Closed cocpit F1 car good idea or not?

[AndyL]

Jack Brabham's "closed" cockpit back in 67.

1967jacKbrabhM.jpg

That is interesting. I'd love to know more about it. Presumably it was designed more for aero than protection at the time. I wonder if it was successful, and what happened to it. I guess if it worked, it was probably banned; I wonder what reason would have been given for banning it, if that was the case.

[Stan Reid]

That is interesting. I'd love to know more about it. Presumably it was designed more for aero than protection at the time. I wonder if it was successful, and what happened to it. I guess if it worked, it was probably banned; I wonder what reason would have been given for banning it, if that was the case.

I'm not sure why it was scrapped Andy.

Here's a closed cockpit car that ran in the 1919 Indianapolis 500 driven by Roscoe Sarles. The car won 20 races in its career. It was mostly driven by racing legend Barney Oldfield.

1919 Sub Indy.jpg Click to enlarge

[AndyL]

I'm not sure why it was scrapped Andy.

According to the Wikipedia article on the BT19, Brabham's designer Ron Tauranac had been doing wind tunnel research since 1963. I guess that cockpit was fruit of that research.
It seems he had a record of rejecting aerodynamic improvements that weren't effective enough to justify their weight or complexity, so maybe that was the fate of the Brabham closed cockpit.

[Stan Reid]

Another closed cockpit car also for the 1955 Indianapolis 500.

Jim Rathman 1955.jpg