POLL OF POLLS: Best Looking Formula One Car... Ever!

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Which of these Formula One cars is the looking?


  • Total voters
    104
  • Poll closed .

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You've all voted. You've all taken part. You've all had your say.
We've gone from the start of the 1950s, the experiments of the 1960s, the innovations of the 1970s, the sleekness of the 1980s, the audacity of the 1990s and the angles of the 2000s.

But there is one thing left to be said. Which is the best looking Formula One car ever?
I am taking the winners from each individual decade and letting you have your say.

Discussion and reasoning is wanted.

This is the final poll. Which of these is the best looking Formula One car ever?


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1950s

1954-1959 MASERATI 250F

Engines: 2.5L Maserati I6, 2.5L Maserati V12
Noted Drivers: Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Musso, Harry Schell, Stirling Moss

Raced with minor tweaks over the years but generally retained the same shape.


goodwood_media_2010-14.jpg


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1960s

1966-1969 EAGLE T1G

Engines: 3.0L Coventry-Climax I4, 3.0L Weslake V12
Noted Drivers: Dan Gurney, Bruce McLaren


Eagle-T1G-14481.jpg


Dan-Gurney-9-Eagle-1967.jpg


1970s

1975 BRABHAM BT44B

Engine: 3.0L Ford-Cosworth V8
Drivers: Carlos Pace, Carlos Reutemann


images_brabham_bt44_1975_1.jpg


ecbc88c8135e6880aefd7e8b85c2345a.jpg


1980s

1989 FERRARI 640

Engine: 3.5L Ferrari V12
Drivers: Nigel Mansell, Gerhard Berger

Note: The Ferrari 640 began the season with a visible rollhoop above the driver and air intakes either side of the driver (first image). From the fourth race onwards, an airbox was installed instead (second image).


Ferrari-640-Formula-1-%283%29.jpg


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1990s

1991 JORDAN 191

Engine: 3.5L Ford V8
Noted Drivers: Bertrand Gachot, Andrea de Cesaris, Michael Schumacher


jordan_191_4.jpg


5bf7135ed9a19b6347e19d23f647613c.jpg


2000s

2000 JAGUAR R1

Engine: 3.0L Ford-Cosworth V10
Noted Drivers: Eddie Irvine, Johnny Herbert


r1-jagu-2000-launch-1.jpg


r1-jagu-irvi-barc-2000.jpg
 
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The rather simple looks (being mostly unsponsored) of the Eagle did it for me. The Maserati was a close second.
 
Man. Tough call between the Eagle and the Jordan. Looking at both, I can envision the Eagle gracefully sliding through a hairpin on a rain-soaked track, while the Jordan effortlessly slices through the corners in another. I'll have to go with the Eagle, just because of how elegant it looks.
 
The Eagle is going to win this by a landslide, and rightfully so, but I can't vote for it. The Ferrari is my ideal vision of the simple clean slicks-n-wings F1 car.
 
As much as it pains me not to vote for the Maserati or Eagle, the Ferrari wins this one for me. I may be biased because Super Monaco GP is what got me into racing games and by extension racing in general, but to me that is what I envision when I think about F1.
 
Easier for me to dismiss what I don't consider to be the best looking going back from the '00s.

Jag: Best livery of the last 20 or so years but there were better-looking iterations to come.

Jordan: Extreme take on the most familiar F1 shape. Soft spot for the claw-like nose cone and primary colour but again, the early part of the decade produced a handful of prettier cars than this.

Ferrari: Classic shape. Still forgettable compared to half the grid (most of which adopted the same basic design) at the time.

Brabham: My heart's choice. Near enough design perfection for a '70s GP car whereas many other cars couldn't quite pull off the extreme cooling methods without looking completely daft. Hard to pick this over the next two though.

Eagle: Easily one of the best looking kayaks from the decade where many contracted an awful case of aero towards the end. Also the last decade where the cars still looked great with incredibly basic or wholly plain liveries. One to think about.

Maserati: What my head's telling me to go for. Possibly pornography.

You cannot do a poll on the best looking F1 car ever without doing the 2010s

I'd say it's acceptable from any point after 2019. Lest we make things unfairly unbalanced.
 
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I'm going to do that annoying thing where people complain that there favoured choice isn't in a poll...

Whilst I love the fierceness of the 2008 cars, they can be a bit much. All things considered, I think my favourite all time F1 car from a looks point of view is the BMW.Williams F1 FW26B, which contested the last few races of the 2004 season, winning with Montoya in Brazil. It's probably due in part to the fact that I only really started watching F1 around 1999/2000, and cars from other era's will always seem somewhat badly proportioned.

Of those above, the Jordan 191 gets my vote, simply because the contour of the roll-hoop/air-box intake looks pretty cool. That's enough to elevate it above the rest for me, many of which look no better than the spec machines found in lesser series, in my humble opinion.
 
Yeah, has to be the Eagle. Close contest with the Ferrari, though. I'm not a huge fan of the Jordan or the Jag. Neither are my favourites from their respective decades.
 
It's interesting that the Eagle was designed by Len Terry, who based it off his Indy 500-conquering Lotus 38.
 
Having put several hundred kilometres on it now, I have to go with the Maserati 250F with the
Eagle a close second. IMO the look of all F1 cars took a turn for the worse as soon as the wing was incorporated. I would have had this baby in there though:sly::

ScheckterJody1976-07-31Tyrrell-FordP34.jpg
 
If i keep looking at them, i'll probably change my mind, but that Ferrari 640 is just so nice...

Reminds me of Super Monaco GP's Firenze car which i loved, so i guess the nostalgia did it for me :lol:
 
I'm a fan of the Ferrari 640 , that car was gorgeous and it was my first year watching f1. Brabham 2nd and 3rd for the 91' jordan.
 
I don't like the curvature of the front wing on the Jordan.

The actual front wing is a lovely shape with the delta gap in the front but I'd agree with you on the nose cone.

But this:

5bf7135ed9a19b6347e19d23f647613c.jpg


This is an exceptional photo. The 191 isn't my favourite looking car from the 1990s but it is unquestionably one of the best. I do really love its lines side-on.

As for the overall?

Brabham and Ferrari definitely come last.

The Eagle is fine but it's no better than any other classic 60s car. The beak air intake at the front is fugly.

The Jaguar really, truly is a stunning car but I'm unsure if I can consider it one of the best looking ever.

The Maserati is a sensational thing of beauty.

And then there's the Jordan.

I really don't know. It's a triple threat match between Maserati-Jaguar-Jordan.
 
Easily the Eagle out of that selection. How the heck did we vote for the Brabham ahead of the Lotus 72D/E for the '70s anyway? :confused:
 
The curves, the front wing, the color scheme, the sparks, etc...that Jordan is sexy. The other cars are nice too, but it's so hard to compare different generations. However, I have always loved the way early 90's F1 cars looked. Simple, yet beautiful shapes the cars of those days were.
 
Out of the options I'll choose the Ferrari 640. I think the car itself looks stunning and has a brilliant, although simplistic, livery. Eagle and Jaguar would be very close behind for the same reasons
 
Oh I wish we could pick 2. I love the Eagle, and the Jordan equally! :banghead:
 
I don't get the love for the Eagle... It looks like every other 1960s F1 car... But then again... I wasn't even alive back then so what do I know...
 
While I don't think the Eagle is the best ever looking F1 car, of our given choices for me it's the only option.

Specifically I love the broadside view, It has such a sleek and simple look. Plus those are the sexiest wheels in F1 history. Plus not to mention the infamous Eagle beak nose which is so different it's beautiful.

eagle_t1g_7.jpeg


For me the best looking F1 car is easily the Mclaren M14A. The Eagle would probably be tied for 2nd with the Lotus 49. As you might be able to tell, I'm a bit biased to the late 60's, early 70's F1 cars.
 
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