The Ugliest cars ever

[EERO]

Here's my vote: 1973 Tecno, Chris Amon driving at the Belgian GP

[Ajay]

hey some of these cars have some weird body covers eh!

[Jordi]

Originally posted by Sato san
i just watch Imola 96 on video , its only 6 years ago , but i cant believe how UGLY the cars were then. The Williams , Bennetton and Ferrari were hideous . I knew at the time they wernt the prettiest cars ever , but looking back now they look horrible.

The Williams was nice, but the Ferrari, with the huge head protections...


And also, a year late, Tyrrell introduced the tall wings in each side of the car... that was uglier

[O'Schumacher]

Everything from 1983-1985 with those rear wings that took up 3/4 of the car

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Sato san
The Williams , Bennetton and Ferrari were hideous . I knew at the time they wernt the prettiest cars ever , but looking back now they look horrible.

I always liked the Williams and Benny's of '96, Agreed on the Ferrari of '96 tho, that has to be the worst Ferrari ever!

My best mate sent me a vid mail of Berger in the Ferrari 412T2 at Monaco from 1995 today..........that is one beautiful car!

[Mekola]

For me there were ugly cars some of the 70s like the 1978 ATS, the Alfa 177, some Merzarios and the Kauhsen. Also the first cars with side protection for cockpits (1996) were ugly, except the Williams and the Jordan of that year.

[Sato san]

Originally posted by mr v


mate sent me a vid mail of Berger in the Ferrari 412T2 at Monaco from 1995 today..........that is one beautiful car!

Oh , i love that car ! I think that was a John Barnard creation. ..that is one beautiful machine.

That wasnt of Berger going through Casino square was it in qualifing ?. I seem to remember he has 4 wheel drift as came out of Casino Square and just nudged the barriers . I think that was in 1995 , and i remember John Watson practically wet himself with excitement. It was a pretty special moment though , in a beautiful looking car.

[Jordi]

The 70's inventions were mostly horrid, although now all the cars are the same... that was variety!

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Jordi
The 70's inventions were mostly horrid,

Agreed, i was watching a review of the 1975 season yesterday (on Motors TV) and it has to be said that they have to be some of the most disgusting things ever built!

[Jordi]

Those airboxes were spectacular, to say something...

[EERO]

Originally posted by mr v


Agreed, i was watching a review of the 1975 season yesterday (on Motors TV) and it has to be said that they have to be some of the most disgusting things ever built!

I think you will find many people here who started watching F1 then and find them the best looking cars. Frankly, I find the current batch completely inelegant. The 70's cars were magnificent, despite the occassional dog.

[strad]

BTW.yeah i was wrong about the Arrows..my bad:
the driver is ...Ronnie Bucknum in that one photo

[Jukebox]

I don understand you guys at all. How come previous racing cars are more good looking than the present ones according to some of you guys?

With it's odd looking chassis, then the wings are all plain ugly and not aerodynamically friendly where downforce is concerned.

Back to the topic of the thread...anything that was built before the new millenium are ugly to me. the sexiest and best looking car to me is the F2002 without a doubt.

[Sato san]

Another complete dog of a car was that original Tyrell that had the X wings on it . I think Mike Gasgoine was responisble for that one.

[Bibendum]

It's an interesting debate, this. We can't look at cars from, say, the 70s without a knowledge of all that came after -- so our attitudes, given the fickleness of memory, are bound to be coloured by this knowledge.

There's also an interesting assumption that there is a single aesthetic standard to which cars do or do not approximate -- and I guess that, in turn, derives mostly from the idea that when function is perfected form will be inherently pleasing. I'm not sure I buy that -- some very effective things (not just cars) are very efficient but, to my eye, unpleasing.

I guess what I'm saying is, we learn to like and dislike things, and certainly we learn to become used to things. I used to loath the high-nosed look; now the low noses and flat front wings look antique to me, even though (as in the JPS Lotus) they can be stunning. When I first saw the droop-nose Ferrari, I thought it looked like an anorexic aardvark; now I think it looks pretty good. I liked that slab-sided Brabham -- the one with the sharp angles at the outer edge, at one time seen in Martini livery (I built a Tamiya one of those, when dinosaurs roamed the earth); now it looks like an iron gone mad.

Actually, it's also hard to separate livery from line; the original BAR may have been lovely, but one would never have been able to guess. And it's also hard to separate performance from aeshetic, I suspect; I mean, I believe the current Jag is a fabulous looking F1 car, but that doesn't mean it's the car I'd choose to race!

On the other hand (do I have any left?) some things do seem unarguably bad-looking: that b&w photo of -- is the 4wd cosworth, someone said? -- is just awful, like an idea concocted by a marginally competent TV effects person designing a low-budget spin-off from "Death Race 2000."