Bizarre: the Williams Formula 1 car with six wheels

Posted on 02-01-2016 at 17:06 by MauritsH – 15 Comments”

Time for a look in the overcrowded oddities of Formula 1.

At zeswielige Formula 1 cars you initially think possible to the Tyrrell P34. This bird of paradise with four front wheels was one of the few bizarre creations, who also was able to win races. However, it remained with one victory, but still. More info you can read THERE.

In 1982 found the creators of Williams it’s time to make things different. The team rested their FW07D with four rear wheels, which, moreover, were all powered. The idea behind this was quite simple. Other teams were using turbo engines with considerably more horsepower (up to 1,500 pieces in kwalificatietrim) than the atmospheric blocks. Williams had at that time no money for a turbo and so had to be a way be found to bridge the gap.

That were so, the four rear wheels, for better traction to keep. These wheels were powered by the legendary Cosworth DFV engine, with an output of more than 510 hp @ 11.200 rpm. For fun: the torque amounted to ‘only’ 353 Nm @ 8.500 rpm.

Incidentally, there were theoretically even more advantages to the concept. The used rear tyres were narrower than those of the competition, resulting in less drag. In addition, the bodywork of the car for longer, which means more downforce excited than the shorter instances of the competition. See also this article about the Lotus 88.

The traction from a standstill and out of slow corners was indeed very good, but as you likely already felt was the car competitive. The car was later continued with the also zeswielige FW08B, but for the beast well and you could do races was the rules changed. Now had F1 car’s four wheels, two of which were powered. And thus disappeared these great cars to the museum, even for just a meter was raced. A shame, because allegedly put the FW08B during test drives pretty fast lap…