MTosi

-Jack Brabham

(For the best viewing experience I recommend clicking on the link instead of watching the embedded copy, then selecting full screen, full volume, and select "watch in high quality" from the bottom right and be sure to watch the full 10 minutes it's not all from the helo, its especially arousing around 6:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGEeCI-nL7o





This video is to remind people of what Formula One used to be like before it became a bi-weekly soap opera featuring immature boys on giant autocross courses and why I cringe when Lewis Hamilton (or any drivers after the mid 80's for that matter) are mentioned in the same sentence as the all time greats. It was a different time, a different place, and a different sport altogether with drivers racing for not just the win but their lives..... Flame away if you like but the current crop will never hold a candle to these drivers in my mind.....

DanR

no doubt amazing drivers but I am not sure whether they are any better OR worse than later crops. At the end of the day to be at the top of any sport in any time means that you are the best of that generation and 'probably' in the same league as all predessessors and successors!

gums

Tosi, you are soooo +1 on that one!
Two things come to mind:

MTosi

It was just an altogether different sport and I don't think drivers from the multiple generations (I set the dividing line at pre 1980 and post 1980) can be compared. The modern drivers are more like pilots along for the ride, than actual drivers. You have to remember these guys aren't relying on 4000lbs of downforce, super soft slicks and sequential gearboxes. They are using both feet, matching revs literally performing a choreographed dance in the cockpit, on a track with no margin for error, no giant asphalt runoffs just barriers and tree's. The cars are always sliding, with the driver having a huge input on the car, not just a bunch of aerodynamists. While I would tend to agree about the top of their game normally, this year I do question it, lol.

Anyway thats my last post on the subject, I don't want to start a flame war. Just thought it would be fun to watch some old footage of real racing, and maybe show a new side to F1 that alot of people are unaware of.

gums

Two things:
-They're all creaping at the start, virtually a rolling start...
-How do you come up with all this vintage stuff when you profess to be a young student????

Fantastic!

MTosi

I was blissfully unaware that anything but post 1998 F1 existed until the last few years. I used to occaisonally see the 70's cars and think how ugly, now to me they are the best looking F1/race cars of all time. The biggest revelation came when I got the F1 1970-1980 season reviews, watching them was simply amazing. The car control and driving was beyond belief, every corner they are sliding with amazing smoothness and of course they are shifting and matching revs at the same time, they were actually driving. Unless you are a realy good driver and very observant its hard to notice, which is why alot of people don't have an appreciation for just how good they were. Not to mention the drivers used to be characters and real men, they weren't talking corporate sponsor heads. People forget F1 used to be more of a drivers series, with just about all the teams using DFV's making it quite spec, and sportscar racing is where manufacturers went. Not to mention the tracks, they weren't these giant super stadiums with a 100ft wide track and giant asphalt runouts. The tracks wound there way through the country side and weren't all contrived. So since then I can't realy get enough of pre 80's F1.

race911

Different era, and as I just posted in another thread: time marches on. Strapping into the 910, I certainly don't FEEL the car is more dangerous; but you kinda know that if any "oops" happens it won't be pretty. (And believe me, it's not my car so I'm nowhere near the limits. Even mine.)

MTosi

You can't keep tell us about this 910 and not post pictures or video

67FJ45

MTosi,

Your post reminds me of two things:
- the rear engined Coopers that revolutionized grand prix car design around 1960.
- in the mid-1970s, how easy Lauda, et. al. had it because their rides were aerodynamic, safe, and supple (point and shoot), unlike when real studs like Fangio reigned.

But then again, my dad always told me Tazio Nuvolari would put Fangio to shame!

Cheers.

Cory M

The tracks had so much more character, now they are look so similar and boring...

C.J. Ichiban

safety first...it's easy for us to say we'd rather have more tracks like this but I'd rather hit the wall in 2008 than 1978...

SpeedBump

+1

924RACR

Sorry, but the grid chicks ARE better now.

good hands

Fangio, Moss, Nuvolari, these guys raced with no seat belts , leather helmets, and short sleeves. Were they better drivers ? Who knows. Was it more interesting ? Yes. The interesting thing you used to get in the old days was the crossover driving. It was nothing to see Stirling Moss drive a fromula one car one week and then drive a bugeye Sprite the next week. They seemed to do more for the love of the sport than money. Business has ruined most sports though in my opinion.

DrJupeman

Agreed, that business has definitely changed sports, but sports car racing is one place where I think the love of the sport trumping money still applies. I assume, but will admit I do not know the business, that few drivers make much money. They are doing it for the love of the sport. I would sacrifice a nice income if someone paid for me to drive, too, I suspect.