Your favourite 'cheats' in motorsport
Discussion
DrTre said:
Not strictly cheating as it was legal but I always found it weird that in the early 90's the BTCC Mondeo engine was based on a Mazda 2.5 litre V6 from the US Ford Probe ..an option that was not purchasable in the UK.
It was then stroked down to 2 litres...an option not available in the US (IIRC and stand to be corrected)
(I daresay Ford weren't the only abusers of this loophole)
It was a 2.0l Mazda V6 that was available in certain markets, and being part of the Ford group was good enough to pass the regulations.It was then stroked down to 2 litres...an option not available in the US (IIRC and stand to be corrected)
(I daresay Ford weren't the only abusers of this loophole)
The most illegal thing about the car IMO was disconnecting the front drive shafts from the Mondeo 4x4 to make it a RWD 2.0l V6 Mondeo - very unlike anything you could buy in any country.
sniff petrol said:
How did the FIA become aware of it then?
To be honest, I haven't a clue how the FIA actually discovered the infringement, but a quick Google shows this from a WRC forum;WRC Forum said:
I always thought it was at the superspecial in Australia when Auriol pulled away from someone else at the stage start. Probably a combination though
and the reply
Yes that was what I was told from someone at the Australian Team. The cheat was discovered by studying the turbo under a microscope and a 'hair' could be seen where it shouldn't have been.....
(That thread then descended into a slanging match for some reason)and the reply
Yes that was what I was told from someone at the Australian Team. The cheat was discovered by studying the turbo under a microscope and a 'hair' could be seen where it shouldn't have been.....
So looks like suspicions were raised byt he performance levels initially.
sniff petrol said:
The most illegal thing about the car IMO was disconnecting the front drive shafts from the Mondeo 4x4 to make it a RWD 2.0l V6 Mondeo - very unlike anything you could buy in any country.
I don't think they actually raced in this configuration, only tested. The power losses in the transmission nullified any advantage of RWD.sniff petrol said:
Red Firecracker said:
Mannginger said:
Can't say I understand what's going on with that Turbo picture though
Here ya go, here's a page explaining the ins and outs;Toyota TTE's Illegal Turbo
It really was a work of art.
They were a mile off the pace that season with the new GT4, then Kankunen put in a stunner of a rally on tarmac, blitzing everyone before crashing out, Kankunen wasn't any good on tarmac normally. Nicky Grist (his then co-driver) talked about the pace saying he couldn't believe how quickly they were going and how improved the car was. Cue the scrutineers stripping the engine. The rest is history.
I can't claim to be mechanically minded but I seem to recall that Toyota "cracked" the housing apart and then machined over the outside so that the join was virtually invisible, hence the comment about microscopic investigation apparently showing a 'hair'.
Unilke Ferrari with their bargeboards and McLaren with their overly wide car, there was no way that they could claim this was just a manufacturing error. I can't believe they got away with just a 12-month ban to be honest.
Unilke Ferrari with their bargeboards and McLaren with their overly wide car, there was no way that they could claim this was just a manufacturing error. I can't believe they got away with just a 12-month ban to be honest.
niva441 said:
sniff petrol said:
The most illegal thing about the car IMO was disconnecting the front drive shafts from the Mondeo 4x4 to make it a RWD 2.0l V6 Mondeo - very unlike anything you could buy in any country.
I don't think they actually raced in this configuration, only tested. The power losses in the transmission nullified any advantage of RWD.an ex customer of mine had a fair bit to do with some of Andy Rouses mechanics at the time and they reckoned that try as they might, they couldnt get the rwd to handle as well as the fwd version anyway, and as has been mentioned, the additional trans losses killed it before it ran
I reply to the allegation that our Dodge was not legal at the Richmond race in 1998 please read the NHRA account of what really happened. We were the only Dodge on the tour that was qualifying that season, we were the first Dodge to run over 200mph and the only Dodge without factory backing, that is why Mopar was so embarrased at this race and all of the other races that season. The NHRA as well as a few other teams consulted with us before qualifying in order to know how to easily determine if the engine block was legal. Thanks, D.E.
Hubcao said:
I reply to the allegation that our Dodge was not legal at the Richmond race in 1998 please read the NHRA account of what really happened. We were the only Dodge on the tour that was qualifying that season, we were the first Dodge to run over 200mph and the only Dodge without factory backing, that is why Mopar was so embarrased at this race and all of the other races that season. The NHRA as well as a few other teams consulted with us before qualifying in order to know how to easily determine if the engine block was legal. Thanks, D.E.
Thanks for taking the time out to reply Dale, so it was another case of NHRA/Mopar skullduggery then?!skwdenyer said:
An old friend used to work as a part of the pit crew at Le Mans in the TWR years. He claimed that his job at the first pit stop was to remove the unnecessarily superfluous fire extinguishers, and that at the last pit stop was to replace them.
I'd be a teensy bit skeptical about this. Pit stops at LM in the '80s were slightly chaotic, but not chaotic enough that one could simply remove a few, presumably rather heavy, fire extinguishers without attracting the attention of the press or pit lane marshals.Ahonen said:
skwdenyer said:
An old friend used to work as a part of the pit crew at Le Mans in the TWR years. He claimed that his job at the first pit stop was to remove the unnecessarily superfluous fire extinguishers, and that at the last pit stop was to replace them.
I'd be a teensy bit skeptical about this. Pit stops at LM in the '80s were slightly chaotic, but not chaotic enough that one could simply remove a few, presumably rather heavy, fire extinguishers without attracting the attention of the press or pit lane marshals.sniff petrol said:
DrTre said:
Not strictly cheating as it was legal but I always found it weird that in the early 90's the BTCC Mondeo engine was based on a Mazda 2.5 litre V6 from the US Ford Probe ..an option that was not purchasable in the UK.
It was then stroked down to 2 litres...an option not available in the US (IIRC and stand to be corrected)
(I daresay Ford weren't the only abusers of this loophole)
It was a 2.0l Mazda V6 that was available in certain markets, and being part of the Ford group was good enough to pass the regulations.It was then stroked down to 2 litres...an option not available in the US (IIRC and stand to be corrected)
(I daresay Ford weren't the only abusers of this loophole)
Ahonen said:
skwdenyer said:
An old friend used to work as a part of the pit crew at Le Mans in the TWR years. He claimed that his job at the first pit stop was to remove the unnecessarily superfluous fire extinguishers, and that at the last pit stop was to replace them.
I'd be a teensy bit skeptical about this. Pit stops at LM in the '80s were slightly chaotic, but not chaotic enough that one could simply remove a few, presumably rather heavy, fire extinguishers without attracting the attention of the press or pit lane marshals.Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff