17 replies to this topic

[mariner]

Thinking about some aero stuff yesterday My thoughts turned to the use , or not, of engine covers in F1 streamlining.

 

By engine covers I mean something which at least covers the cam covers on the actual engine if nothing else.

 

All the 1950's front engine F1 cars had bonnets over the engine and the rear engined F1 Cooper had a full tail cover. That covering up carried on right through the 1.5 litre F1 period 1961 to 1965 , albeit some covers were minimal like the Lotus 33.

 

In 1966 the H 16 BRM  was , I think, the first car with no engine cover ( no room!) and then of course the Cosworth DFV arrived in the Lotus 49 with no bodywork at all beyond the end of the truncated chassis . that became the norm  IIRC for all the DFV engined cars until ground effects arrived . The McLaren was an exception 

 

The Lotus 78 had ground effects  but naked cam covers but the Lotus 79 had a fully enclosed engine and ,I think from then on all F1 cars had covered engines.

 

Is that about right ?

 

ps I know the flat 12 Ferrari is tricky as it had exposed cam covers at sides but the chassis span over the engine was a visual cover!

 

 

r

 

 

 

 

[Rob G]

The new wave of normally-aspirated cars in 1987 often ran either without an engine cover or with a partial one, like the March 871 and the Lola LC87. This was carried on into 1988 by Rial.

[Sterzo]

Nothing can match this.

 

[68targa]

The 1966 Cooper Maserati V12 had no engine covers.

[BRG]

Nothing can match this.

 

 

It's sweet that he took his old grand-dad out for a nice run in his swish new sporting carriage.

[10kDA]

I believe the answer is "maybe"

 

BRM P83 w/H16

 

 

Two different configurations on Marches in period. Covers - or airboxes? Both?

 

 

1969 Matra MS80

 

 

Jo Bonnier ran a Cooper T81-Maserati in 1966 with an engine cover, though it covered the middle of the "V"

 

 

 

1970 Brabham BT30-DFV

[barrykm]

I believe the answer is "maybe"

 

BRM P83 w/H16

 

 

Two different configurations on Marches in period. Covers - or airboxes? Both?

 

 

1969 Matra MS80

 

 

Jo Bonnier ran a Cooper T81-Maserati in 1966 with an engine cover, though it covered the middle of the "V"

 

 

 

1970 Brabham BT30-DFV

 

Interesting,and great pics. Thanks.

[Catalina Park]

I was always impressed with Ligier appearing to show off the Ford Cosworth engines in their 1979 JS11, I assume for political reasons.
For a team with such advanced aero thinking it seemed that they wanted everyone to know that there was no longer a Matra V12 in the back of the car. It must have worked, the next year the Ford engine was covered up and a year later the Matra returned.

[Michael Clark]

What an interesting idea for a thread!

[chr1s]

I was always impressed with Ligier appearing to show off the Ford Cosworth engines in their 1979 JS11, I assume for political reasons.
 

Matra stopped providing the engines for financial reasons, leaving Ligier with little choice but to use the DFV. (There is a thread on this) I rather suspect that enclosing the engine for 1980 was more about tidying up the design rather than making a political point, but I may be wrong!

[Bunkered]

Renault didn't fully enclose their motors until the RE40, from memory, with the RS01, RS10, RE20 and RE30 and variants having quite open bodywork at the rear, with the engine quite visible.  I'd have wondered if it wasn't primarily for reasons around heat dissipation, although one might facetiously suggest it could be to put less coachwork in the path of spontaneous unplanned rapid engine disassembly, fire, or engine swaps...

[chr1s]

Both the Williams cars at Long Beach in 1982 ran without their engine covers, from memory that was to help with engine cooling.

     In fact, re-my earlier post regarding the Ligier JS11, if you look at the car from above there's a section of bodywork behind the engine which is shaped as if it was originally designed with an engine cover.  Could it be that this was left off for the South American races for heat reasons and due to the performance of the cars in those races, it was never re fitted? 

Edited by chr1s, 29 April 2025 - 06:19.

[nmansellfan]

I always thought the Life F190 ran without an engine cover at the '90 Portuguese GP weekend as it would not fit over the Judd V8 that they changed to, but I've just read that the mechanics fitted it anyway and that it flew off during Bruno's installation lap and they did not run during pre-qualifying after that.  That is from Wikipedia though...

[blackmme]

In a similar vein to Williams at Long Beach in 82 Lotus ran their 91’s completely sans engine cover at Monaco 82.

Speaking of Monaco, the Toleman TG184 that rather starred in 84 had very little to cover Brian Harts extremely functional cam comers.

Regards Mike

Edited by blackmme, 29 April 2025 - 17:06.

[Macca]

Perhaps we could contemplate the first F1 to run ‘naked’ permanently, and the last to deliberately leave its cam-covers exposed.

Would that be the 1966 Honda, and the 1988 Rial?

Paul M

[uechtel]

Regarding the Rial I think I can remember a statement of Günter Schmid, that the team did not have the ressources for an engine cover in 1988, so it became one (the only?) innovation for 1989...

[Steffen]

I think the last appearence of a car without engine cover came in the 1989 US Grand Prix at Phoenix.

Philippe Alliot started the race without engine cover on his Lola Lamborghini, but retired early in the race. Murray Walker actually thought the car is Tarquini's AGS.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=Z8fceKcWm8k

 

You can see the retirement of Alliot at 6:15.

 

After that I think we only got to see 'naked' engines, if an engine cover collapsed.

[matra120]

Look at the 1971/72 BRM P160. Sometimes it had cam covers, sometimes not; then the P180 which had a curving cover which more or less disguised the cam covers.  I remember Peter Windsor-Smith telling me that it was to fool the opposition as they had redesigned the heads, needed different cam covers and didn’t want to show the others why the car was so fast!