Most aesthetically pleasing unsuccessful racing car

[inimitablestoo]

If it looks fast, it'll be fast, according to one racing saying - but it doesn't always happen. There have been some undeniably pretty racing cars that haven't been that good so, following a couple of threads on aesthetics that still seem to be going strong, I thought I'd start one for cars that haven't really lived up to their looks.

This was partly inspired by a trip to the Beaulieu Motor Museum the other week, and seeing the McLaren MP4/9. The 1994 Peugeot-powered car actually sets the bar pretty high, since it took multiple podium finishes, including second places in Monaco and (inherited) in Belgium. But compared to McLarens of previous years it was a flop, despite a simple, neatly packaged design and that red and white livery that made almost all McLarens look good (its successor being a notable exception!).

For true lack of success, the Andrea Moda S921 has to qualify - with that menacing black livery it was certainly a looker, but only once saw a race start and didn't get much further than that. From the wider world of racing, I'd also nominate the sinister black Epsilon Euskadi EE1 - far and away more successful than the Moda, but with only one season of racing it wasn't given chance to show its potential.

Got to be plenty more than that, but that's a good-looking trio of failures (of varying degrees) for starters...

[prpr]

There was a Ligier from the late '80s which fitted the bill.

[steveaki13]

Is it this one? It certainly is a decent looking car

[anfield5]

Ligier JS17?



After this car Claude Galpin took over in the design chair and Ligiers were never again going to win beauty contests.

Most pre-Galopin Ligiers were good lookers apart from the JS5 with the wide nose and the huge air box

[Rollo]

The BMW M1 was brilliant but rubbish. I don't know if it ever actually achieved any of it purposes but it looked stunning; even in BASF livery.

[jimclark]

The BMW M1 was brilliant but rubbish. I don't know if it ever actually achieved any of it purposes but it looked stunning; even in BASF livery.

'Curious...what's "rubbish" about them? I've met two people that own them and have praised them. How can one go wrong with the ubiquitous IL6.
Anyhow, on the racing front, drivers using them took 1st through 5th in the 1981 IMSA Camel GT (GTO) Series. And BMW 1st, 3rd and 3rd in the '81- '83 IMSA GTO Makes Championship using them. That isn't rubbish to me.

[pcal226]

The Hendrick Motorsports Corvette GTP from the IMSA GT series. Maybe its just the paint job, but I always felt this car looked good. Way better than the Corvette Daytona Prototypes of today. It did manage two wins in 1986 at Road Atlanta and Palm beach, both driven by Doc Bundy and Sarel van der Merwe, but otherwise rarely finished in the top five, and regularly failed to finish at all. With just two wins between 1985 and 1989 (with full factory support from Chevrolet until 1988) I think its fair to say the car was pretty unsuccessful.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Pretty for a touring car. The 406 never scored a win in the BTCC.

[Stan Reid]

Well post #1 and maybe not exactly what you're looking for but I think I would say Frank Lockhart's V-16 Stutz Black Hawk Special LSR car.

[AAReagles]

I thought the 1974 F1 Shadow DN - 3 was appealing for a mysteriously unsuccessful ride.


http://www.fantasyjunction.com/cars/...Cosworth%20DFV


Their Can-Am racers were pretty bad ass looking too. Especially formatted in the same livery.