1971 F1 cars drifting in slow motion
- Thread starter Emery
- Start date
davehenrie
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I find it eye-opening how far back they are sitting. 80's F1 had drivers practically sitting on the front axle. I guess I figured it was always that way.
mantasisg
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Thanks. I think the racing tech was the most harmonized in 70s. Good downforce, but not too insane (almost). Still somewhat low drag. Enough power. Grippy tires, but not too much so they were still playful and they were also reasonably durable as much as I know. Only safety was still lacking.
Nice to watch how F1 back then still had very perceivable slides, and suspension motion as seen in those braking examples, but some body roll also is perceivable. These cars on slowmotion looks faster than modern F1 cars doing much faster speeds. They could also race on tracks that had much more in common with regular roads, unlike modern stuff.
I like a lot what we have in rF2. Don't really like the Mclaren, I think it has no subtleness to it. But I really like the March.
I think they had it so right back then for the ultimate experience. Of course later everything was getting so much faster. But at what expense. More grip - less lasting and less dancing tires, more downforce, but more drag and also secondary effect to less playfulness just as in case of tires. Forever stiffer suspension, as it was getting much more important to keep cars sharp and stable aerodynamically and marginal grip loss due stiffness was not as meaningful. Less pedals, easier gears shifting, more and more electronics diminishing involvement of driver. Radio connection and instructions to driver further reducing drivers involvement. Optimising tracks for cars - because they just can't handle reality of roads. Masking incredibly early aero drag speed walls by introducing chicanes. Cancelling races due to medium rain, because conditions are out of design. Ballance of power and budgets to make everything even more scriptable. Today racing is more about how good they are able to grab on to the money, thats the whole fun I guess.
But there is this footage, and it is nice to simply see cars dancing. All different, and in the years where technological progress was real, and not fake like today. You know these were still actual cars with open wheels and one seat dropped low.
Nice to watch how F1 back then still had very perceivable slides, and suspension motion as seen in those braking examples, but some body roll also is perceivable. These cars on slowmotion looks faster than modern F1 cars doing much faster speeds. They could also race on tracks that had much more in common with regular roads, unlike modern stuff.
I like a lot what we have in rF2. Don't really like the Mclaren, I think it has no subtleness to it. But I really like the March.
I think they had it so right back then for the ultimate experience. Of course later everything was getting so much faster. But at what expense. More grip - less lasting and less dancing tires, more downforce, but more drag and also secondary effect to less playfulness just as in case of tires. Forever stiffer suspension, as it was getting much more important to keep cars sharp and stable aerodynamically and marginal grip loss due stiffness was not as meaningful. Less pedals, easier gears shifting, more and more electronics diminishing involvement of driver. Radio connection and instructions to driver further reducing drivers involvement. Optimising tracks for cars - because they just can't handle reality of roads. Masking incredibly early aero drag speed walls by introducing chicanes. Cancelling races due to medium rain, because conditions are out of design. Ballance of power and budgets to make everything even more scriptable. Today racing is more about how good they are able to grab on to the money, thats the whole fun I guess.
But there is this footage, and it is nice to simply see cars dancing. All different, and in the years where technological progress was real, and not fake like today. You know these were still actual cars with open wheels and one seat dropped low.
mantasisg
Registered
Apart from what was simply fastest formula. I think back then it was still more important to steer cars from shoulders to have more precision. Unlike later as cars natural frequencies rose, they got a ton faster, steering of wheels also got faster, and it got almost better to steer them by almost only wrists lol
Autounion Type C though had notoriously cramped forward seating position, which was uncomfortable and it made driving very difficult, plus being far forward which also I guess reduces seat feel maybe as well as visible perception of yaw angle changes. Although drivers with W125 also did have not that much room to sit further from steering, because they just had big long engines.