Front wings on cars of 1982

[Pingguest]

I thought the 1982 Lotus was the first car with active suspension. It was an answer to the FIA banning their 'double chassis'.

[MadMatt]

I would recommend to anybody interested in ground effect cars and that era to read the book "Lotus 78 and 79 : The ground effect cars". Very interesting book including great information about the Lotus 80 which one their first "wingless car". Unfortunately they ended up adding wings and had lot of pitching problems with it.

But the 80 was supposed to be the ultimate "no-wing" F1 car !

[rjsa]

I thought the 1982 Lotus was the first car with active suspension. It was an answer to the FIA banning their 'double chassis'.

You are correct. Lotus started developping the concept in 1982. But anyway it didn't have any saying in the way ground effect cars where set up.

[xpensive]

...
But the 80 was supposed to be the ultimate "no-wing" F1 car !

It was indeed and I remember a quote from Mario Andretti before the roll-out; "The 80 will make the 79 look like a London-bus."

Sadly enough, it proved to be a bridge too far and it only raced a couple of times, I don't think Carlos even bothered.
Without wings and with the long sidepods and skirts stretching behind the rear wheels it was terribly pitch-sensitive, making downforce balance front and rear come and go in an unpredictable fashion.

[strad]

it was terribly pitch-sensitive, making downforce balance front and rear come and go in an unpredictable fashion.

Yep,,,What I heard was that the Center of Pressure moved around...Don't know, but that was what I heard.

[timbo]

79 and 80 were criticized for a lack of structural stiffness, that exaggerated pitch sensitivity problems. A good rigid chassis is what allowed to Ligier and Williams shine,

[strad]

And Ferrari to kill Gilles. Ferrari insisted on the sandwiched aluminum.

[matt21]

As I can recall, the FIA had regulated a minimum 60 mm ground-clearance, measured in the pits obviously, why Nelson had a hydraulic device lowering his BT49 to a rock-hard suspension on track. I remember him once telling the scrutineers that the actuating lever was a hand-brake or something, must have been a beast to drive anyway.

The 60mm-rule was scrapped for 1982 as FISA was not able to measure it on-track. The hydropneumatic system needed a lot of testing to get it to work properly. Halfway through the season FISA allowed other systems which could lower the cars by flicking a switch. Gordon Murray was frustrated after he spnt so much effort in developing a legal system.

[Xwang]

But those cars had the moveable skirts or not?
According to you, returning to 200cm wide cars, with venturi channels (without skirts and with the 5 cm "stepped floor" rules somewhat maintained to avoid the lateral pods to scrapes against the road surface) would generate a new generation of cars with same downforce but able to run better one after the other to have more overtakes without DRS?