Club Arnage

This is why I loved F1...
Thanks Peter!
Fax

No probs Fax, glad you have enjoyed reading the article. Peter

I liked F1 when it was simpler and guys raced because they loved racing.  I loved F1 when you could tell the drivers apart, and they didn't speak from pre-vetted index cards ... and when the winners didn't look as if they were about to be hanged.

Of course I liked hockey when it wasn't dominated by Russians playing shinny and whining prairie boys who can say "You can't expect me to support a family on $3 million US per year" with a completely straight face.

I liked F1 when Hesketh came out to play... with Monaco party benders, Hunt the shunt, the crumpet, and team managers called Bubbles Horsley !

Every body wore mutton chops, cars had real wings, and the fastest man on the track won ( and no drive through penalties ), and a little bit of gamesmanship when it helped.

Great Days.

Perhaps one day.........

Regards

Bryan C

I loved F1 when the drivers were RACING drivers, not just F1 drivers.  I remember the days when I could see JYS, Denny Hulme, Francois Cevert, Peter Revson, Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, etc, etc,. on TV racing in a GP and then the following weekend see them in person racing in a Can-Am or IMSA meeting over here.  I probably bleat on about my hero, Superswede more than I should but is there anything more evocative than the thought of Ronnie sliding a slinky black Lotus one weekend and then hurling a fire-breathing BMW 320 around the Ring the next?  These guys today are more in love with being a celeb than being a racer.  There are a few exceptions though, over here Tony Stewart is about as old school as you can get, if he has a night off and there's a shopping cart race, he'll find the fastest shopping cart he can get his hands on.  Fax

You're forgetting that they all had really fat slicks and cosworth motors, and anyone called Shoemaker worked for Sparco or Nike.

What went wrong?

One part of it will be returning next year with williams, ie, V8 Cossie engine power.

For me it was the turbo era, I was growing up then and loved it all favourite driver of all time being Alain Prost.

Have you seen this though ...  http://www.gpmasters.com/ will this be on tv?

I doubt if the new GP masters will recapture the sprit of F1 in the good 'ole days.

Its hard to pin down where it all went wrong, and i guess there are going to be different reasons and era's for different people. There are also quite a few misguided souls who believe it is still great.

For me it it was the mid 90's when I finally gave in, gone where the great teams, gone where the drivers who could speak there mind, gone where gearbox's where a mistake could be made, gone was the engine note that varies, gone where the great corners on the great tracks, gone was the access to teams.

The golden era for me, the late 70's to the early 80's, Senna in the toleman, Jones and rosberg in Williams, Turbo Renaults, fantastic Lotus 78's, ground breaking McLaren MP4's.

http://rupert8766.fotopic.net/p9285945.html

More power than the cars could handle, cars that had different engine note and looked different.

The reason I choose that time is that dispite being there I simply cannot recall the race's I was taken to before that time beyond playng in the mud on the south bank or at stowe with my toy cars!! ( I was also at Brands in 1970 for Pedros great drive in the 917, but I have no recollection of it what so ever, I was only 5)

Its hard to pin down where it all went wrong, and i guess there are going to be different reasons and era's for different people. There are also quite a few misguided souls who believe it is still great.

For me it was when the toolboxes disappeared and Lista cabinets took over. Oh and when drivers started throwing  sponsors names into every sentence.

Lotus, Brabham, Tyrrell, Great names almost forgotten.

D.A.

If thats Monza in 1985, (main pic)  that was the only GP that i have visited apart from last year at Barcelona, good weekends but a long long way from the Long weekend plus in june :P

Gary, its the australian GP, thats what it says in the heading! Sorry mate ;D

Sorry didnt read the article yet,got carried away by the photo, being 20 years younger :'(

Have a listen to these.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-339/people/gilles_villeneuve/

I can pretty well pin point where it all went arong for me.
For the most part I closed the book on F1 at the end of 1991.  The last of my generation of hero's, Nelson Piquet called it a career. w**k*rs like Flavio Briatore were getting involved in the sport and the childish back-stabbing between Senna & Prost and the constant bitching and moaning of Mansell had taken their toll.  The technical regulations were becoming increasingly restrictive and majestic circuts like Zandvort and Zeltweg were being replaced by over-sized kart tracks like Catalunya and Magny Cours.
Fax

Living close to Goodwood, whenever i heard a loud engine i had to have a look. The best was Nelson Piquet in the ground effect Brabham. I timed it at 1.02. Another chap reckoned he had dipped under the minute barrier. Brave stuff when you looked at the run off Goodwood used to have.