I was musing the other day and began wondering when the first use of fuel injection on an F1/Grand Prix car was. This thought of course led to the question of what was the last car to use a carburetor.

Mercedes W196 1954?

While the Mercedes was certainly the first successful use of fuel injection in Grand Prix racing, I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that some obscure car predated them with this fitted...

Last use of carburettor might be tricky... I'd reckon you'd start looking about 1969, engines like the Serenissima or perhaps the Maserati V12, even the Coventry-Climax V8. There were certainly cars right through the 1.5-litre era using carbies, but I don't think there'd have been any around after the DFV really took a hold.

Then again, a random entry from a local in South Africa or the US GP could surprise.

I believe the last use of carburettors was on the Al Pease Eagle at Mosport in 1969.

If you include the F2 years 1952/3, then the A type Connaught may have been the first FI user, but its Hilborn-Travers system was pretty crude and the 1954 B type was back to carbs

Fuel injection was successfully used on machines built to the CSI's International Racing Formula One beginning about 1950 when the Meyer-Drake Offenhauser 270 first began to use the Hilborn system.

I would not be surprised if the Pease Eagle Mk 1 already mentioned was the last of the formula one cars to use carbs in a race.

Of course!
Being an insular European, I'd quite forgotten the Formula One races held at Indianapolis.
Being the circuit it was/is the Hilborn system would have worked well: Connaught used it successfully in road-racing despite, rather than because of its characteristics (likened by some to a small firehose directed into the intake system)

Did the 3 litre Novi 'Formula 1' cars use fuel injection?

My point being that although the unsupercharged cars complied with the Formula 1 engine size regulations and although there may have been resolutions to run the race to Formula 1 rules, once the 3 litre supercharged cars were allowed to run, the Indianapolis race cannot be considered to be Formula 1 race. After all, had a Novi been placed in 1950 or 1951 it would have scored championship points.

If we were to get tangential with this...

Was John Love the last to lead a Grand Prix using carburettors? And what about the last win? I think that one might hold a surprise.

What about 1952 or 1953? The formula one was still in effect, if I remember correctly, it was just that it did not seem to matter. I think that you are correct, it was not a "formula one" race, it was a grand prix event, which is another thing altogether. Besides, if a machine meets the specifications of the formula one in effect, what makes it then not a "formula one" machine? Just asking.

The Novi used fuel injection in 1959, all other years in which Indy counted for the world championship (1950-1960) they had carburettors.
Sadly, they did not qualify for the`"500" in 1959, largely because of the adoption of fuel injection: the system wasn't fully sorted out and failed miserably on the cars.

The only times that a Novi driver gained points for the WDC were 1957 (Paul Russo 4th) and 1956 (Paul Russo 33rd and dead last.)

Yes my dear people you read it right. Paul Russo was dead last in 1956 and still scored a championship point!
That was because of that rule that awarded a point to the fastest lap and it just happened to be that Paul had driven the fastest race lap that year before his retirement.
Which leads to the bizarre statistics that, as far as I could find out: Paul Russo is the only driver ever to score a World Championship point in a race in which he finished dead last. Till date I haven't found a regular GP F1 race in which the same has happened.
Also: there is the fact that no other driver has ever been classified so low in a race result (33rd) within a 1950-1960 period world championship race but still won a point for the world championship title!
Indy also counted for the USAC National championship but Russo didn't score a point for that with that 33rd place.....

A very odd statistic, but perfectly suitable within the Novi legend. Just the kind of event to happen with one of these `jinxed` cars.

For the record, other years in which the Novis failed to qualify at Indy besides 1959 were: 1950, 1954 and 1955 (the FWD cars) and 1960 (reardriver Roadsters)




Henri

Thanks, Henri, for that titillating bit of trivia! I love such tidbits -- you made my day!

Not an easy question indeed. So would you call a 500 cc Cooper a Formula 1 car as well?

At its time it certainly did comply to all specifications of the formula one in effect as well as did my grandfather´s Volkswagen...

Good 'un, uechtel!

....as long as it was built with the formula in mind or was modified to meet it. The issue is, perhaps, that of intent, not of happenstance.

Aha!

I see we get closer to the point. I think about this question for quite some time, how to define a "proper" Grand Prix car?

So what about these ones:
Ferrari 500
Ferrari 625
Brabham´s Cooper Bobtail in 1955
Cooper-Climax (I think T43 or T45) 2 litre in 1957/58
Lotus 18
all South African Specials from 1961 to 1965
Brabham BT 11 2.5 litre (1966)
Lotus 33 2 litre (1966)
Lola/BMW 269
March 721G


Before you say "easy", have a second thought:

Ferrari 500: Developed as a car for the secondary formula, yet Formula 2 was also a "Grand Prix formula" then.
Ferrari 625: Developed from the previous Formula 2 car by simply not much more than enlarging engine capacity
Brabham´s Bobtail: Under-engined development of a sports car with the sole intention to start in a Formula 1 race
Cooper T43/45: Formula 2 cars with still under-capacity engine, more or less by instance into Formula 1, yet competitive enough for occasional wins
Lotus 18: Formula 1 car or Formula 2 car or Formula Junior?
South African Specials: Built to run in a series that complied at 95% with Formula 1, but no V8 allowed...
Brabham BT 11 and Lotus 33 (1966): Stop gaps with outdated and underpowered engine, yet sole intention was to run it in F1
Lola/BMW 269: More or less a testbed which did not fit into another category than Formula 1
March 721G: Again a stop gap, replaced the failure 721X and was basically a car intended and developed for Formula 2 with a Formula 1 engine.


As always in this historic mess it is hard to find the right borderline...

Why do you need any definition other than "a car which raced in a Grand Prix"?

What about the Silverstone Int. Trophy, or the Brands RoC? Shan't we include them in our survey???

Yes of course
A race could be a Grand Prix without having those words in its title

No thoughts on the last win for carburettors?

I have an idea I know which car did it, but I can't find the proof!

Like the Indy 500?



I guess we're moving round in circles here!