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Old 19 Aug 2000, 20:15 (Ref:31472)   #1
bobdrummond
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bobdrummond should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Who is the best car designer currently active, and why? Not just F1 but everywhere and every discipline. (I hope a Newey landslide is not forthcoming)
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Old 19 Aug 2000, 20:52 (Ref:31481)   #2
THR
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THR has a lot of promise if they can keep it on the circuit!
Sorry bob!
Mr Newy is my hero, he is the best designer in the world.
the guy designs race winning cars! cant mess with that.

see him study the oppositions cars in the paddock/grid. this is a guy who knows wot works and wot doesnt

however he isnt the only good designer, and after looking at minardis gearbox on here, whoever did that has his head screwed on.
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Old 20 Aug 2000, 09:03 (Ref:31559)   #3
bobdrummond
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I'm not in any way anti-Newey, It's just that I wonder is there anyone else who can compare with him.

Remember Neweys '88 March. Now that was a special car. And he was only 28 years old! I really like Neweys perfectionism, like the fact he insists the barge-boards are installed in such a way that changing them requires removal of the suspension, whereas Ferrari et al use a method that's far quicker but results in extra parts and draggy detachable panels.

As for Minardi, Brunner has always been good. His cars have been notably tiny. The '88 Rial and the '89 Zakspeed making their counterparts seem like trucks.
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Old 23 Aug 2000, 10:30 (Ref:32297)   #4
angst
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Yup, Newey is currently the best I think, but as you say Bob, Brunner has always been good, he even got ATS into some decent positions. What is John Barnard doing these days? Am I missing something, or has he just disappeared off the scene completely? And if he has, why is nobody trying to get him back in? I always thought of him as one of the best. Rory Byrne's not doing a bad job of it at Ferrari either. But I have to say that Newey has the edge at the moment.
With F3000 being a spec formula and other formulae being so customer based, where are the designers of the future going to come from? It seems the routes for finding the young designers are becoming narrower and narrower.
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Old 23 Aug 2000, 11:03 (Ref:32314)   #5
bobdrummond
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bobdrummond should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Barnard is working for Prost through his consultancy company, B3 Technologies. He's been with Prost for a while now and seems to concentrate on the detail items rather than the overall architechture of the car. His work on these smaller items tend to become commonplace the following year. He's introduced suspension flexures and has re-defined brake Calipers and Master Cylinders with Arrows and Prost.

The man is a superstar.

If you get a chance to read Giorgio Piolas great book on F1 technology, then the influence of Barnard is evident.
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Old 24 Aug 2000, 12:23 (Ref:32504)   #6
angst
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What about Gordon Murray? I know that he doesn't like the F1 lifestyle, ie travelling all over the place for races and testing, but you'd think with somebody that talented that one of the teams would be willing to use him on a design basis, and not have him at the circuit (same with Barnard) - or is there an overriding reason why the design engineers (all of them(???)) have to be at the races/tests?
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Old 24 Aug 2000, 23:59 (Ref:32585)   #7
bobdrummond
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I think the main reason Gordon Murray isn't in F1 is because he doesn't want to. The tight rule-book in F1 is completely against Murrays character and after his involvement in the incredible '88 McLaren, he probably thought there was nothing else for him to do.
He seems to be enjoying life at McLaren cars where his only restriction is the demands to make a car road legal and the politics of working with Mercedes Benz.

I actually see Newey going the same route, where his abilities are less tethered by regulation.
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Old 25 Aug 2000, 10:11 (Ref:32655)   #8
angst
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I know it's a bit off the thread, but after that reply about Gordon Murray, is there any way the regs could be written to give a greater variety of solutions to designing an 1 car, and yet keep the cars safe? I would suggest minimising the effects aerodynamics are having currently would be a first step, but how to do that while loosening the regs up is a bit of a problem...
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Old 25 Aug 2000, 19:40 (Ref:32750)   #9
desmo
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I think the likeliest route to freeing up the designers without increasing speeds to beyond what is safe for the current tracks would be to simply limit the plan area of the bodywork, particularly outside of the wheelbase, as opposed to the current bodywork definitions which practically define the bodywork for the designers.
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