Failures of Motorsports - Car Designs, Team Mistakes and More

[prisonermonkeys]

Todd Kelly's career has pretty much over the more and more he stays with Nissan.

Honestly, I think that the Kellys are Nissan's biggest problem. The entire project is built around them and they seem to be using it to justify keeping themselves in the sport rather than enriching it. Look at their 2016 line-up - Todd, Rick, Michael Caruso and Dale Wood. Of the four, Caruso is the only one with any real quality about him. The irony is that Todd Kelly has it in him to be an excellent team principal, but his insistence on racing distracts him from it, and his duties as team principal distract from his racing.

When David Reynolds quit the team, some of his comments shed a rather unflattering light on Kelly Racing's management - he suggested that the team didn't have the resources to run four cars, and that Todd and Rick got first pick of what was available. Rather than develop his own career, he also insinuated that he was expected to support the Kellys first and then worry about himself. Everything was geared towards the Kellys' desired image of being the most accessible team and positioning the Kellys as being the biggest stars of the sport. Particularly Rick Kelly, who I think desperately wants to be seen in the same light as Craig Lowndes or James Courtney.

Honestly, I think that a lot of this stems from Rick Kelly's 2006 title. I don't think that he was ever really accepted as being a true champion of the sport, be it because of the collision with Lowndes at Phillip Island (even now, nine years later, I am convinced that he did it on purpose, and I know that I am not the only one who feels that way), or the way he won the title without winning a round outright. In winning the title, the name Rick Kelly was supposed to join the pantheon of greats - but it didn't, and I think that has played on his psyche ever since.

 

[jake2013guy]

2008 NASCAR Brickyard 400 Tire Debacle

All you need to know about this race was that the tires would not last longer then 15 minutes before exploding. The result was NASCAR having to put the field under caution every 10 laps for the entire race to allow the teams to change tires. To make matters worse, this is a marquee NASCAR event, further elevating the embarrassment.

Might as well reference the 2013 British Grand Prix.

 

[Com Fox]

Honestly, I think that the Kellys are Nissan's biggest problem. The entire project is built around them and they seem to be using it to justify keeping themselves in the sport rather than enriching it. Look at their 2016 line-up - Todd, Rick, Michael Caruso and Dale Wood. Of the four, Caruso is the only one with any real quality about him. The irony is that Todd Kelly has it in him to be an excellent team principal, but his insistence on racing distracts him from it, and his duties as team principal distract from his racing.

When David Reynolds quit the team, some of his comments shed a rather unflattering light on Kelly Racing's management - he suggested that the team didn't have the resources to run four cars, and that Todd and Rick got first pick of what was available. Rather than develop his own career, he also insinuated that he was expected to support the Kellys first and then worry about himself. Everything was geared towards the Kellys' desired image of being the most accessible team and positioning the Kellys as being the biggest stars of the sport. Particularly Rick Kelly, who I think desperately wants to be seen in the same light as Craig Lowndes or James Courtney.

Honestly, I think that a lot of this stems from Rick Kelly's 2006 title. I don't think that he was ever really accepted as being a true champion of the sport, be it because of the collision with Lowndes at Phillip Island (even now, nine years later, I am convinced that he did it on purpose, and I know that I am not the only one who feels that way), or the way he won the title without winning a round outright. In winning the title, the name Rick Kelly was supposed to join the pantheon of greats - but it didn't, and I think that has played on his psyche ever since.

While I do think what happened in 2006 was more of an accident than intentional, I do see where your idea comes from and sort of agree (even though I've accepted Rick as champion, I think it is clear to see what is happening now and make connections).

Still, it is making Nissan's new attempt in V8s be a complete bust and somewhat of a joke. Ever since the Altima's slow lap times back in 2013 Adelaide, I never took them seriously.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Might as well reference the 2013 British Grand Prix.

That was a completely different scenario. Sure, the tyres failed, but the teams brought it on themselves by deliberately ignoring the advice given by Pirelli. They used lower tyre pressures than recommended, ran camber settings outside the guidelines provided by Pirelli and swapped the tyres across the car; the tyre intended for the front right went on the front left, and vice versa. What's more, Pirelli had been warning them about this for a year - after qualifying for the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull noticed blistering on their front tyres, which was traced back to their extreme camber settings. Red Bull sought permission to start on a different set of tyres as they felt that their qualifying tyres were damaged, but the FIA said no; Red Bull had ignored the advice of Pirelli and caused the damage themselves, so if that meant that they had to pit at the end of the first lap, then they had nobody to blame but themselves. So when the 2013 British Grand Prix rolled around and the teams once again ignored Pirelli's advice, they garnered no sympathy. I know everyone loved to criticise Pirelli for it, but unlike that NASCAR race, the teams knowingly and willingly misused their tyres for the sake of a faster lap time (and the unusually sharp kerbs of Silverstone didn't help). They brought it on themselves. It was only after Vettel's explosive blow-out at Spa this year - again a product of misusing the tyres combined with his repeatedly abusing the track limits - that the FIA made Pirelli's advice on tyre use mandatory rather than a recommendation.

 

[jake2013guy]

That was a completely different scenario. Sure, the tyres failed, but the teams brought it on themselves by deliberately ignoring the advice given by Pirelli. They used lower tyre pressures than recommended, ran camber settings outside the guidelines provided by Pirelli and swapped the tyres across the car; the tyre intended for the front right went on the front left, and vice versa. What's more, Pirelli had been warning them about this for a year - after qualifying for the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull noticed blistering on their front tyres, which was traced back to their extreme camber settings. Red Bull sought permission to start on a different set of tyres as they felt that their qualifying tyres were damaged, but the FIA said no; Red Bull had ignored the advice of Pirelli and caused the damage themselves, so if that meant that they had to pit at the end of the first lap, then they had nobody to blame but themselves. So when the 2013 British Grand Prix rolled around and the teams once again ignored Pirelli's advice, they garnered no sympathy. I know everyone loved to criticise Pirelli for it, but unlike that NASCAR race, the teams knowingly and willingly misused their tyres for the sake of a faster lap time (and the unusually sharp kerbs of Silverstone didn't help). They brought it on themselves. It was only after Vettel's explosive blow-out at Spa this year - again a product of misusing the tyres combined with his repeatedly abusing the track limits - that the FIA made Pirelli's advice on tyre use mandatory rather than a recommendation.

The title is "Failures of Motorsports" and doesn't specifically state what a failure has to be. The race was as much a failure to the fans as the NASCAR one.

Also, it's a failure by the FIA for not mandating the tyre manufacturer's recommendation leading to this. Therefore, I stand by my view that this is a failure by multiple parties being the teams, FIA, Pirelli and others.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Another V8 Supercar failure - Team IntaRacing

IntaRacing was a short-lived team that took advantage of V8 Supercars Australia making several Racing Entitlement Contracts available ahead of the 2009 season. The team was owned by internet gambling agency owner Daniel Tzvetkoff, but lasted just six rounds before collapsing and Tzvetkoff disappeared shortly thereafter. It is believed that Tzvetkoff turned state's evidence in an FBI investigation into organised crime involvement in internet gambling, and that he is currently in witness protection as he has neither been seen nor heard from since.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Toyota Supra 3.0i Turbo

Following the deaths of Henri Toivonen and Attillio Bettega, the FIA decided that rallying was getting out of control, and banned the Group B and planned Group S regulations on the spot. The sport reverted to the old Group A regulations, which required cars that were heavier, slower and greater homologation requirements. With the demise of Group S, Toyota shelved their planned MR2 project, and instead chose the Supra 3.0i Turbo, which was one of the most anonymous rally cars of all time. Admittedly, Toyota didn't have much of a range to choose from, but the decision to enter the Supra 3.0i Turbo was clearly motivated by which car Toyota wanted to sell rather than which car was right for the sport.

Peugeot 307 WRC

Hot on the heels of one of the most successful cars of its time, the Peugeot 206 WRC, came ... this thing, unaffectionately dubbed "the whale". In a sport where a short wheelbase and a low centre of gravity are to be prized, the decision to enter the top-heavy and over-long 307 was baffling to say the least. It might have won three rallies (hardly a patch on its predecessor and really more a testament to the drivers rather than the car), but its most notable achievement was the way it made the talented Marcus Gronholm and Markko Martin look very silly.

 

[DK]

Any thread about failures in motorsports is incomplete without a mention of Life. Started by Ernesto Vita, the only car they ever entered into F1 - the L190 - began life as FIRST's abortive effort to get into F1 in 1989. The FIRST chassis was modified to use Life's raison d'etre - their 3.5-litre W12 engine. The W12 engine was the brainchild of ex-Ferrari engine designer Franco Rocchi, who designed the 3-litre V8s in the Ferrari 308 GTB and GTS.

Vita, thinking there might be a business opportunity, bought the rights for Rocchi's design and tried to sell the engines to some teams for the 1989 season. When this failed, he decided to go it alone and enter his own team for 1990. Rocchi and Vita had hoped the W12 would offer the compactness of a V8 but the power of a V12. It turned out that there was a reason that no-one wanted to use the W12 - it was horrendously weak. While the front-running engines of Honda and Ferrari offered around 700 horsepower, the Life W12 was at least 30% down on those figures, if it could run at all. In Brazil, Gary Brabham travelled not even 400 metres before the engine gave up, prompting him to quit. In San Marino, his replacement, Bruno Giacomelli, would record what could possibly be the slowest ever lap in a F1 session, recording a 7:16 in pre-qualifying!

You can tell how out-dated the car is when it has Soviet sponsorship!​

Needless to say, the L190 would never escape pre-qualifying. For the final two races, the W12 was replaced with a Judd CV V8, but that brought them barely any closer to pre-qualifying, and they didn't bother going to the final two races in Japan and Australia.

 

[lxmmy]

Soviet sponsorship!

Oh the irony.

 

[Panoz]

On paper, McLaren-Peugeot's 1994 campaign was a decent year in regarding their points tally by Mika Hakkinen and Martin Brundle. After winning Le Mans back to back in '92-93 in the V10 powered 905, Peugeot supplied McLaren with their engines in what was going to be a 4 year agreement.

But the first half of the 1994 season was defined by the Peugeot engines going out in spectacular style. The relationship between both deteriorated after the British GP when Brundle cooked a French lion in front of the Silverstone crowd the moment the race started.



After Peugeot found reliability in the engine, the team was constant points scorers during the second half of the season. At years end, McLaren went on to enjoy a long partnership with Mercedes-Benz while Peugeot supplied the Jordan team.

 

[Northstar]

One more from the sports car world:

2011 Panoz Abruzzi "Spirit of Le Mans"

Panoz has long been known for odd looking cars that manage to put up a fight against the big manufacturers. However the Abruzzi never amounted to much and only ran in two races before pulling a vanishing act.

 

[R5]

Any thread about failures in motorsports is incomplete without a mention of Life. Started by Ernesto Vita, the only car they ever entered into F1 - the L190 - began life as FIRST's abortive effort to get into F1 in 1989. The FIRST chassis was modified to use Life's raison d'etre - their 3.5-litre W12 engine. The W12 engine was the brainchild of ex-Ferrari engine designer Franco Rocchi, who designed the 3-litre V8s in the Ferrari 308 GTB and GTS.

Vita, thinking there might be a business opportunity, bought the rights for Rocchi's design and tried to sell the engines to some teams for the 1989 season. When this failed, he decided to go it alone and enter his own team for 1990. Rocchi and Vita had hoped the W12 would offer the compactness of a V8 but the power of a V12. It turned out that there was a reason that no-one wanted to use the W12 - it was horrendously weak. While the front-running engines of Honda and Ferrari offered around 700 horsepower, the Life W12 was at least 30% down on those figures, if it could run at all. In Brazil, Gary Brabham travelled not even 400 metres before the engine gave up, prompting him to quit. In San Marino, his replacement, Bruno Giacomelli, would record what could possibly be the slowest ever lap in a F1 session, recording a 7:16 in pre-qualifying!

You can tell how out-dated the car is when it has Soviet sponsorship!​

Needless to say, the L190 would never escape pre-qualifying. For the final two races, the W12 was replaced with a Judd CV V8, but that brought them barely any closer to pre-qualifying, and they didn't bother going to the final two races in Japan and Australia.

When life gives you lemons, be thankful it wasn't engines

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Canberra 400

Quick history lesson for you: following Australia's settlement, we decided that we wanted to become a nation in our own right, and went through the process of Federation. In between drafting constitutions and all of the paperwork that you need to do, Australia ran into a problem - both Sydney and Melbourne wanted to be the capital city, but neither could agree and neither would budge. The solution to this was as simple as it was Australian: draw a line between the two of them, measure it to exactly halfway, and build your capital city there. Thus, Canberra was born.

Flash forward ninety-nine years, and V8 Supercars had established at least one race in every single state and territory except for the Australian Capital Territory, and so a race in Canberra was the final frontier. But in their haste to set up the race, V8 Supercars Australia made one critical error - they forgot that Canberra is where we keep our politicians, and so the city was designed to be as confusing as possible to keep them from getting out and ruining the rest of the country (seriously - there isn't even a highway connecting our capital city to the rest of the country). With a design brief of "take in as many landmarks as possible", the championship held is first race at the monstrosity known as the Canberra Street Circuit in 1999.

It was immediately obvious that the whole plan was a terrible idea. The circuit itself was stupidly narrow, with up to 45% of the lap run on roads where drivers had to run in single file because there wasn't enough space to run side-by-side. The high speeds of the lap demanded agonising chicanes like the notorious Chinese Embassy, which only thinned the field out. And the pit lane was squeezed into the only place it would fit, and was so dangerous that the entry speed had to be lowered to 40km/h, even though the pit entry was on the racing line. Most of the drivers found it completely terrifying.



When the championship left a few years later, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and never looked back. There was a short-lived attempt at returning to the ACT, with a race in Queenbeyan (birthplace of one Mark Webber), but it was quickly forgotten.

 

[TDZdave]

ROCKETSPORTS JAGUAR,

What a fantastic idea, bring Jaguar back to sports car racing with one of the best looking jaguar road cars of some time, the Jaguar XKR GT2 looked beautiful, sounded incredible, and was probably one of the slowest cars to grace the GT2 category, the plus side of it being so slow was that the spectators could take in the noise and sheer beauty of the car for longer,

 

[-Fred-]

Peugeot 307 WRC

Hot on the heels of one of the most successful cars of its time, the Peugeot 206 WRC, came ... this thing, unaffectionately dubbed "the whale". In a sport where a short wheelbase and a low centre of gravity are to be prized, the decision to enter the top-heavy and over-long 307 was baffling to say the least. It might have won three rallies (hardly a patch on its predecessor and really more a testament to the drivers rather than the car), but its most notable achievement was the way it made the talented Marcus Gronholm and Markko Martin look very silly.

You're forgetting arguably the worst part about the car, its transmission. Peugeot went with an unconventional 4 speed, which in itself was a problem on the tighter stages, but it also had a tendency to eat itself up and was poorly packaged.


Cadillac's LMP Program

Hot on the heels of BMW and Audi, GM decided to enter Cadillac at Le Mans to get a bit of worldwide exposure on the brand. The 2000 cars were built around an already dated Riley & Scott chassis, and were pretty much off the pace everywhere they raced. Best finish in 2000; a fourth place at Monza, and 19th at Le Mans. 2001 was much of the same, again evolving the R&S chassis, claiming as high as 3rd place at Mosport in the ALMS, and ultimately being classified 15th at Le Mans . The 2002 car was built in house and showed Cadillac was at least trying to take it seriously. 9th place at Le Mans, and a season high 2nd place at Miami showed there was potential for 2003, at which point GM killed off the program, saying it had met expectations and then focused on the Corvette program instead.

 

[ukfan758]

You can't beat Taki Inoue:

 

[TenEightyOne]

The relationship between both deteriorated after the British GP when Brundle cooked a French lion in front of the Silverstone crowd the moment the race started.

Further to that; In Brundle's book (Working the Wheel) he describes how the pre-start revs at which the drivers would hold the engine was, by coincidence, the resonant frequency of the oil system. The engine blew oil out as he set off. The bit he says was mostly-unreported is that with an oil-top up and a new gasket the engine fired up perfectly. Still, as he notes, the damages were done.

 

[tankuroded]

There was a similar topic on Jalponik Black Flag, and I nominate this:

The Honda NSX-R GT1 Turbo, as the Japanese version of the first Gran Turismo calls it. Racing in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, one car retired early - in fact the first retirement, the other ran too slow and went NC. The GT2 class car, on another hand...

💡

 

[AudiMan2011]

The 'Walrus nose' on the 2004 Williams FW26:

Not only was it ugly, the radical front aero package meant the car was difficult to set up despite pre-season testing pace. The design was eventually dumped for a conventional nose and Montoya then went on to set one of the fastest recorded laps in F1 history at Monza qualifying.

 

[MatskiMonk]

The 'Walrus nose' on the 2004 Williams FW26:

Not only was it ugly, the radical front aero package meant the car was difficult to set up despite pre-season testing pace. The design was eventually dumped for a conventional nose and Montoya then went on to set one of the fastest recorded laps in F1 history at Monza qualifying.

Given the cars we've seen the last couple of seasons the FW-26A looks pretty good by comparison... and the FW-26B was one of the best looking cars of the decade, IMO. My understanding was that it was the effect the nose cone had on the suspension packaging that gave them the problems, but I could be wrong.

 

[TDZdave]

The 'Walrus nose' on the 2004 Williams FW26:

Not only was it ugly, the radical front aero package meant the car was difficult to set up despite pre-season testing pace. The design was eventually dumped for a conventional nose and Montoya then went on to set one of the fastest recorded laps in F1 history at Monza qualifying.

I cant remember if they won races with this nose, but I remember Montoya won Interlagos with a more conventional nose cone,

 

[AudiMan2011]

I cant remember if they won races with this nose, but I remember Montoya won Interlagos with a more conventional nose cone,

They didn't win any races with the walrus nose. It was only after they switched back to a conventional nose that they started winning races again.

 

[TenEightyOne]

They didn't win any races with the walrus nose. It was only after they switched back to a conventional nose that they started winning races again.

They did take podiums though... arguably the Brazilian race would have been no different to the rest of their season if it hadn't been for the changeable conditions. Their season was also coloured by a couple of DSQs, certainly at Malaysia (Race 2) they would have won the race if Schumacher hadn't been at his peak in a car that was also insanely good.

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

The "Subaru" 1235 flat-12

Entirely designed and built by Motori Moderni in 1990, this new flat-12 engine had the advantage of a low centre of gravity, as is the case with most Boxer engines. Sadly, it was also grossly overweight, underpowered and delicate. Nevertheless, Subaru were more than happy to plaster their name on it, as it would prove good business and show the advantages of their road cars which used horizontally opposed engine configurations as well. They were so confident in its abilities, they bought a sizeable chunk of the Coloni team and set about stuffing the engines in their cars. The C3B, which used the engine failed to make pre-qualifying once on practically every appearance. By the 8th attempt, Subaru decided it was a complete sham, and sold its share in Coloni back to their original owners.

The engine also saw use in the Alba AR20 Group C race car, which was also plagued with issues, and only qualified for one race at Spa, yet never made the start due to engine failure shortly after. The team replaced it with a 4.5 litre Buick V6 and started seeing some more positive results. A road legal variant of the engine was tweaked for use in the Jiotto Caspita supercar concept, but Subaru's abandonment meant it could never feasibly make it to production.

It's awful, but still kind of interesting.

 

[Northstar]

I decided to do a couple NASCAR ones

2010 Daytona 500



The race was going well until lap 122 when a pothole formed in the track. Repairs took close to 2 hours to complete before the race went back to green. However the repair didn't last and a short time later they were back under red flag conditions for 42 minutes while they fixed the whole again. Following the Summer race the track was re-paved.

Jack Roush passes on Jeff Gordon

In 1992 team owner Jack Roush was prepared to sign a young Jeff Gordon to his Winston Cup team. However Roush had a policy of hiring his own crewchiefs and Gordon's stepfather/manager insisted on him also hiring Ray Evernham, who was Jeff's crew chief in the Busch series at the time. This policy led to the deal falling through and Gordon continued in the Busch series for the 1992 season. Later in the year Rick Hendrick signed both Jeff and Ray for the 1993 season (Jeff made his debut in the final Cup race of 1992, which was incidentally the last race for Richard Petty). Jeff would go on to win 93 races and 4 championships driving for Hendrick, including the 1998 title where Roush driver Mark Martin came in second.

 

[Furinkazen]

Mini John Cooper Works WRC

After all the fanfare of their return, the Mini John Cooper Works WRC stands out in my mind as a disaster. The decision to re-enter rallying seemed like it was drive more by a desire to capitalise on nostalgia rather than actually be competitive. The whole project was compromised from the start, but it could have been salvaged - were it not for Prodrive's mismanagement that saw Mini lose faith and pull funding.

Suzuki SX4 WRC

Likewise the Suzuki SX4 WRC was another ill-conceived project. It was nice to see new manufacturers get on-board, and the SX4 certainly wasn't a bad car, but Suzuki clearly hadn't done their research and baulked at the idea of long-term investment. So the whole team was run on a shoestring budget and the car had limited development. It's a wonder the likes of Toni Gardemeister and Harri Rovanpera achieved anything with it.

I've said before. Mini wasn't ProDrive's fault entirely. BMW cut all funding almost immediately when the programme was just getting going. Very difficult to develop a car when you have no £££ to do so with.

View attachment 496211

Not the car, it wasn't especially bad compared to the other cars like the Avensis, Audi S3. None of them were HPI Racing levels of bad (turn up with a Lexus, 7 seconds a lap off the pace). It was the teams terrible management that was behind that car getting in the press for the wrong reasons. A fail of team management but not the car.

View attachment 496212

The GT1 Lamborghini was rubbish everywhere.

Citroën BX4TC Evolution

To say that this car was half-arsed is an understatement. It was quarter-arsed at best. Not only was it an ungodly eyesore, it was overweight, entirely too wide, underpowered, had the turning circle of an oil tanker and as a result, it was miserably slow. It was rushed through homologation with the bare minimum of forethought and was an embarrassment for all involved. It was a car that rallying never wanted, never needed, and was glad to see the back of.

No no no no no. And i'm putting aside my rose-tinted glasses of having had a BX4 road car in the family and saying, difficult to develop a car when the global body abolishes the entire formula a few months later. It did also get 6th at Rally Sweden.

 

[Bo]

The GT1 Lamborghini was rubbish everywhere.

All Inkl did a pretty handy job with it in FIA GT1. If the Astons hadn't been so strong in 2011 and they hadn't been excluded in Ordos, I'd say they could've mounted a title challenge.

None of them were HPI Racing levels of bad (turn up with a Lexus, 7 seconds a lap off the pace).

Terrible effort, but at least HPI got some decent exposure from the sponsorship deal. It always sticks in my mind as a particularly nice car, even though it barely did anything.

 

[Famine]

Not the car, it wasn't especially bad compared to the other cars like the Avensis, Audi S3. None of them were HPI Racing levels of bad (turn up with a Lexus, 7 seconds a lap off the pace). It was the teams terrible management that was behind that car getting in the press for the wrong reasons. A fail of team management but not the car.

I'd say it was more due to a falling out between the team and the manufacturer - perhaps due to unrealistic expectations, pulling in different directions and then the shocking publicity fail.


From what I understand, Infiniti preferred to have two recognisable names in the car. While Derek Palmer is, even as Junior, Richard Hawken isn't. As Support Our Paras Racing - technically Pro Racing - only had one of the two cars ready for Brands, they were apparently able to leverage that into getting their way and getting Martin Donnelly (apparently an ex-F1 driver - very recognisable...) into the seat. As a quick caveat, I have no idea what lead to Hawken being dropped after one race, but it certainly wasn't his fault and seeing how good the team were together at Brands I doubt it was a decision from Palmer Sr. himself.

That lead to an outbreak of Twitter War between Hawken supporters and the team, and one of the Paras said something he shouldn't have. With the massive publicity fail of having knifed Hawken in the back and a member of the team threatening people, and Donnelly not doing any better than Hawken - shock - Infiniti quit and the team went from Manufacturer to Independent, and from one entry to two, to one, to two and then finished the season as one entry.

Still, Derek Palmer did come 4th in Jack Sears.


I still think it's the best looking car on the grid. Except the Tena for Men sponsorship, which is itself a bit of an error.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I've said before. Mini wasn't ProDrive's fault entirely. BMW cut all funding almost immediately when the programme was just getting going. Very difficult to develop a car when you have no £££ to do so with.

Why do you think BMW pulled the funding in the first place? Prodrive mismanaged the project and BMW lost confidence in them.

No no no no no. And i'm putting aside my rose-tinted glasses of having had a BX4 road car in the family and saying, difficult to develop a car when the global body abolishes the entire formula a few months later. It did also get 6th at Rally Sweden.

It was entirely unsuited to rallying in the first place.

 

[Barra333]

Canberra 400

I went to both years of that - the first year at turns 3/4 and the second at the last corner. The one thing that you don't mention that was a fail completely independent of the track design - the event was held in winter, in Canberra, which is often foggy. And it was by the lake, which is even foggier. I know that on at least 1, possibly more, out of the 6 days of racing over 2 years everything was delayed because the fog was thick enough that you couldn't see the length of pit lane.
To this day, you can occasionally spot a re-purposed concrete blocks with Canberra 400 paint, generally the blue/yellow GMC stuff.