Your favourite 'cheats' in motorsport

Your favourite 'cheats' in motorsport

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Discussion

forsure

2,117 posts

267 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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I can't remember how long the drivers have had to 'weigh-in' after the race; certainly there was a time when the minimum weight applied to the car only.
I recall some controversy around M Schumacher turning up at the first race of a year considerably lighter than he'd been in the close season.
Was there a pre-season 'weigh-in' that recorded the drivers' weight with no further checks?
Clearly a loophole, if so - exploited too obviously by MS.

thunderbelmont

2,982 posts

223 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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TWR Rovers in the BTCC ran with Volvo rockers in them which had a different (bigger) rocker ratio to the standard BL one, giving more valve lift.
Tom had them made with the BL logo on them so the scrutineers didn't see anything wrong.

A thorough inspection caught them out, and it went as far as the high court IIRC, with TWR losing the championship, and very hefty fines.

Then there were the "small scale" Volvo's in the ETCC - in a similar vein to Smokey Yunicks 'little ol NASCARs'.

Regarding the water top-up jobs in F1, wasn't it Tyrrell who used to make last minute topup's of water - which was probably 50% lead shot......


heebeegeetee

28,506 posts

247 months

Monday 16th June 2008
quotequote all
forsure said:
I can't remember how long the drivers have had to 'weigh-in' after the race; certainly there was a time when the minimum weight applied to the car only.
I recall some controversy around M Schumacher turning up at the first race of a year considerably lighter than he'd been in the close season.
Was there a pre-season 'weigh-in' that recorded the drivers' weight with no further checks?
Clearly a loophole, if so - exploited too obviously by MS.
I think it was the other way round, he came for the weigh in considerably heavier, which meant that the team could then add ballast throughout the season when schuey weighed less than his original weight?

Sid Watkins covers it in his book and shows how Schumi's explanation of how he drank a lot of water wasn't physically possible, IIRC.

John D.

17,670 posts

208 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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Nick_F said:
I rather like Nelson Piquet's alleged lightweight qualifying crash helmet.
laugh Love it!

The Hypno-Toad

12,230 posts

204 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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Ahonen said:
No you haven't - you seem to lose your bottle before the end of each story.


I know... I'm such a tease...
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any excuse to post this picture!

1

2,727 posts

235 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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The Hypno-Toad said:
Ahonen said:
No you haven't - you seem to lose your bottle before the end of each story.


I know... I'm such a tease...
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any excuse to post this picture!
So how was your holiday Hypno Toad? You certainly look like you were having a good time in the photo.

CNHSS1

942 posts

216 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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theres a story i heard of Dave Brodie with a lightweight roll cage in a racing Mk1 escort that turned out to be made from thin wall exh tube! was only discovered when the car became inverted and squashed the roof flat along with the 'pseudo' cage.
another of DBs was the use in his 80's cossie RS500 BTCC car of 'Granny Brodies racing Brew' fuel which he was found to be using and subsequently disqualified for. seem to remember him grinning from ear to ear on the telly when interviewed about it.

shoestring7

6,138 posts

245 months

Monday 16th June 2008
quotequote all
thunderbelmont said:
TWR Rovers in the BTCC ran with Volvo rockers in them which had a different (bigger) rocker ratio to the standard BL one, giving more valve lift.
Tom had them made with the BL logo on them so the scrutineers didn't see anything wrong.

A thorough inspection caught them out, and it went as far as the high court IIRC, with TWR losing the championship, and very hefty fines.

Then there were the "small scale" Volvo's in the ETCC - in a similar vein to Smokey Yunicks 'little ol NASCARs'.

Regarding the water top-up jobs in F1, wasn't it Tyrrell who used to make last minute topup's of water - which was probably 50% lead shot......
The inner wheels arches of the TWR Rovers were also far from std, allowing the fitment of larger wheels.

And those were the cheats that were discovered....

SS7

dxb335d

2,905 posts

194 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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FourWheelDrift said:
Yes but my story was about using heavier wings to meet minimum weight during the pre-race scrutineering, then putting the lightweight wings on for the race be underweight and faster, then replace the heavier wings for post race scrutineering citing "race damage" as a reason for replacing them.

smile
if an illegal part was fitted midrace and they came in under weight then there disq, end of.

flemke

22,862 posts

236 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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CNHSS1 said:
theres a story i heard of Dave Brodie with a lightweight roll cage in a racing Mk1 escort that turned out to be made from thin wall exh tube! was only discovered when the car became inverted and squashed the roof flat along with the 'pseudo' cage.
another of DBs was the use in his 80's cossie RS500 BTCC car of 'Granny Brodies racing Brew' fuel which he was found to be using and subsequently disqualified for. seem to remember him grinning from ear to ear on the telly when interviewed about it.
I wouldn't know about Dave Brodie, but electrical conduit was used for roll cages by many, many people, at least as far back as the '60s.

petermansell

868 posts

205 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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MrKipling43 said:
Smokey Unich - an old US NASCAR team owner had some of the very best. One of my all time faves was a race during which his car was, mysteriously, able to run loads longer than anyone else's. The scrutineers called the car in for examination and could find nothing wrong or illegal with the tank, but it later transpired (after he drove the car all the way from Scrutineering back to his garage with no fuel tank) that he'd installed a 100 foot long fuel line, which was enough for about three gallons.
Fantastic roflroflrofl

andygo

6,785 posts

254 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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I remember hearing that a certain zetec racer ran his car REALLY low at Thruxton. Unfortunately, after winning the race, he managed to crash the car into the gate leading into Parc Ferme, taking a corner off. The scrutineers didn't bother checking the ride hieght as the car was 'damaged'.

HiRich

3,337 posts

261 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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I may have this story totally wrong, but there was an incident with Minis on the Monte. For reasons I can't remember (but more than "it goes faster") they had fitted oversize carburettors. On the final road stage, the cars pulled over and the proper parts were fitted. But time penalties awaited, and they were unable to complete the job.

Come post-event scrutineering, and they're watching the blazer boy do his stuff. To their horror he starts inspecting the carb throats. The first one has been reverted, but they know that as soon as he looks at the other, they're in deep trouble. Concidentally, at that moment a BMC mechanic accidently knocks a bucket of sump oil ten feet across the floor, all over the scrutineers feet. To shouts of "Merde", "Zut Alors" and the like, he slams the bonnet shut and storms of. Which was lucky.

Roop

6,012 posts

283 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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I agree that every car in motorsport is bent, and if it isn't bent, the team is in the process of 'improving' it.

TWR Jaguar XJ-S touring cars went very well but had a heady thirst for fuel. Unfortunately, a maximum tank capacity meant they had to stop too often and lost any advantage. To combat this disadvantage, the cars were fitted with much larger fuel tanks within which was an air bladder connected to a tube that ran to the cockpit. Deflated for the entire race, the tank held huge amounts of fuel. At the end of the race, the driver blew into a tube to inflate the air bladder and displace tank capacity. Miraculously the tanks measured as legal when checked after the race by scrutineers...

Some monster rule bending went on during the Tuscan years including blatant infingements by PRW, but everyone turned a blind eye.

Competitor: "What's that engine...?"
PRW: "It's a new one I'm making. 4.5 litre flat plane crank V8."
Competitor: "Err, but the rules say we all use RV8's."
PRW: "Yeah, but this is for development purposes."
Competitor: "So, it's against the rules."
PRW: "What you gonna do about it...?"
Competitor: "Alright, you win."

FourWheelDrift

88,337 posts

283 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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And bigger than 4.5ltrs too ?

flemke

22,862 posts

236 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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petermansell said:
MrKipling43 said:
Smokey Unich - an old US NASCAR team owner had some of the very best. One of my all time faves was a race during which his car was, mysteriously, able to run loads longer than anyone else's. The scrutineers called the car in for examination and could find nothing wrong or illegal with the tank, but it later transpired (after he drove the car all the way from Scrutineering back to his garage with no fuel tank) that he'd installed a 100 foot long fuel line, which was enough for about three gallons.
Fantastic roflroflrofl
Not cheating, but a pit-lane anecdote sort of related to the above:

There was a great sprint/Indy car driver in the 'late'50s/'60s named Jim Hurtibise.
For a number of years he raced at Indy in a car powered by a unique engine known as a "Novi". Despite its consistent lack of success, the car was very popular, both because of its uniqueness and because of its glorious engine note.
In IIRC 1967, Hurtibise brought the Novi to Indy for what looked to be its last hurrah. It was front-engined, and had over the previous 2-3 years done poorly. In its initial attempts to qualify, it had been well off the pace.

It was now the afternoon of the last qualifying day. There was about an hour left to go when Hurtibise's crew pushed the Novi into line for what would be its last attempt. The Novi sat stationary and then, when its turn to qualify came, Hurtibise gestured that the car behind him should come around him and go out to make its run, which it did. For the next go, Hurtibise again signalled to the car behind him in the queue to come around and make its run.
The pattern of Hurtibise's ceding his place in the queue continued until there were no more cars sitting behind him. There were only a few minutes left in which it would be possible for him to attempt to qualify this legendary racing car.
The chief steward came over and said, "I guess this is it, Jim."
Hurtibise replied, "Yep!", walked to the front of the car, and lifted the bonnet. Underneath, the Novi engine had been removed, and the engine bay was filled with an ice chest and cans of beer.
Hurtibise just smiled and announced to all and sundry, "Drink up, boys!"

SplatSpeed

7,490 posts

250 months

Monday 16th June 2008
quotequote all
lotus firewall made of cardboard and painted with aluminium paint

dhutch

14,140 posts

196 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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petermansell said:
MrKipling43 said:
Smokey Unich - an old US NASCAR team owner had some of the very best. One of my all time faves was a race during which his car was, mysteriously, able to run loads longer than anyone else's. The scrutineers called the car in for examination and could find nothing wrong or illegal with the tank, but it later transpired (after he drove the car all the way from Scrutineering back to his garage with no fuel tank) that he'd installed a 100 foot long fuel line, which was enough for about three gallons.
Fantastic roflroflrofl
Its a golden oldie!
- Even when i was racing radio controled cars it was common place to fit rather over-sized fuel filters. The 75cc fuel tank was just a bit restrictice for a 5min heat. but a 15cc fuel filter really made a diffrence...


Daniel

rubystone

11,252 posts

258 months

Monday 16th June 2008
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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 stuffwink
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...

CNHSS1

942 posts

216 months

Monday 16th June 2008
quotequote all
dhutch said:
petermansell said:
MrKipling43 said:
Smokey Unich - an old US NASCAR team owner had some of the very best. One of my all time faves was a race during which his car was, mysteriously, able to run loads longer than anyone else's. The scrutineers called the car in for examination and could find nothing wrong or illegal with the tank, but it later transpired (after he drove the car all the way from Scrutineering back to his garage with no fuel tank) that he'd installed a 100 foot long fuel line, which was enough for about three gallons.
Fantastic roflroflrofl
Its a golden oldie!
- Even when i was racing radio controled cars it was common place to fit rather over-sized fuel filters. The 75cc fuel tank was just a bit restrictice for a 5min heat. but a 15cc fuel filter really made a diffrence...


Daniel
in my RC days, fuel tank in boiling water, blow into fuel tube to inflate tank and then ito cold water, coupled with fuel tube twice round the crankcase and 125cc became 135cc ;-)