The Greatest Shenanigans

[RalfsLastFan]

Haven't posted here in years and years...and hadn't even realized that a lot of the old stuff from when I _was_ active here has vanished. Unfortunately, that included some stuff I've been looking for lately.

But that's alright, it's time for a new generation of users to learn about the sports shady side....not necessarily the _bad_ stuff, but the naughty stuff. The little tricks and tactics teams have used over the edge to get an edge. Not necessarily breaking the rules...sometimes not even _bending_ the rules. As I heard once on TV, for many drivers (and for even more engineers!) the most important part of the rulebook was the stuff that WASN'T written down.

The idea of this thread is to be a place to share those stories in a spirit of fun. It's all in the past now...let's enjoy the audaciousness of those intrepid engineers.

Two stories in particular that I'm looking for are from the 90's era: McLaren's 'differential brakes' and Ferrari's hidden menu in their ECU. I know they happened and I know I heard about them here...but I can't remember the details. Anyone help me out?

[Valve Bounce]

Haven't posted here in years and years...and hadn't even realized that a lot of the old stuff from when I _was_ active here has vanished.

I resent that. I thoroughly resent that. I don't deny it, but I resent it. And I haven't vanished at all - I've been lurking here all the time.

[Easy Drifter]

Interesting interpreations of the rules prevail!
Way back when in F Atlantic sports car noses were the rule. However, the area between the main body and the wheels had to be lower than the main structure. That area often, especially on the Chevron B29 (and probably the B25 and 27) was critical. Every experienced FA team ran a "kick up" in that area. You could run one legally but it couldn't be very high. The B29 was extremely sensitive to changes in this 'kicker'. Every team who knew the trick ran a slotted aluminum kicker. Normally it was too high to be legal but every team had some one with a nylon or rubber hammer ready to hit it as the car left the track. Then it was legal.
Of course all the fast teams were also trying to see just how high you were running it although who the heck knew the rest of the settings!
I can relate lots of other tricks but that would be a book.
The more rules there are the easier it is to find a loophole.

[ShiftingGears]

Haven't posted here in years and years...and hadn't even realized that a lot of the old stuff from when I _was_ active here has vanished. Unfortunately, that included some stuff I've been looking for lately.

But that's alright, it's time for a new generation of users to learn about the sports shady side....not necessarily the _bad_ stuff, but the naughty stuff. The little tricks and tactics teams have used over the edge to get an edge. Not necessarily breaking the rules...sometimes not even _bending_ the rules. As I heard once on TV, for many drivers (and for even more engineers!) the most important part of the rulebook was the stuff that WASN'T written down.

The idea of this thread is to be a place to share those stories in a spirit of fun. It's all in the past now...let's enjoy the audaciousness of those intrepid engineers.

Two stories in particular that I'm looking for are from the 90's era: McLaren's 'differential brakes' and Ferrari's hidden menu in their ECU. I know they happened and I know I heard about them here...but I can't remember the details. Anyone help me out?

It was 1998 where McLaren used two brake pedals for "brake steering" essentially helping the car to turn during braking.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2007/05/2...r-brake-pedal/

There's a blog with the information. It shouldn't be hard to get more credible sources on it.

[RalfsLastFan]

I resent that. I thoroughly resent that. I don't deny it, but I resent it. And I haven't vanished at all - I've been lurking here all the time.

Whereas I've been entirely and utterly gone. I've poked my head in once per year to look at the Le Mans threads, pretty much. That's all I've had time for.

theugsquirrel

Thanks for the link and the year! That's just what I was looking for on that one.

Now, anyone remember Ferrari's secret engine-management menu?

[bowers]

Whereas I've been entirely and utterly gone. I've poked my head in once per year to look at the Le Mans threads, pretty much. That's all I've had time for.

theugsquirrel

Thanks for the link and the year! That's just what I was looking for on that one.

Now, anyone remember Ferrari's secret engine-management menu?

I still think the Brabham Fan Car was one of the most ingenius inventions ever used on an F1 car. It was used in only 1 race, the Swedish GP of 1978 before it was banned with a 100% winning percentage (after Niki Lauda took victory in it).

Basically it was car using ground effects, which were the new things on the block back then. If you unfamiliar with ground effects it's basically the act of creating the underbody as an upside down aircraft wing creating downforce. Later side skirts were added to increase the efficieny of the said design. Now all this low pressure that is created underneath the car was good but not great. Then came along the Brabham engineers and made an elaborate system that used to fan connected via the transmission that would actually suck the car to the track (as it was almost sealed to the road with the side skirts). The idea was tossed around in a CanAm race a few years previously with the same overall idea. Using a fan created a huge amount of vacuum below the car and even sucked the car closer to the track when the car wasn't moving and it was off idle. This was actually considered illegal as it was a movable aerodynamic advice, but it actually heavily contributed to cooling at the same time, which is the argument they used to start the race.

The race saw Mario Andretti have engine problems and also saw a car drop lots of oil onto the track. As other cars skated all over the place, the fan car cruised around, dominating the race. After the race however, it was promptly banned and that was the end of a huge amount of wonderful engineering.

[Valve Bounce]

Whereas I've been entirely and utterly gone. I've poked my head in once per year to look at the Le Mans threads, pretty much. That's all I've had time for.

?

Maybe if you wrote to pino nicely, he might let you change your nick to LewiesLastFan. Then you'd have more reason to come back and shoot the shyte with us.

[ArrowsFA1]

How about the 1976 Italian GP "fuel octane swindle".

Coming to Monza James Hunt (McLaren) was in a title battle with Niki Lauda (Ferrari) and during qualifying the fuel in the McLaren (and Penske) was apparently found to be over an octane limit. As a result Hunt, Mass and Watson lost their Saturday qualifying times, and because of poor weather the day before this meant effectively they had not qualified for the race. Withdrawls meant they scraped onto the back of the grid.

Having initially made good progress through the field Hunt spun off early in the race.

The thing is the octane issue was highly contentious. For one thing IIRC the nationality of the team determined the octane rating of the fuel they could use, something not taken into account by the stewards. Secondly it was later shown that the fuel samples taken were legal at the time they were taken according to the stewards own criteria. It's just the results that were announced differed from the actual readings.

Still, nevermind. Job done as far as hampering Hunt's championship challenge

[ioan]

Two stories in particular that I'm looking for are from the 90's era: McLaren's 'differential brakes' and Ferrari's hidden menu in their ECU. I know they happened and I know I heard about them here...but I can't remember the details. Anyone help me out?

Your memory is getting shabby, there was no hidden menu in Ferrari's ECU!

Now that we cleared that, I'll give you a clue: Benetton.

The Greatest Shenanigans in F1? It all happened last season!

[BDunnell]

Your memory is getting shabby, there was no hidden menu in Ferrari's ECU!

Now that we cleared that, I'll give you a clue: Benetton.

And even then, there are good explanations as to why this was a lot of fuss over nothing.