meant more grip. It was pure genius.

The driving forces behind the car were not just Tyrrell and Gardner, but Depailler too. While Scheckter was and remains to this day dismissive of the P34 – he told me he thought the car was rubbish, except his language was a little more colourful than that – it was Depailler, a lover of all things mechanical and experimental, who urged it on. The fact that it was known merely by its project number, rather than as the next in the line of ’00’ racers, demonstrates how unsure Tyrrell was about its viability, and Jenks cites Depailler as the man who provided the ‘real impetus’ to go racing with it.

Image
Only P34/2’s tyres were fresh at Silverstone – the rest were as Depailler left it in ’77


It’s such a shame Patrick is no longer with us, and not just because his broken Alfa Romeo at Hockenheim deprived the world of a driver who, if greatness was measured by how good a driver was to watch, would have been up there with the best in the world. With his 1977 team-mate Ronnie Peterson gone too, and Scheckter indifferent to the point that it and the dreadful Ferrari 312T5 are the only significant cars from his Formula 1 career which he doesn’t own, there is no one who drove it in anger in period to speak on its behalf.

If you go onto YouTube and look at the on-board footage of Depailler hoofing it around places as diverse as Monaco and the original Kyalami, flinging this very car into extravagant drifts at ludicrous speeds just because he could and, I suspect, because he knew there was a camera on the car, you’ll know man and machine rarely achieved a more harmonious union than this. He once told editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck: “I run all the time at the limit. I like to run at the limit, to push things as far as I can. I am the same at everything. If I decide to do something, I give it everything. All the time.” See that footage of him and the P34 together and you won’t doubt his word.

But today, some 35 years after it was first unveiled to a disbelieving Jenks on the lawn of Tyrrell’s house in West Clandon, and despite the fact that I still own a rather battered die-cast model bought as a child, it remains a strange beast. It’s sitting in a garage full of other period racing F1 cars, but so far as the attention they’re getting from onlookers relative to the P34 goes, they might as well not have been there. If you hold up your hand and block off the front at the cockpit, it seems conventional, less pretty in its 1977 First National Travelers Checks (sic) livery than simple 1976 Elf blue, but normal enough. But move your hand to obscure the rear and reveal the front and wha you’re looking at might not even be a racing car, but something as likely to be designed to function on the moon, or the seabed. No wonder words failed our intrepid Continental Correspondent all those years ago.

Image
Original Cosworth DFV is on song


Those diminutive 10-inch front wheels, the same diameter as those used on a 1959 Mini, are nothing like so interesting as the miniature double wishbone suspension system behind each one and the tiny ventilated discs they carry. I’ve not seen the data but for all they brought in terms of mechanical and aerodynamic grip, the price was paid in mechanical complexity and, surely, unsprung weight.

It’s a surprisingly and, some might say, needlessly spacious car. No modern aerodynamicist would allow such a wide aperture for accommodating a component as easily adaptable as a driver, even if he was the size of Ronnie Peterson. But as someone used to driving such cars in agony, if at all, it’s a blessed relief. We need to remove Patrick’s seat (how strange it is to write that…) but once installed on the bare aluminium tub there’s room aplenty for my shoulders, feet and elbows. Even his now somewhat threadbare belts fit.

Most of what I can see represents standard thinking of the day. Indeed the driving environment could as easily date from the early ’60s as the late ’70s – as if, shark-like, it had evolved to a point where there was no practical room for improvement.

That seems laughable now as, just for a start, the dials are so small you almost have to squint to see readings for fuel and oil pressure, water and oil temperature. The rev-counter is larger and straight ahead but still needs to be consciously looked at, rather than assimilated in your peripheral vision. But that’s just one of many differences between now and then: we watch gauges like hawks because these are old cars and expensive to repair; they just went flat out because nothing else mattered.

There’s a stubby, wood-topped gear-shifter exactly where you would expect, less than a hand’s breadth from the small, black steering wheel, and then there’s a porthole. Yes, a porthole, through which I can see not one but two front wheels. Back then the ports were cut into the P34’s body to allow the driver to aim the car more accurately and, some say, monitor front tyre wear. Now they serve only to remind me that the rearmost set of front wheels are approximately parallel with my knees. I’ve never driven a car that can’t provide a straight answer to a question as simple as: ‘what’s the wheelbase?’

Image
Time to go. Master, pump and ignition on, throttle on the floor, press the button and the DFV explodes into life much like any other. Except the pistons shuttling up and down the bores of this one as it warms up at an even 4000rpm are 33 years old, meaning they have exceeded their life expectancy by at least 32 years.

To say I am mindful of this is to understate the obvious. This P34 is about to go into a yearlong front to back restoration, and as the last person to drive it in original form the fear of damaging its ancient internals informs my every action more even than the usual fear of taking to the track in someone else’s F1 car with a power-to-weight ratio approximately double that of a Bugatti Veyron.

The clutch needs pumping before it will give me a gear, which is less than encouraging, but with a bit of gentle rocking first engages and with a surprising lack of drama the P34 eases out into the pitlane.

The first lap is a voyage of discovery but not for reasons I had expected. With tyres still cold I’m not going to do much more than guide the car around the track, but what strikes me first has nothing to do with its unique configuration. It’s the delightful ease with which the engine and gearbox can be used. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a few DFVs under my right foot over the years, but none as tractable as this, suggesting a degree of drivability which has been sacrificed in more modern times in the pursuit of raw power. It pulls very nicely from under 5000rpm and starts climbing properly onto the cam from as little as 6000rpm. I drove one once that would scarcely function below 8500rpm…

Patrick Depailler leads Jody Scheckter in Tyrrell six wheeler F1 cars

Image
Depailler leads Scheckter at Monaco in 1976

And the Hewland five-speed gearbox is as nice and light as any I’ve tried. It may be that this one was particularly sweet when new and is now well run in, but once you’ve retuned your brain to accept just how close the gate is, you don’t have to think about it again because with two such well-defined planes, and first a safe distance away to your left, wrong-slotting seems inconceivable.

So it seems safe to up the effort level a little. Back in its day Depailler would have revved this engine to 10,500rpm or more, and until I’d discovered just how flexible this motor was, I’d worried about the unavoidable need to stay well shy of such numbers. In fact, because it comes on song so early you can gain a good impression of its raw speed without running the risk of decorating the Hangar Straight with its insides.


The punch of this era of F1 car is a novelty that must never wear off. Even this old Tyrrell, being driven necessarily gently and defensively, is so fast I can hear myself cackling in my Arai even above the exquisitely ugly din of the DFV. Coming out of Luffield in second it eats gears so fast that, even on the short pit straight, there’s all the time in the world for it to consume third, fourth and all the revs we’ll be using in fifth before you’re heading into Copse.

We sail through in fourth — I’m sure that on fresh rubber, with new suspension and a driver better versed in such cars it would get through in top — and head to the series of curves at Becketts. This is the bit I really wanted to get to: I was interested not so much in how it behaves on the limit because that was one place we’d not be visiting today, but simply how the six-wheeler addresses the road through the sweeping series of alternate lefts and rights.

And to be honest, it feels bloody strange. It’s so reactive to your every input the wheelbase seems shorter even than it is. It appears that you need do little more than look at a corner for the car to want to turn into it. Moreover the car plays a trick on you, I think because your mind is given the wrong impression of where the front wheels are relative to the rear and where, therefore, the yaw axis should be. But because — most of the time at least — the wheelbase has to be determined by the distance between the rear wheels and the aft pair of front wheels, that axis is further back than you think.

Image
Tyrrell is a car of two distinct halves

I imagine it’s a car that even someone who’s raced many F1 cars of this period would need to build up to; it may even provide some clue as to why a driver as gifted as Peterson entirely at home behind felt never its wheel. I suspect it’s a taste you either acquire, like the free-spirited Depailler, or don’t. Even the iron-willed Scheckter who mastered this car better than anyone never really got on with it, singling out the brakes for special criticism: “As soon as one set locked you had to lift off. It only really worked on very smooth surfaces, and back then there just weren’t many of those around.” He has a point.

Happily these are issues that will never concern me. I’m just astounded to be sitting here, guiding this car through Silverstone’s twists, watching those tiny wheels bob up and down, wondering about what might have been.

What appears beyond dispute is that none of the P34’s apparent shortcomings — its extra weight, mechanical complexity, variable wheelbase and unchanged frontal area — were responsible for its downfall. Instead it was undone by its tyres, specifically Goodyear’s inability or unwillingness to develop the fronts, unique to Tyrrell, at the same speed as the rears, which were the same as every Goodyear runner on the grid. Anecdotally it’s been suggested that by the end of ’77 the P34 would have been over a second a lap quicker if its front tyres had been able to keep up with the rears.

But it was not to be: Scheckter left the team at the end of ’76 despite the P34 coming home a mere three points behind McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship (whose driver James Hunt was champion too) and soon after Gardner jumped ship. Maurice Phillippe came on board and moved the oil radiators forward and widened the front track, but all to little avail. As Gardner told me, “by then the car was fundamentally unbalanced front to rear”, and the results spoke for themselves.

“The great irony of the P34 is it was undone by front-end grip”
The great irony of the P34 is it was undone by front-end grip, the pursuit of which had sparked its creation in the first place. But as has since been suggested in historic racing, where another P34 driven by Martin Stretton has proven the class of the field thanks to Avon making front tyres that are just as good as the rears, its story could have been very different.

The good news is that P34/2 will race again, too. Roger Wills feels disinclined to let it remain a museum piece so will have it sympathetically restored, keeping every nut and bolt that can’t be used but making it safe to do once more what it was born to do. He’s even invited me back to have “a proper go in it”. I can scarcely wait.

Thanks to Roger Wills, Joe Twyman, Ian Cox of WDK Motorsport (www.wdkmotorsport. corn), the HSCC and Silverstone Circuits for making this feature possible.
.https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... -thinking/

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 52657
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#5

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

The Gold Leaf Lotus 72 keeps waving at me saying "pick me." I think thats more the livery than the car though....

I loved the BRM P201, (the sound was a bonus) and also the Brabham BT44B. Actually I liked any of the Murray penned cars. I guess I liked triangulated sidepods. (see my avatar for proof)

I got up close to, and reacquainted with a P201 a couple of years ago at Phillip Island. I had to put my hands in my pockets for a while. :suspicious: :whistling:

I liked the 312T Ferraris. Maybe that was more a Lauda thing?

I loved the Arrows A2.... that didnt even make the list. :sorrow: :tearful: Yeah I liked unusual sometimes.

I need more time to think. There is no "All of the above button".

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
User avatar
PTRACER
Forum Administrator
Forum Administrator
Posts: 42491
Joined: 21 years ago
Real Name: Paul
Favourite Motorsport: Formula 1
Favourite Racing Car: Lotus 49
Favourite Driver: Gilles Villeneuve, James Hunt
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X JDM
Contact:

#6

Post by PTRACER »

I forgot about the Arrows A2! Actually one of my favourite cars of the 1970s and such a curious design.

P34 was only good looking in its slightly later 1976 form. The 1977 car looked like a duck-billed platypus (and ugly as hell).

I also found this alternative configuration P34 which was run at Jarama in 1976 which I'd never seen before. A not-particularly-flattering pair of appendages there.

Image
Developer of the 1967v3 Historic Mod for Grand Prix Legends: viewtopic.php?t=17429

King of the Race Track, Destroyer of Tyres, Breaker of Lap Records
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 52657
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#7

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

PTRACER wrote: 1 week ago I forgot about the Arrows A2! Actually one of my favourite cars of the 1970s and such a curious design.
**Waits to see if the Arrows A2 makes a late entry on the list** :whistling:

[Im sure if that is in the "Too hard basket" (like 30 is the max. options) I can easily find one from the 30 choices shown] :wink:

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
User avatar
EB
Advanced Member
Advanced Member
Posts: 1510
Joined: 19 years ago

#8

Post by EB »

PTRACER wrote: 1 week ago I also found this alternative configuration P34 which was run at Jarama in 1976 which I'd never seen before. A not-particularly-flattering pair of appendages there
The Corgi toy P34 was in this configuration, so I grew up thinking this was the normal setup. Only when assisting on a Tyrrell history book 45 years later did I realise just how rare it actually was!
User avatar
MonteCristo
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11676
Joined: 9 years ago
Favourite Motorsport: Openwheel
Favourite Racing Car: Tyrrell P34/Protos
Favourite Driver: JV
Favourite Circuit: Road America
Location: Brisbane, Australia

#9

Post by MonteCristo »

Go-fast rocket boosters.
Oscar Piastri in F1! Catch the fever! Vettel Hate Club. Life membership.

2012 GTP Non-Championship Champion | 2012 Guess The Kai-Star Half Marathon Time Champion | 2018 GTP Champion | 2019 GTP Champion | 2024 GTP Accuracy Champion
User avatar
erwin greven
Staff
Staff
Posts: 20641
Joined: 20 years ago
Real Name: Erwin Greven
Favourite Motorsport: Endurance Racing
Favourite Racing Car: Lancia Delta 038 S4 Group B
Favourite Driver: Ronnie Peterson
Favourite Circuit: Nuerburgring Nordschleife
Car(s) Currently Owned: Ford Fiesta 1.3 8v (2008)
Location: Stadskanaal, Groningen
Contact:

#10

Post by erwin greven »

THE UNCOVERING OF A LEGEND – WILLIAMS FW07

By Heath McAlpine

Image


This is the car that started it all. The Williams FW07 not only vaulted Alan Jones into superstardom but set the trend for the team’s title successes for the next decade. Heath McAlpine revisits an important chassis in Formula 1 history.


Owned by aviation engineer Paul Faulkner, his FW07/04 took four out of six Grand Prix victories with Alan Jones at the wheel in 1980 before making the long journey from the UK to Western Australia, to be displayed as a museum piece for the best part of 30 years.

Faulkner bought the FW07 a decade ago, since which it has received a full restoration under the expert eye of Jones’ former Williams number one mechanic Wayne Eckersley.

Image

Driving his FW07 at a variety of events including the Australian Grand Prix and Phillip Island Festival of Motorsport, Faulkner is never shy to show off his very special part of Formula 1 history.

It was Frank Williams’ third attempt at Formula 1, but it proved the breakthrough when he formed Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited in 1977 alongside Patrick Head in a 70-30 was split.

Luring disillusioned engineer Head back to Formula 1 after an unsuccessful career to that point proved a masterstroke, and began an iconic partnership which lasted more than two decades.

Using a customer March chassis driven by Belgian Patrick Neve, no noteworthy results were achieved.

For 1978, the first Head-designed Williams, the FW06, improved the fledgling team’s results, so too did the addition of Jones, who finished a best of second at Watkins Glen on his way to 11th in the World Drivers’ Championship.

Increased sponsorship support from the Middle East courtesy of Saudi Airlines and the Saudi Bin Laden Group enhanced the team’s chances ahead of the 1979 season. This led to Clay Regazzoni joining Jones in a second entry in a championship, which was now heavily dominated by ground-effects design technology.

Lotus and its Type 78 started this in 1977, but its failure to close the gap to Ferrari that year saw rivals largely unmoved by ground-effects aerodynamics.

The next year Lotus made all its competitors stand up and take notice. In a season of dominance, Lotus took all before it to win the 1978 World Drivers’ Championship with Mario Andretti.

Lotus teammate, Swede Ronnie Peterson, was posthumously awarded second after his death due to medical complications resulting from an accident at the start of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Lotus was further rewarded with the International Cup for F1 Constructors.

However, it was a short-lived time at the top for Lotus, as in 1979 it went in the wrong direction when designing the Type 80.

Image

This opened the door for Williams, which had acquired a strong brains trust including Head, Frank Dernie, Neil Oatley and even a young Ross Brawn among its R&D team.

The key difference between the Lotus direction and the one of Williams took proved to be its better understanding of the aerodynamic loads that ground-effects created with the use of skirts, which on the Lotus 80 jammed under high loads.

On the FW07, this was avoided by using aluminium honeycomb and a sophisticated suspension system.

Debuting at Jarama (one was taken to the earlier US West GP, but remained under a tarp), the FW07 retired in its first two races, before Regazzoni scored second in the principality of Monaco.

Then there was a crucial breakthrough.

Image


Dernie hurried back from the Imperial College wind tunnel and worked through the night to construct fairings alongside the engine, which kept the airflow attached.

The impact was felt straight away, as Jones took pole at the British Grand Prix and went onto dominate the race until his engine overheated, handing Regazzoni victory.

Jones went onto win four of the next five races to finish third in the World Drivers’ Championship, sending a message to the Formula 1 fraternity that Williams for the 1980 season.

Three of these Grand Prix victories – Germany, Austria and Canada – were taken in Faulkner’s chassis, so too the season-opening 1980 Argentine Grand Prix.

Jones moved to the FW07B for the rest of the season, when he won his sole-World Drivers’ Championship by 14-points ahead of Nelson Piquet.

Image


For the rest of the 1980 season, chassis FW07/04 was used for testing purposes until trying new tyres Jones crashed at Donington Park.

It was then used by Saudi Airlines as a promotional piece before being bought for the Peter Briggs Collection in York, Western Australia, before the museum moved to Fremantle in 2002.

The chassis then went to auction in 2010, when it was purchased by Faulkner.

“It was about April 2010, it had been in the Peter Briggs collection at the York Motor Museum since 1981, he bought it direct through Williams,” Faulkner told Auto Action.

“It came up for auction, I was umming and ahhing, thinking an ex-F1 car would be something novel and this one was on my doorstep. It got passed in, but I bought it a few days later.”

Image

What followed was the introduction of Jones’s right-hand man during his period of international success, fellow Australian Wayne Eckersley.

“I bought it back and got Wayne Eckersley, who was AJ’s number one mechanic. He came down from Queensland, we had a look at the car, pulled it apart and thought, ‘Geez this is alright’,” recalled Faulkner.

“If it was no good, we were going to put it back together and have it as a display car, but we looked and it was actually a good car. It had a lot of new bits on it, it was complete apart from the engine (which) was hollow, it was just there to hold the back of the car on.

“We said ‘Let’s do it’, so Wayne stayed down here for about eight months with us working part-time. I’ve got some pretty handy people on staff here (Faulkner’s company is Aviation Component Services) to do different machining, welding and painting jobs in-house.

“There was a bit of help from people like Mike Borland, who made new suspension arms for the front because those had been damaged when the car was shipped around the world.”

Image

FW07/04 was stripped down to a bare tub where signs of the skirmish Jones had at Donington Park where still evident and remain today after the refurbishment. “It’s character,” described Faulkner.

The biggest job was restoring a legendary Cosworth DFV V8 engine, which received a new lease on life when ground effects entered Formula 1 in 1977, a decade on from when it made its Formula 1 debut.

Its competitiveness at the highest level had waned in the mid-1970s after the introduction of flat-12 powerplants from Italian manufacturers Alfa Romeo and Ferrari.

However, the narrower Cosworth DFV allowed venturi tunnels to be created on the underside of the cars, increasing downforce by taking advantage of low-pressure regions found in that area. The V-configuration of the Cosworth engine angled upwards, leaving room for an underbody profile, which also delivered a massive increase in downforce, further enhancing cornering potential and straight-line speed.

From 1978, the Cosworth DFV engine went on to power four out of the next five World Champions before turbos became reliable and more powerful during the mid-1980s.

Faulkner ordered a new engine from a long-time friend of Patrick Head’s, to the exact specification run in 1979, albeit detuned slightly.

Image

“The biggest item was the engine,” Faulkner explained.

“We didn’t have anything useful to work with so we actually bought a complete unit from Geoff Richardson’s in the UK. Geoff has been good friends with Patrick Head since they were lads and they conspired together to give us the right specification.

“Not a super peaky engine, you need more torque due to the drag produced by the aerodynamics. It was a brand new engine that came straight out of the box.”

There was further investigation work that took place for various parts, which was easier due to the FW07/04’s originality.

“There was a lot of investigation work, up all night phoning around England trying to find this or that and learn things,” explained Faulkner. “We were able to get the shock absorbers rebuilt and those were put back in, hydraulics are simple hoses, the car is quite manageable.

“You get later into the 80s with turbos, computers, any car that needs a laptop to make it work is just not my cup of tea.”

Image

Further help was found when a connection of Faulkner’s bumped into a man in England, who owned a considerable spare parts inventory for early Williams models.

“A contact through the racing world happened to be sitting around at Donington or Goodwood racing and at a barbeque ended up telling people that I’d bought a Williams,” Faulkner sets up the story.

“One bloke said ‘I have a lot of parts for them,’ and next thing I know, I’ve got the phone number and it’s like ‘Hey, I hear you’ve got lots of parts for Williams’, ‘Sure do, what do you want?’

“His friend had collected a lot of stuff that was going in the skip at Williams back in the early ’80s and there was an absolute treasure trove. Dymag wheels, I got a couple of sets, the FW07 has got an unusual fuel and oil pressure gauge so he had one of those all very reasonably priced, cheap I would say.

“This guy was just there to help. He had just restored another FW07 and knew his way around them. He was able to lend me a fuel cell so I could send it to the manufacturer because they needed a copy, so he dropped it off on his way to holidays.”

Another link to the Williams puzzle was Rodney Harlow, who led the manufacturing program for Supercars team Ford Performance Racing (now Tickford Racing) and was more than willing to help restore a chassis he worked on during the infancy of his career.

“Rodney Harlow, who was a fabricator for Williams back in the day, actually moved here (to Australia) many years ago and he was running Ford Performance Racing’s manufacturing,” recalled Faulkner.

“He was doing a bit himself and he went out on his own. He said to me, ‘Oh, I helped build that car, if you’re missing anything,’ … ‘I’m missing louvres off the radiator’ was my reply.

“When I went to pick them up, there was a set there, but there were another few sets under the bench. I said ‘What’s wrong with those? They look perfect’ and he replied, ‘They weren’t good enough’.”

Faulkner was delighted to have these two former Williams crew who helped build the chassis originally reunited 30-years later.

In addition to this, many of Faulkner’s crew at Aviation Component Services contributed to the restoration.

“There was a lot of detail work, like the plumbing was all missing, so we had to make it from scratch,” recalled Faulkner.

Image

“That was a real task and one of our guys, Andy, did most of the work very meticulously. He spent days trying to get it right and not just working, but looking right. We didn’t have a lot to work off and you’ve got hoses running around corners, it was a lot of work.”

All other components were stripped down, crack tested and dimensioned before being reinstalled in Faulkner’s workshop.

“We’re proud of what we did with it. It was a lot of work, a lot of people doing stuff, but I think we’ve done a reasonable job of not changing it, respecting it,” said Faulkner.

Faulkner’s connections in the aviation industry also aided in reproducing the wiring in the Williams, though the electronics of the era are very basic and laid out on a one-page diagram.

A lot of the components are basic aviation parts, making it more straight forward item to restore.

“There’s a little battery for the ignition system, it’s got an air motor to start it and there’s an electrical fuel pump, which is only needed to start it,” explained Faulkner. “After that, there’s a rain light and that’s about it.”

The FW07/04 features a Hewland FGB 400 five-speed transaxle, which remained largely original, save for one part which was easily attainable through the local Hewland agent before the gearbox was resealed, cleaned up and refitted.

The cast magnesium adaptor plate behind the Hewland featuring the oil tank, Desoutter air-starter and clutch slave, remains original.

Due to the high amount of ground-effects produced, the suspension was set-up very stiffly. The design featured front and rear rocker arms working together with inboard spring/damper units.

Brakes were ready to go with new pads and seals, though one of the discs needed to be replaced due to a crack.

Reluctantly rebuilt were the front wings, having been trampled on at some stage, while most the exterior of the FW07/04 remains original. The engine cover was repainted, but the stickers and battle scars remain from when it competed 40-years ago.

Working with Eckersley was a big thrill for Faulkner, as the former Williams number one worked his magic one last time.

“Wayne was great,” Faulkner enthused.

“He did unfortunately have the nickname ‘Wayne the Pain’ in the era because he was so pedantic, but AJ said it to me directly: ‘Yeah, he was annoying to people at the time, but he probably saved his bacon as well when there was uncertainty. They’d go in Wayne’s direction and he’d be right’.

“He was great, he’d be there in the morning. Wayne constantly sent emails to Patrick Head asking him about this or that, and Patrick didn’t know, being 30-years ago. His enthusiasm was unparalleled and the detailed knowledge he had was amazing.

“He was very particular and he’d have amazing knowledge of some detail, he could tell you all these things that no one else would know.

“It was good for Wayne; he’d retired as such and it made his year to relive the glory days. It was great for him.”

Due to FW07/04’s limited use, maintenance is not a problem.

“Because we started with a fresh engine and gearbox, everything is zero life, the maintenance is quite low,” said Faulkner.

“It’s more calendar time … needing to reseal things. I think it’s really only done about six hours of work since rebuild. The engine just requires a change of oil and filter, we’re still on the original set of plugs.

“It’s not such a monstrous thing to get started. Earlier in the year I tried to see if I could do it myself sitting in the car with the starter bottle next to me, cranking the lever and I managed to start it, but I couldn’t drive off because the starter bottle was still connected at the back of the car.

“A real simple car that a backyarder can almost look after. No laptops.

“The hardest thing is getting strapped in! AJ and I agree the car has shrunk over the years!”

Faulkner is full of praise for the drivers of the era, lamenting that technology has overtaken the outcome, which back then was largely determined by the brain in the seat.

“His job was to hand back at the end a stuffed, well used Williams,” Faulkner said.

“They wanted a hard charger, they didn’t want an umm or ahh driver, he (Jones) wrung its neck, that was his job, but (he) brought it home.

“I think back in those days where you didn’t have radios or people back at the factory, it took a lot upstairs to manage a race, any problems you had, you managed yourself. That’s why I admire the drivers of that era a bit more. Don’t get me wrong, modern drivers are great but there was more onus on the driver back then.”

And finally, what happened to the original parts replaced during the restoration?

Well, Faulkner has retained all those, which include the original wiring loom and cracked mirrors, maintaining the FW07/04’s heritage.

Although Faulkner is unable to keep the FW07/04 at home, he has collected a vast array of associated memorabilia including an original Saudi Air Williams jacket and many Tamiya 1/24 kits of the car.

So it’s safe to say, FW07/04 is in good hands.

Auto Action thanks Paul Faulkner for his assistance with this article, which concludes our Alan Jones series celebrating the 40th anniversary of his World Championship triumph.

WILLIAMS FW07/04

ENGINE:
Ford Cosworth DFV 90º V8
Displacement 2993 cc / 182.6 cu in
Bore / Stroke 85.7 mm (3.4 in) / 64.8 mm (2.6 in)
Compression 11.5:1
Fuel feed Lucas Fuel Injection
Lubrication Dry sump
Power 362 kW @ 10,600 rpm
Torque 253 ft lbs @ 9,500 rpm
Fuel tank Marston

DRIVETRAIN:
Hewland FGB 400 5 speed Manual, Borg & Beck clutch

CHASSIS:
Aluminium monocoque
Rims Dymag 13×11 at the front, 13×18 at the rear

SUSPENSION:
Front Top rocker arms, bottom wishbones, inboard springs
Rear Lower wishbones, top rocker arms and links, inboard springs, Koni shocks

BRAKES:
Lockheed ventilated discs, twin-calipers, Ferodo pads

DIMENSIONS:
Weight 579 kg
Wheelbase 2692 mm
Width Front – 1738 mm
Rear – 1600 mm

RACE VICTORIES – Chassis Number FW07/04
1979 German Grand Prix (Alan Jones)
1979 Austrian Grand Prix (Alan Jones)
1979 Canadian Grand Prix (Alan Jones)
1980 Argentine Grand Prix (Alan Jones)
https://autoaction.com.au/2021/12/26/th ... liams-fw07
Brian Redman: "Mr. Fangio, how do you come so fast?" "More throttle, less brakes...."
User avatar
Everso Biggyballies
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 52657
Joined: 19 years ago
Real Name: Chris
Favourite Motorsport: Anything that goes left and right.
Favourite Racing Car: Too Many to mention
Favourite Driver: Kimi,Niki,Jim(none called Michael)
Favourite Circuit: Nordschleife, Spa, Mt Panorama.
Car(s) Currently Owned: Audi SQ5 3.0L V6 TwinTurbo
Location: Just moved 3 klms further away so now 11 klms from Albert Park, Melbourne.

#11

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

erwin greven wrote: 1 week ago
THE UNCOVERING OF A LEGEND – WILLIAMS FW07

By Heath McAlpine

Image


This is the car that started it all. The Williams FW07 not only vaulted Alan Jones into superstardom but set the trend for the team’s title successes for the next decade. Heath McAlpine revisits an important chassis in Formula 1 history.



Hehehe I thought it looked familiar. I see that very car a couple times a year, usually at PI. In fact I will probably see it again in a month from now.

Image
Image

Image

Image

Image

* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left


“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)

* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
User avatar
Michael Ferner
Supreme Member
Supreme Member
Posts: 3910
Joined: 8 years ago
Real Name: Michael Ferner
Favourite Racing Car: Miller '122', McLaren M23
Favourite Driver: Billy Winn, Bruce McLaren
Car(s) Currently Owned: None
Location: Bitburg, Germany

#12

Post by Michael Ferner »

Yeah, that's the chassis with which Kermit took his first F1 pole.

Btw, "... (one was taken to the earlier US West GP, but remained under a tarp)..." is not quite true, as I clearly recall the photos in the press from its presentation there. Back in those days, they weren't so precious about 'car launching'.
2023 'Guess The Pole' Points & Accuracy Champion

If you don't vote now against fascism, you may never have that chance again...


Ceterum censeo interruptiones essent delendam.
User avatar
XcraigX
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 3002
Joined: 9 years ago
Real Name: Craig
Favourite Motorsport: Formula 1
Favourite Racing Car: Tyrrell P34
Favourite Driver: Mario Andretti
Favourite Circuit: Spa-Francorchamps
Car(s) Currently Owned: 2014 BMW 328d

#13

Post by XcraigX »

There are so many GREAT cars from the 70's era. In fact I consider the 70's the height of F1 variety as it really started to break technological ground during this time. Plus the variety of cars we got was astounding with many different solutions thrown at the Aero problem.
I could have easily picked one of the Shadow cars, the Hesketh, the Wolf, the Ferraris, or any of the Loti. But for me, I always have to go with my first love in the Tyrrell P34.
:trophy: 2019 GTP Accuracy Champion :trophy:
:trophy: 2021 GTP Accuracy Champion :trophy:
:trophy: 2022 Picks and Predictions Champion :trophy:
User avatar
MonteCristo
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11676
Joined: 9 years ago
Favourite Motorsport: Openwheel
Favourite Racing Car: Tyrrell P34/Protos
Favourite Driver: JV
Favourite Circuit: Road America
Location: Brisbane, Australia

#14

Post by MonteCristo »

XcraigX wrote: 4 days ago There are so many GREAT cars from the 70's era. In fact I consider the 70's the height of F1 variety as it really started to break technological ground during this time. Plus the variety of cars we got was astounding with many different solutions thrown at the Aero problem.
I could have easily picked one of the Shadow cars, the Hesketh, the Wolf, the Ferraris, or any of the Loti. But for me, I always have to go with my first love in the Tyrrell P34.
This man has taste.

And style.

And pizzazz.

:agreepost:
Oscar Piastri in F1! Catch the fever! Vettel Hate Club. Life membership.

2012 GTP Non-Championship Champion | 2012 Guess The Kai-Star Half Marathon Time Champion | 2018 GTP Champion | 2019 GTP Champion | 2024 GTP Accuracy Champion
User avatar
Michael Ferner
Supreme Member
Supreme Member
Posts: 3910
Joined: 8 years ago
Real Name: Michael Ferner
Favourite Racing Car: Miller '122', McLaren M23
Favourite Driver: Billy Winn, Bruce McLaren
Car(s) Currently Owned: None
Location: Bitburg, Germany

#15

Post by Michael Ferner »

Funny thing. Back in the time, we didn't consider it a "breakthrough time for technology". In fact, since (basically) all the cars featured Ford Cosworth DFV engines and Hewland DG gearboxes, we spoke of the "kit-car formula". Interesting how parameters change over time.
2023 'Guess The Pole' Points & Accuracy Champion

If you don't vote now against fascism, you may never have that chance again...


Ceterum censeo interruptiones essent delendam.
Post Reply