85 replies to this topic

[Rasputin]

The Life Racing 3.5 W12 was pretty bad;

 

[Imateria]

Good luck in finding something to top that.

[GoldenColt]

The Life Racing 3.5 W12 was pretty bad;

 

 

And just to give people in here an idea of how bad it was, I recommend this article:

 

http://www.f1fanatic...tival-of-speed/

[Rasputin]

Good luck in finding something to top that.

[Henri Greuter]

Good luck in finding something to top that.

 

Not at F1  but I can top it.

 

 

1954 Studebaker V8 at Indy.

 

Built bij JC Agajanian as an alternative on the Offy. On the first attempt to crank it up the starter shaft broke and they couldn't get it running.

Was put aside and never seen again.....

 

Within F1 I nominate other engines of the same category:

 

- Subari-Motori Moderni Flat V12

- Porsche V12 as used by Footwork

 

Henri

[Dan333SP]

 

 

 

In all seriousness, this is up there too, the Subaru flat 12 in the Coloni-

 

http://dp.subaru.com...ge_inline7.aspx

Edited by Dan333SP, 20 April 2015 - 18:05.

[Tourgott]

 

[JHSingo]

The Lotus IndyCar engine.

 

So far off the pace that Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro were lapped, and subsequently black flagged, after just nine laps of the Indianapolis 500 in 2012.

 

The Honda F1 engine is phenomenal in comparison to that absolute disaster.

Edited by JHSingo, 20 April 2015 - 18:07.

[Rasputin]

[Dan333SP]

The 1.5L supercharged BRM V16 was pretty miserable as well. The H-16 gets a pass because it lasted long enough to win a single race in '66. I also remember the Hart V10 in the back of the '99 Arrows. It was hopelessly underpowered and made the worst crackling noise when off throttle, sounded like it was in the process of ripping itself to shreds.

[chunder27]

I was going to mention the Subaru and Porsche engines!

 

The Hart V10 was a good motor actually certainly powered Rubens to a few results.

 

I never rated the Alfa flat 12, was never a good motor, so heavy and hard to design a car round.

 

The Lambo V12 was never that good either, but I forgive it for sounding marvellous!

 

Moteri Moderni V6 turbo?  WOuldnt you have loved to see that engine in a decent chassis to see if was any good?

 

Alfa V8? Again though could have been good in some cars. Oh and what about the Alfa 4 that never was?

[BRG]

The Yamaha engine of 1989 which was inflicted on the blameless Zakspeed F1 team was pretty dire.  I recall at the Silverstone tyre test, it blew, so the team laboriously fitted a new one in the pits, fired it up only for it to blow up after about 5 seconds. 

Edited by BRG, 20 April 2015 - 18:15.

[emmanuelrubi]

The worst pairing
The most crash prone pairing
The worst engine

If this topics go this way im not gonna be surprise to see "the gp with the worst hot dogs"

Edited by emmanuelrubi, 20 April 2015 - 18:38.

[Dan333SP]

I was going to mention the Subaru and Porsche engines!

 

The Hart V10 was a good motor actually certainly powered Rubens to a few results.

 

I never rated the Alfa flat 12, was never a good motor, so heavy and hard to design a car round.

 

The Lambo V12 was never that good either, but I forgive it for sounding marvellous!

 

Moteri Moderni V6 turbo?  WOuldnt you have loved to see that engine in a decent chassis to see if was any good?

 

Alfa V8? Again though could have been good in some cars. Oh and what about the Alfa 4 that never was?

 

Maybe the 3.5L version was decent for its time, but the 3.0L engine in the '98-'99 Arrows (I think they self-branded the engines as TWR or something?) was a derivative of the Hart-designed Yamaha V10 and was nowhere near competitive.

[David Lightman]

The 1994 Peugeot in the back of the McLaren was pretty dire, ask Martin Brundle about the British Grand Prix

[Clrnc]

And just to give people in here an idea of how bad it was, I recommend this article:

 

http://www.f1fanatic...tival-of-speed/

WTF     

 

That takes some beating. 

 

I doubt anybody can find anything worse than this. 

[ninetyzero]

Has anyone done the Honda/Renault joke yet? *checks thread* Oh damn it someone has...

[Lazy]

Has anyone done the Honda/Renault joke yet? *checks thread* Oh damn it someone has...

I think the thread was made so as to be able to do that joke.

[JuanPablo]

The Yamaha engine used by Jordan in 1992. It was free so saved money over paying for the Ford V8. Other than that it was a horrid lump of sh!te.

The subsequent Jordan Hart cars were a big improvement.

[Baddoer]

2000 Peugeot was quite bad.

1990 Subaru was B12, not V12 by the way

Edited by Baddoer, 20 April 2015 - 19:50.

[muelte]

The Life Racing 3.5 W12 was pretty bad;

 

 

 At least it sounded good

 

 

[Atreiu]

"At Silverstone it failed to pre-qualify by 19 seconds" 

 

I really laughed.

 

[ensign14]

Good luck in finding something to top that.

 

The MGN W12.  Tested in an AGS, it was fitted in the back of a Norma at Le Mans one year.  They couldn't even get it to fire up.

[TheSnowman]

The Porsche 3512 from 1991

It wasn't a racing engine. It was a truck engine. 

[HP]

Ho-r-ren-dous

[micktosin]

And just to give people in here an idea of how bad it was, I recommend this article:

http://www.f1fanatic...tival-of-speed/

That's so funny. Goodness me.

[AlexS]

Those Peugeots in Mclaren were spectacular:

 

[garagetinkerer]

The worst pairing
The most crash prone pairing
The worst engine

If this topics go this way im not gonna be surprise to see "the gp with the worst hot dogs"

It is all part of the experience, so why ever not if permitted by forum rules. It also gives a heads up to future visitors to a grand-prix. I'm particularly finicky about my food, and used to travel a fair bit for a plate of food which i preferred, and would still do.

 

What is amusing is that while there are those of us who suggest the Renault V6 to be amongst the worst engines in F1, but then there are those of us here, who suggest that Horner is not handling it right

[Spillage]

To be fair to the Life, the car was regularly 15+ seconds off the pace with a Judd engine in the back...

 

But still, difficult to look beyond it. There's some footage of the car actually moving somewhere on youtube, and it's unbelievably slow. Fred Flintstone's car had more horsepower.

[noikeee]

The current Renault engine is certainly a little embarassing for current standards but far far more competitive, and even far more reliable (despite all the problems!) than some gems of then...

 

The Life W12 will take some beating. 

[garagetinkerer]

Those Peugeots in Mclaren were spectacular:

 

Early 00's Mercedes engines were also quite, mmm, toasty. Hey, i'm a tifoso, what were you expecting? Of course i enjoyed every single roast, more still when Raikkonen kept his foot on the pedal to make sure nothing survived.

 

Renault V10 110^o in early 00's were also pretty poor. They were getting lapped like nobody's business. 

[BlinkyMcSquinty]

The initial turbo engines by Renault. They were called the "yellow teapot" because they regularly blew up in a cloud of steam.

 

 

Eventually Renault got them sorted out, but for the first few years, they just blew up.

[Rob G]

The JAP engine that powered Harry Schell's Cooper in the 1950 Grand Prix of Monaco wasn't a bad racing engine. However, it was a really bad Formula 1 engine, considering that it only had two cylinders and a capacity of just 1100cc at a time when the limit was 4500cc. Even the supercharged engines were allowed 1500cc.

[Brazzers]

The early Mercedes engine when Kimi was at McLaren. Those things especially when Kimi was behind the wheel blew up or had some sort of niggling issues. 

 

This isn't the worst engine but considering the reputation and aspirations of what McLaren and Mercedes were aiming for in the early 00's it didn't really deliver until 07 onwards.

[Rasputin]

The Pederzani brothers' 1972-73 home-buiit Tecno 3.0 flat 12 was a truly terrible beast, at least 50 Hp down on power and 50 kg overweight, all compared to the Cosworth V8.

 

 

[Risil]

The worst pairing
The most crash prone pairing
The worst engine

If this topics go this way im not gonna be surprise to see "the gp with the worst hot dogs"

 

http://www.foxsports...troversy-032715

 

Are the new hot dogs genuinely tasty? Or is this the insidious NASCAR press control machine at work again?

[Tsarwash]

To be fair to the Life, the car was regularly 15+ seconds off the pace with a Judd engine in the back...
 
But still, difficult to look beyond it. There's some footage of the car actually moving somewhere on youtube, and it's unbelievably slow. Fred Flintstone's car had more horsepower.

In Monza the car was 33 seconds off the pace.

[mclarensmps]

This forum is starting to look like the click bait ads at the bottom of website news articles. And it's worked... look, I'm here. Ugh... No more.

[blackmme]

The Porsche 3512 from 1991

It wasn't a racing engine. It was a truck engine.

Yep I agree, given the lineage, engineering capabilities and budget (although there is some doubt about this bit) the results were a disaster. It's okay to poke fun at Life, Motori Moderni et al but this was Porsche who superglued two de-turboed v6's together nose to nose and took the power off from the middle!

Regards Mike

[Dan333SP]

This forum is starting to look like the click bait ads at the bottom of website news articles. And it's worked... look, I'm here. Ugh... No more.

 

 

Try these 7 weird tricks to make Renault engines more reliable! F1 engineers hate this!

[Alfisti]

Try these 7 weird tricks to make Renault engines more reliable! F1 engineers hate this!

Gold jerry, GOLD. 

[thiscocks]

 At least it sounded good

 

 

Only 10krpm on tacho! No wonder it struggled to make 400bhp. Great looking and sounding though.

 

The 1.5L supercharged BRM V16 was pretty miserable as well. The H-16 gets a pass because it lasted long enough to win a single race in '66. I also remember the Hart V10 in the back of the '99 Arrows. It was hopelessly underpowered and made the worst crackling noise when off throttle, sounded like it was in the process of ripping itself to shreds.

Nah, BRM V16 was a great engine which produced comfortably more hp than its rivals when it was working- just plagued with misfire problems. H16 was miles worse. Heavy and underpowered from begining to end.

Edited by thiscocks, 21 April 2015 - 15:23.

[BoschKurve]

I don't feel like searching for pictures, but I'd like to nominate the entire crop of current F1 engines.

[Szoelloe]

The early Mercedes engine when Kimi was at McLaren. Those things especially when Kimi was behind the wheel blew up or had some sort of niggling issues. 

 

This isn't the worst engine but considering the reputation and aspirations of what McLaren and Mercedes were aiming for in the early 00's it didn't really deliver until 07 onwards.

 

 

It wasn't the engine, in all fairness. It was Newey's packaging that did that engine in. It would have been mighty otherwise.

[Andrew Hope]

Here is a video of the Life F190 in action.

 

Skip to 9:40 and the first two cars to drive past have racing engines in them, and the third car to drive past is Bruno Jack O'Malley, who doesn't.

 

[demet06]

The Peugot engines in the back of the McLaren's in the 90's were pretty bad. They'd blow up on a regular basis issuing huge amounts of smoke. The press release was always that the car was retired because of an oil leak. Which was true enough as the oil was leaking out of a huge hole in the engine block where at least one piston had escaped!

[thiscocks]

You'll have to delete that by the end of the season/next season

[Jimisgod]

What's the most unreliable F1 engine ever? http://www.thechecke...rst-f1-engines/

[Rasputin]

The 1966 Maserati V12 was one ugly contraption;

 

[BoschKurve]

The Peugot engines in the back of the McLaren's in the 90's were pretty bad. They'd blow up on a regular basis issuing huge amounts of smoke. The press release was always that the car was retired because of an oil leak. Which was true enough as the oil was leaking out of a huge hole in the engine block where at least one piston had escaped!

 

I'm going to take offense on this

 

This has become one of the biggest on-going myths in F1 history - that the Peugeot V10's were garbage and that McLaren was somehow reduced as a contender. 

 

Yes the engines certainly did explode, however McLaren scored 8 podiums between Brundle and Hakkinen over the course of 1994.

 

The switch to Mercedes Ilmor power (because they were just Ilmor engines with Merc valve covers) was horrendous for results. They had 2 podiums for the whole year. Ron's been disingenuous about the whole McLaren-Peugeot thing for the last twenty years and somehow the media along with the fans still buy the idea that there was no success to be had with the Peugeot V10's. I'd wager any amount of money that had Merc not come calling with a large bag of Deutsche Marks that trumped the large bag of Francs, McLaren would have been running the Peugeot engines for 1995, and would have scored a win. Instead they suffered through many more Mercedes engine explosions for the next decade.