Your favourite 'cheats' in motorsport

[shoestring7]

rubystone said:

jagdpanther said:

T'is true! I know of a few cars (fair enough, not in F1 or GT or anything) that are nowhere NEAR in compliance with the rules and they never get pulled in for it...even for fairly obvious stuff

Yes - there are a few cars out there running at weekends that are not legal - at least in terms of the categories they are racing in.

I was surprised to see a race-winning car at the Revival this year spend an awfully long time in scrutineering. It subsequently turned out to have the incorrect spec engine...a bit embarrassing for its owner, given his "position"....I think it's now "legal" though and I guess he wasn't aware he was breaking the rules...

By that I suppose you mean to suggest the owner wasn't aware that F*rd didn't use a titanium valve train and run at 8500rpm in period...?

At least they didn't do to the effort of another team, who removed a clearly over-size V8 engined saloon from parc-ferme before the scrutes got to it.

I don't think their invitation to this year's event has been lost in the post....

SS7

[nc107]

My father was told a lovely story about the TWR Volvos of ETC fame by one of the mechanics a few weeks ago. The boost system was rigged up to the drivers sun visor so that it could be adjusted "on track" by the angle of the visor, and the brake bias could be altered by rotating the rev counter bezel. Never caught apparently - which makes it unprovable - but they were indecently fast in a a straight line IIRC.

[rubystone]

Isn't it funny how those same three letters keep cropping up on this thread...

[10 Pence Short]

Someone competing in the British GTs this year was telling me recently how shocked he was by a certain team's ride height during the pre-season equalisation test. It was apparantly that blatant it was taking the p*ss.

[flemke]

rubystone said:

Isn't it funny how those same three letters keep cropping up on this thread...

R,W, and T?

Hmmm. I wonder what you could mean by that?

[shoestring7]

flemke said:

rubystone said:

Isn't it funny how those same three letters keep cropping up on this thread...

R,W, and T?

Hmmm. I wonder what you could mean by that?

On a completely unrelated point; whatever happended to Tom Walkinshaw? At one point he had fingers in F1, touring cars and sports cars, plus JV's with Aston and Holden. Then his business went bust and he seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

Did he upset important people?

SS7

[AMD87]

shoestring7 said:

flemke said:

rubystone said:

Isn't it funny how those same three letters keep cropping up on this thread...

R,W, and T?

Hmmm. I wonder what you could mean by that?

On a completely unrelated point; whatever happended to Tom Walkinshaw? At one point he had fingers in F1, touring cars and sports cars, plus JV's with Aston and Holden. Then his business went bust and he seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

Did he upset important people?

SS7

He runs the Holden Dealer Team in Australia and the Holden Racing Team (well technically its Mark Skaife but he pulls the strings.)

Edited by AMD87 on Monday 16th June 17:05

[flemke]

shoestring7 said:

flemke said:

rubystone said:

Isn't it funny how those same three letters keep cropping up on this thread...

R,W, and T?

Hmmm. I wonder what you could mean by that?

On a completely unrelated point; whatever happended to Tom Walkinshaw? At one point he had fingers in F1, touring cars and sports cars, plus JV's with Aston and Holden. Then his business went bust and he seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

Did he upset important people?

SS7

Who? Oh, that Tom Walkinshaw.
He's in Oz, and reportedly doing well in the pecuniary sense.

Here's a summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Walkinshaw
Oddly enough, whatever totally unbiased person wrote his wiki entry somehow forgot to mention Tommy's occasional run-ins with the British legal system.

[flemke]

Speaking of Tom Walkinshaw (not that he would have any relevance to this thread), here are a few highlights from the High Court's absolutely scathing judgment against him and his operations in 2002:
(All in the words of the Hon. Mr Justice Lightman)

"I should add that I have substantial reservations about the evidence of Mr Walkinshaw..."

" I do not find the Defendants' witness statements (and most particularly those of Mr Walkinshaw) fulfil the requirements of full and proper disclosure..."

"I have the strongest grounds for questioning and doubting the evidence of the Defendants' witnesses, the motives of the Defendants (TWR,et al) for their actions and the good faith of this application."

"The actions taken by the Defendants can only be described as underhand and improper, indeed downright dishonest."


Full judgment:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/judgmentsfiles/...

[The Hypno-Toad]

shoestring7 said:

rubystone said:

jagdpanther said:

T'is true! I know of a few cars (fair enough, not in F1 or GT or anything) that are nowhere NEAR in compliance with the rules and they never get pulled in for it...even for fairly obvious stuff

Yes - there are a few cars out there running at weekends that are not legal - at least in terms of the categories they are racing in.

I was surprised to see a race-winning car at the Revival this year spend an awfully long time in scrutineering. It subsequently turned out to have the incorrect spec engine...a bit embarrassing for its owner, given his "position"....I think it's now "legal" though and I guess he wasn't aware he was breaking the rules...

By that I suppose you mean to suggest the owner wasn't aware that F*rd didn't use a titanium valve train and run at 8500rpm in period...?

I don't think their invitation to this year's event has been lost in the post....

SS7

Well Lord March obviously didn't think it was that illegal because it wasn't struck from the results & has been invited back this year.

[964RS.]

Un-favourite cheats in motorsport:

Tom Walkinshaw
Martin Hines
Michael Schumacher

[zac510]

Nick_F said:

I rather like Nelson Piquet's alleged lightweight qualifying crash helmet.

That one sounds a bit fishy because helmets don't weigh much in the grand scheme, so what's to gain?

Most of the others seem plausible because you could gain from it!

[FourWheelDrift]

SplatSpeed said:

lotus firewall made of cardboard and painted with aluminium paint

I think that was a deliberate part of the design along with the chocolate uprights and not part of any cheat.

[FourWheelDrift]

Quite a different kind of cheat, Vic Lee of Vic Lee Motorsports running the BMWs in the BTCC made frequent trips over the channel to go "testing" at various circuits but in a strange twist of fate the cars always came back heavier than when they left

He got caught by the drugs squad, imprisoned, released and got caught again. IIRC.

[anonymous-user]

Some more blatant cheating in Drag Racing, more of a problem in the early 1990's, in Pro Stock.

Rules say: 500ci, naturally aspirated (no blowers, turbos, nitrous). Mininum weight 2350lbs etc etc.

So...a comparison, this is a nitrous assisted pro mod suffering a nitrous 'burp' - nitrous systems are permitted in Pro Mod:



This is an early 90's Dodge Pro Stock, leaving the startline:



You can hide nitrous bottles and plumbing, but it's a little more difficult to hide a burp...
Dodge denied it, and denied it, and denied it...

[Regional]

Example of a Martin Hines cheat please?

[shoestring7]

The Hypno-Toad said:

shoestring7 said:

rubystone said:

jagdpanther said:

T'is true! I know of a few cars (fair enough, not in F1 or GT or anything) that are nowhere NEAR in compliance with the rules and they never get pulled in for it...even for fairly obvious stuff

Yes - there are a few cars out there running at weekends that are not legal - at least in terms of the categories they are racing in.

I was surprised to see a race-winning car at the Revival this year spend an awfully long time in scrutineering. It subsequently turned out to have the incorrect spec engine...a bit embarrassing for its owner, given his "position"....I think it's now "legal" though and I guess he wasn't aware he was breaking the rules...

By that I suppose you mean to suggest the owner wasn't aware that F*rd didn't use a titanium valve train and run at 8500rpm in period...?

I don't think their invitation to this year's event has been lost in the post....

SS7

Well Lord March obviously didn't think it was that illegal because it wasn't struck from the results & has been invited back this year.

Do you mean the only GT40 that's faster than a Lola T70 spider, or an oversized yank saloon? It was the latter I was referring to.

SS7

[Mr_Yogi]

FourWheelDrift said:

Quite a different kind of cheat, Vic Lee of Vic Lee Motorsports running the BMWs in the BTCC made frequent trips over the channel to go "testing" at various circuits but in a strange twist of fate the cars always came back heavier than when they left

He got caught by the drugs squad, imprisoned, released and got caught again. IIRC.

Not really cheating but a bit cheaky, I seem to recall Vic Lee running two sets of M3's in the 90 (or 91?) BTCC. The Omega sponsored cars were his, and the Labatts cars he ran for someone else. At one race all the VLM cars were too loud. On the final lap one Omega car (Will Hoy?) was 6th and a labatts car was 7th (with points to the top 6). Just before the line the Omega car pulls over and lets the Labatts car past.

Post race the Labatts car gets tested for niose and fails, the Omega car is not tested as it's outside the top 6, then gets promoted to 6th

[The Hypno-Toad]

shoestring7 said:

The Hypno-Toad said:

shoestring7 said:

rubystone said:

jagdpanther said:

T'is true! I know of a few cars (fair enough, not in F1 or GT or anything) that are nowhere NEAR in compliance with the rules and they never get pulled in for it...even for fairly obvious stuff

Yes - there are a few cars out there running at weekends that are not legal - at least in terms of the categories they are racing in.

I was surprised to see a race-winning car at the Revival this year spend an awfully long time in scrutineering. It subsequently turned out to have the incorrect spec engine...a bit embarrassing for its owner, given his "position"....I think it's now "legal" though and I guess he wasn't aware he was breaking the rules...

By that I suppose you mean to suggest the owner wasn't aware that F*rd didn't use a titanium valve train and run at 8500rpm in period...?

I don't think their invitation to this year's event has been lost in the post....

SS7

Well Lord March obviously didn't think it was that illegal because it wasn't struck from the results & has been invited back this year.

Do you mean the only GT40 that's faster than a Lola T70 spider, or an oversized yank saloon? It was the latter I was referring to.

SS7

If my memory serves well (which is not for certain!) the saloon was removed from the results, the GT40 wasn't. The GT40 is going back this year.

But let's face it, everyone tries to get away with everything in motor racing, not many people are innocent.

[robwales]

More info on the Toyota WRC turbo cheat here: http://homepage.virgin.net/shalco.com/tte_ban.htm

Also I read somewhere that Ford did something on the Escort WRC that got around the rule that said that "all air going into the engine must pass through the restrictor" (or similar wording).
So while the car wasn't flat out, air was drawn through the restrictor and stored in a compression tank in the rear bumper, to be used when needed.