Remember the March Ford F1 car from the 70's ?

 

Was it the only 6-wheel car made ?

 

Why did they think 6 wheels were better than 4 ? Traction ?

 

I take it no-one has tried it since ?

Was that the ELF one?

 

Saw something on TV the other day about it. It was something to do with using smaller wheels up front to cut down drag, increase tyre contact area, and IIRC also something to do with ground effect/skirts.

 

Not much help...soz

You know that answer Nelson;) LESS MASS:D

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

Remember the March Ford F1 car from the 70's ?

 

Was it the only 6-wheel car made ?

 

Why did they think 6 wheels were better than 4 ? Traction ?

 

I take it no-one has tried it since ?

 

No, I don't think it was the only six wheeled car ... anyone else remember the Panther 6? 8.2 litres 200 mph ... remember them from catalogues of the early 80's, don't know if they ever actually made more than a prototype, though ....:D

The theory was that by reducing drag to the front of the car by having smaller wheels it would be easier to go into and out of corners faster, problem was the braking was not as effective as the normal 4 wheel jobbies.

There was a 6 wheel Range Rover a few years ago too, with the double set of wheels at the rear. I think it was some sort of a special edition and was kitted out by Harrods!

I remember the Ford one because my Scalextric 400 set had one (blue and white);)

it was the Tyrell Elf ;)

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

I remember the Ford one because my Scalextric 400 set had one (blue and white);)

 

I also have that car in my Scalextric set;)

The Tyrell Elf six-wheeler had 4 front wheels and 2 rear, for less drag.

The March had 2 front and 4 rear, for more grip I suppose.

I saw the Tyrell Elf at 'The Big Red' at Brands last year, unfortunately they had a problem so it didn't race but did see it going for it in pratice, along with the twin chassis Lotus!

 

Bring back the days of 'real' F1.........please

 

Tim

Originally posted by x-biker

There was a 6 wheel Range Rover a few years ago too, with the double set of wheels at the rear. I think it was some sort of a special edition and was kitted out by Harrods!

 

This was designed for airports as a fast response fire tender..

Originally posted by mickeyb

This was designed for airports as a fast response fire tender..

 

That'll be the Carmicheal then :D

 

There were also a number of coach built 6-wheelers made for the Arabs for their shooting/sports trips.

 

Gosh, I'm a mind of useless knowledge :D

 

Tim

This is an interesting site about 6-wheelers:

 

http://www.f1nutter.co.uk/tech/6wheels.php

I saw a truck with 18 wheels today :eek: :D :eek: !!

Originally posted by Graham S

This is an interesting site about 6-wheelers:

 

http://www.f1nutter.co.uk/tech/6wheels.php

 

Interesting article. Interestingly, it says that 4-wheels confers no obvious performance advantages or disadvantages to 6-wheels !

The Tyrell 6-wheeler was supposed to have less drag......but if you look at the frontal area they still have the bloody great rears which rather defeats the object.

There were also problems with the degradation of the front tyres.....

 

March did a six wheeler that ended up winning a shed full of hill-climbing titles.

 

Lauda did some testing with the Ferrari (312T2) fitted with two front tyresside by side on each rear 'wheel' (I kid you not).

 

The whole idea is not new, the Alfa Romeo ofthe 1930's (the legendary P3) was being blown away by the Merc's and Auto Unions....the Alfa Racing team manager (a certain Mr. Enzo Ferrari)decided to stick one engine in the front of the P3..and another in the back!! As a concession to this they fitted double tyres on the back (still looked like 4" cross-plys tho')....went like shit down the straight bits, but didn't like corners...to the extent that the tryes came apart. Ah well, seemed like a good idea at the time...........

No performance advantages - extra complexity = no point!