Video: F1 History 1947-67

Found this over on TheChicaneBlog. Really good stuff. Watch the steering inputs as the years progress :eek:

PS: nice to finally be able to embed videos in OffTopic thanks to the new software!

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I've got that DVD. "50 years of Formula One Onboard"

2 Attachment(s)

Curt,

thanks for the great video. Seeing the procession of personal heroes doing their thing in spindly, treacherous cars that would kill them if their attention wavered for even an instant, on tracks with crazed tifosi close enough to touch the cars, in short sleeved polo shirts and leather caps reminds one of just how far F-I has traveled........and why so much of the almost operatic intensity & soul of the sport has been lost. The first few WDCs in the video are from the time when I became utterly fascinated and enamored with what then could still legitimately be called the Sport of Formula One. It's not surprising these monsters required exaggerated steering corrections. Remember, these were front engined machines, with inadequate drum brakes, and as Froilan Gonzales famously and wryly observed, "from a time when drivers were fat and tires were skinny !". Towards the end of races, with most of the fuel consumed, balance would change dramatically, understeer would become the dominant characteristic and handling would become very tricky.

Compare the tracks and the exquisite car control the best drivers exhibited in the video to the commercialized children's spectacle in South Korea this past weekend.

Below, two photos of Guiseppe Farina's '38 Alfetta 158 ( from the Alfa factory museum ) I took while it was being being staged for the Pebble Beach Concours this last August, the very car he's shown driving in the video. Yes, 1938, because Alfa simply didn't have the funds to design and build a new car after WW II. They never did regain their top-level performance after the end of the war, especially when Enzo entered F 1 with his own cars.

JZG