Cars that were sooo good that they were banned from racing

[Trikky]

Regarding the Lotus turbines, the rules were changed by the USAC to such an extent that turbines were effectively banned which I think is were the confusion lies.

The USAC pushed through changes in legislation which reduced the air intake by 25% to 15.999 inches so the turbine only developed 480bhp compared to the piston engines 700bhp. Couple of years later they reduced it again to 11.999 inches so it produced little more horsepower than a Volkswagen beetle.

They also banned the side by side installation of driver and engine, air brakes and four wheel drive citing that it was ‘extremely expensive’.

I think they just hated them personally.

[FUNKED1]

Ford GT 40 Mk. IV.  Kicked so much butt at Le Mans that they lowered the displacement limit to 5 litres to ban it.

Porsche 917, twice.  First they banned it at Le Mans with a 3 litre displacment limit.  Then the SCCA banned the 917/30 with a fuel consumption rule.

Somebody already mentioned the Chaparral 2J.  Crybabies had it banned before it even won a race.  Scary thing is that it was nowhere near optimized.  It was based on a test rig from GM R&D.  If Jim Hall had been able to put that concept into one of his composite monocoque chassis, it would have been amazing.

Before that, they had banned his 2E/2G with its driver controlled wing/airbrake.

I realize there are safety and cost considerations but all the rulemaking of the last 30 years has really taken the technical interest out of racing.  Other than sponsor logos the cars are almost identical now.

I'd love to see a true free formula again.  Unlimited boost, toluene/heptane fuel, giant slick tires, ground effects tunnels, downforce fans, movable aerodynamic devices for downforce/braking/stability,  AWD with full active diffs, full active suspension, full fly by wire system for steering/braking/shifting/engine, and probably a bunch of stuff that would be invented through competition.

[john9001]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
I'd love to see a true free formula again.  Unlimited boost, toluene/heptane fuel, giant slick tires, ground effects tunnels, downforce fans, movable aerodynamic devices for downforce/braking/stability,  AWD with full active diffs, full active suspension, full fly by wire system for steering/braking/shifting/engine, and probably a bunch of stuff that would be invented through competition.

and who is going to pay for all that?

i'd like to see real "stock" cars racing again.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

SCCA has quite some events where pros race stock cars on roadtracks. Shows on Speed chanel. Some cool runoff club racing in the "showroom stock" cathegory.

[tikky]

Originally posted by john9001
and who is going to pay for all that?

i'd like to see real "stock" cars racing again.

"stock" as in NASCAR? eeew!  I'd rather pay to see LeMans, DTM, JGTC, etc.

[john9001]

Originally posted by tikky
"stock" as in NASCAR? eeew!  I'd rather pay to see LeMans, DTM, JGTC, etc.

by "pay" i meant who is going to pay to build the cars, not who would pay to watch them.

no, i meant "stock" as in the SCCA showroom stock and nascar when they ran real stock cars, like when the daytona race was run on the beach.

at least the open wheeled race cars don't pretend to be cars that you and i can buy and actually drive on the street.

[FUNKED1]

Originally posted by john9001
and who is going to pay for all that?

I doubt it would cost any more than F1 costs now.  $100M/year is now a minimum figure to run a team.  The top teams spend up to 5 times that amount.  Any cost savings from restricted technology have been wiped out by increased costs of constant rules changes.  For example, they tried to cut costs by allowing only one engine per race weekend and one set of tires per race... which resulted in vast expenditures to engineer completely new engines and tires which met the life requirements while maintaining performance.