Coloni-Subaru

can anyone tell us about this car? why did it appear/disappear?

I remember a thread about this once before.

apparently Minardi tried the Subaru engine in late 1989 , they said it was terrible and decided to pass on the deal.

Coloni on the other hand wanted manufacturer involvment so they took the deal but the car and engine were way to heavy and unreliable.

The engine was built by Carlo Chitti of Motori Moderni fame and was a V12 boxer engine.
There is quite a story behind the engine. Dubbed the '1235' model, it was in the flat-12 style. This style had been seen in the 1970s, and had an advantage in that it provided a low centre of gravity. But it was also a bulky style of engine, and the Subaru weighed in at 159kg. With five valves per cylinder, it was reputed to produce 417kW (just under 600bhp), which was not great.

I dont know what the actual problem was but it was just simply to slow and never pre qualified for a race , Coloni ended up scrapping the idea (maybe their decision maybe Subaru's) and they returned to using the Ford DFR V8 which wasnt much better for them.

the Driver was Bertrand Gachot and he quickly jumped ship at the end of 1990 to the brand new Jordan team.

Coloni slipped into oblivion failing to qualify for a race in 1991 as well and then selling to Andrea Sassetti who ran the even worse Andrea Moda team who were eventually banned during 1992 , neither have been heard of in F1 circles again.

found a picture :)

Originally posted by marcus

The engine was built by Carlo Chitti of Motori Moderni fame and was a V12 boxer engine.
There is quite a story behind the engine. Dubbed the '1235' model, it was in the flat-12 style. This style had been seen in the 1970s, and had an advantage in that it provided a low centre of gravity. But it was also a bulky style of engine, and the Subaru weighed in at 159kg. With five valves per cylinder, it was reputed to produce 417kW (just under 600bhp), which was not great.



The engine also appeared in a sportscar during 1990- the Alba AR20, with no more success. It proved to be both slow and chronically unreliable- I don't recall it ever actually qualifying for a race, and by the end of the season, the team dumped it in favour of a 4.5 litre Buick V6 -which was merely slow....

Drivers included Gianfranco Brancatelli and Marco Brand


http://racingsportscars.t35.com/photo/1990/Silverstone-1990-05-20-041.jpg

The MIG M100 Sportscar that tried to qualify for Le Mans 2003 was also powered by a Motori Moderni motor, in this instance I thought a V12.
While quite good during the test day when powered by a lambo engine, the actual race weekend was a disater with the diffrent engine leading to chassis flexing problems that led to the drivers being unable to chage gear.

cool , i didnt know any of that , thanks for the added info guys :)

It may have had a bit more potential if Coloni had built a dedicated tub. In the 70's the boxer Ferrari's and Brabham Alfas found an advantage in the low height of the Flat 12 engine and were aerodynamically excellent (until ground effects created a need for narrow engines. A decade on and flat bottoms again compulsory, there could have been some merit in a low, wide engine.....as long as it was a powerful, light one as well!

I can't imagine a Coloni tub, built for a V8, made best use of this shape of engine though.

Chitti was also reknowned for collecting stray dogs, which used to run around the factory.....

I found some more pics... The first shows Carlo Chiti standing next to the engine. Doesnt he look happy with it....

Heres another of the car itself

Was that engine designed to fit a ship or a train?

I think it was eventually used to power a train and anchor a ship :)

so the answer is both :)

I think the chassis was up for sale earlier this year

Here's a article from a subaru magazine:

http://www.driveperformancesubaru.com/version4_3/formula_one.asp