Pace-cars and safety-cars from around the world

[Mike Rotch]

Righty-o, this thread is to post up pictures of pace-car's past and present (start with present if you will) used for motorcar and motorbike racing around the world.

The current MotoGP pace-car is a BMW 1 Series M Coupe:

Whilst the V8 Supercars have a GT-R in their midst:

 

[Liquid]

The safety car from the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. An Opel Vectra.

Always thought it looked out of place on an F1 track. Also, when did safety cars become pace cars?

 

[GTPorsche]

In F1, pace cars are Safety Cars.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Also, when did safety cars become pace cars?

Good point - I've altered the thread title to cater for both.

I think pace-car's are more a North American thing, whereas safety-car's potentially a more European thing....

 

[Furinkazen]

The safety car from the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. An Opel Vectra.

Always thought it looked out of place on an F1 track. Also, when did safety cars become pace cars?

Great car. And Pace Car and Safety Car are same thing.

May be cheating, but NASCAR's promo bit for Batman Begins.

 

[hawkeye122]

In recent years, Mercedes has done a good job of catering to Formula 1 with great safety cars
This is my favorite- The SL 63 AMG

 

[MatskiMonk]

M6

& M5

Hell yeah...

 

[SKIDMARX]

The current Formula 1 Safety Car...

And the WTCC Safety Car....
I'm sure WTCC fans will all remember this moment...

 

[Ardius]

Ginetta G60 safety car (used for Ginetta GT races in the BTCC support package):

Do I win?


Porsche Panamera safety car used for the BTCC:

There was also a Ferrari 348 safety car knocking about at the 1994 San Marino GP:

 

[Mac K]

American Le Mans

 

[TenEightyOne]

I think the first F1 safety car was a Fiat Miafiori that belonged to one of the marshalls, wasn't it? All seems such a long time ago now

Anyway, enough meandering... here's an M6 [EDIT: X6M... thankyou MatskiMonk! ] from Moto GP 2009

 

[MatskiMonk]

here's an m6 from moto gp 2009

.. X6m

 

[TenEightyOne]

.. X6m

Quite right - my mistake

Okay, here's an F1 driver's view of the safety car... to be specific Taki Inoue's.

I'm pretty sure that I'm right (this time) when I say that he's the only F1 driver to have been hit TWICE by a Safety Car?

Two views of same hit:

Here he is at Monaco having had his car hit by the Safety Car. SC is at bottom left of pic:

 

[t3hgt3ftw1n]

Here's a past Pace Car from the 1962 Indy 500: A Studebaker Lark convertible:

 

[TenEightyOne]

And a couple more oval "Pace" cars. I'm not sure if the Camaro's genuine or concept;

[

 

[LongbowX]

Camaro ZL1 Pace Car with (great) Canadian driver Ron Fellows.

And an old one at Mosport, during a chaotic race. A Porsche 914 Safety Car for the Canadian GP in 1973.

Also, blurb on the race.

 

[Liquid]

^First instance of a safety car at a Formula One Grand Prix. Don't think they were used again until they became standard in 1993.

 

[Stiggy]

DTM has had some great safety cars in recent years:

Super GT is another series to use the Nissan GT-R as a pace car:

Some of the other V8 Supercars safety cars:

 

[Hugo Boss]

My favourite, the Countach:

An original one here in The Netherlands, the Kizashi for the Swift Cup:

 

[TheCracker]

There was also a Ferrari 348 safety car knocking about at the 1994 San Marino GP:

They still use it (at Monza and San Marino). You can even get a diecast model of it!



Silverstone have, for as long as i can remember, run a series of hot Jaguars as fire tenders with the rear seats replaced with water/foam tanks along with other equipment.

 

[Tornado]

^First instance of a safety car at a Formula One Grand Prix. Don't think they were used again until they became standard in 1993.

I'm curious about this. How did it work before then?





And I've always really liked this one:

Really nice color scheme, and the rollbar/lightbar combo thing looked pretty nifty.

 

[paulmac2k9]

Ginetta G60 safety car (used for Ginetta GT races in the BTCC support package):

That was before it broke down at Knockhill on Saturday leading around the Minis iirc .

 

[daan]

They still use it (at Monza and San Marino). You can even get a diecast model of it!

I was just going to say I saw it at the back of the grid at Monza this year.

I'm curious about this. How did it work before then?

If something happened that they couldn't cover with yellow flags, then they just went straight to a red flag and stopped the race. Remember though that they were less safety conscious then and it took a lot to stop a race. Sometimes drivers died at the side of the road yet the race continued.

 

[Mac K]

Camaro ZL1 Pace Car with (great) Canadian driver Ron Fellows.

And an old one at Mosport, during a chaotic race. A Porsche 914 Safety Car for the Canadian GP in 1973.

Also, blurb on the race.

Beat me to it... Saw that Camaro in person. My boy Ronny in there to