1981 BBC Horizon- Skirts and downforce

[bluesatin]

Great Program on the banning of side skirts and impact on downforce done in association with Williams- Sorry if a repost.

Cars sound great, Williams complaing about Fiat/Ferrari and Renault!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8l9bthLdzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxvcUnmBF8I&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWsRLPDzT3o&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orXDyNS-GMg&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-YgfLHKNo&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-lQ1R7BoX4&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTH3mZfMRdI&fea...

[mattikake]

Great find! I had no idea Horizon ever made such a documentary and would never have thought to look for that.

Terrible dubbing mind!

[Mazda Baiter]

Interesting testing back then. So much has been taken over by computers.

Scary taking the springs out and running with the car solid!

Alan Jones- "it could be faster...maybe if the seat had suspension..."

Frank Williams-"Why don't you sit on your wallet Alan?"

Alan Jones-"If you gave me something to put in it..."



I wonder if they realised that by talking about 'springing the seat' they are actually talking about the concept that Lotus was trying with the twin-chassis 88.

A very good find.

[Mazda Baiter]

They didn't understand super/turbo charging back then at the BBC.

[Nicholas Blair]

Used to love the title music for Horizon back then.

It's gone all modern now and quite s****e

[jonnylayze]

Horizon also made a programme at the same time on the history of the Grand Prix car from 1924-1939. It was released on VHS as 'Supercharged'. I have no idea if its on Youtube or is available on DVD but the above has inspired me to find out.

[Alicatt1]

I can remember watching that, it was a good program. The pre war Silver Arrows putting out 800+bhp and on skinny tyres, life was sideways

[Evangelion]

All I could find was this one, "The Power And The Glory" - Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkl15egUszI

Parts 2 and 3 are there as well.

ETA - or try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7eerMIGQUY

Edited by Evangelion on Thursday 4th March 15:32

[ADEuk]

jonnylayze said:

Horizon also made a programme at the same time on the history of the Grand Prix car from 1924-1939. It was released on VHS as 'Supercharged'. I have no idea if its on Youtube or is available on DVD but the above has inspired me to find out.

I have just uploaded a VHS rip copy that I had to a public torrent site. Am I allowed to post a link?

[LayZ]

Great film thanks. Surely its only of any interest to engineering geek types like us, no chance anything would get made like that on the bbc today.

[Eric Mc]

I remember watching this Horizon at the time. It was entitled "Gentlemen, Raise Your Skirts".

I haven't seen it since then but I am pretty sure there is a clip in the programme where Alan Jones is complaining that the ride is too harsh and that the car's suspension needs to be softened. Patrick Head suggests to Jones that he should try sitting on his wallet.

PS - Just saw the first clip - it was "Lift" not "Raise". Oh well, not bad for a 30 year old memory.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 4th March 18:40

[Merry]

ADEuk said:

jonnylayze said:

Horizon also made a programme at the same time on the history of the Grand Prix car from 1924-1939. It was released on VHS as 'Supercharged'. I have no idea if its on Youtube or is available on DVD but the above has inspired me to find out.

I have just uploaded a VHS rip copy that I had to a public torrent site. Am I allowed to post a link?

PM?

[Evangelion]

Just searched for "lift your skirts" on YouTube and there it was!

This is Part 1, the rest follow on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7eerMIGQUY

[Mazda Baiter]

Evangelion said:

Just searched for "lift your skirts" on YouTube and there it was!



This is Part 1, the rest follow on.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7eerMIGQUY

Just the same as the first link in the OP then

Eric, it was Frank Williams, not Patrick Head who made the comment about Alan Jones' wallet. Good memory though. I can't remember 30 years back... Maybe that's because I was only born in 1984?

[DangerousMike]

enjoying watching this now, with the automtic google subtitles on... they're hilarious. I especially like seeing the things it comes up with for the team names...

Renault = Iran
alfa romeo = now for a mayor

[LocoBlade]

Cheers for the links, kept me entertained for an hour

[velocemitch]

Evangelion said:

Just searched for "lift your skirts" on YouTube and there it was!

Blimey be careful doing that......

Mind you I remembered the name straight away when I read this thread, must have left it's impression on me.

[Gillet]

Cheers for the link, its good to understand where the sport came from. I ended up watching the reviews of the 1978, 79, 80 and 81 championship reviews last night, superb stuff and showed how much crazy technology was back then, the engineers didnt even really understand what they were doing with ground effect or aero, they had the ideas but not the know-how to understand why 1 car was so much quicker than the other.

[Eric Mc]

That's the big difference between F1 before about 1985 or so and now. Since those days, the testing regimes have been so extensive and exhaustive, that very few major unknowns remain. It's all a bit too predictable these days.

[skwdenyer]

mattikake said:

Terrible dubbing mind!

I think the problem is that the audio and video are not properly synced at any point. We just don't notice until we see a visual reference - lips or, for instance, the writing of a pen on a white board.

A shame, but doesn't detract from a very interesting programme!