Six wheels on an F1 car?

[Captain Blood]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...cid=spartandhp
The six-wheel Tyrrell P34 is one of the most iconic car designs in Formula One history. It had to have had some kind of engineering reasoning behind it, right? But what in the world can it even be?

I wonder if the reliability problems could be overcome today.....

[Soterios]

I think the idea is what you can see in the photo. Those wheels are tucked in behind the front end and are more aerodynamic. I would also imagine the car would track better with two wheels per side pulling on the car.

No idea how much better or worse they are, but that's what I would guess. Did they get banned or did they just suck and no one used them?

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by Soterios

I think the idea is what you can see in the photo. Those wheels are tucked in behind the front end and are more aerodynamic. I would also imagine the car would track better with two wheels per side pulling on the car.

No idea how much better or worse they are, but that's what I would guess. Did they get banned or did they just suck and no one used them?

Those questions are answered in the article. I always thought that was a strange design. Now I know why it was designed that way.

[yco]

actually McLaren and Ferrari had test cars that has 6 wheels as well..

[Soterios]

Originally Posted by Schwarzschild Radius

Those questions are answered in the article. I always thought that was a strange design. Now I know why it was designed that way.

Haha. Whoops. I assumed that was just the link to where the photo came from. Time to read.

[Poiseuille]

1976.
two things in particular: decreased frontal area and decreased turbulence along the sides of the car and towards the rear wing. there were some grip advantages in higher speed corners. pretty sure the little-wheel concept began in CanAm 1972-74 with the UOP Shadow. in CanAm it was strictly frontal area. i saw one version of the car race at Atlanta in 72, we were the under-card that weekend. i can tell you that car was freaking scary. they were there thinking they could beat Denny Hulme's McClaren. Penske had other ideas, showed up with the 917. for 1974 rules changes regarding fuel capacity made the 917 unusable and Shadow finally won (Jackie Oliver). that car is pictured below. an 800 hp go kart.
a couple points regarding the linked article:
first, author suggests that F1 in the early 70s had gotten "stuffy". not how I remember it.
second, author suggests that increasing front grip will decrease oversteer. the opposite is true. as an example the corollary might be increasing rear bar to reduce understeer. that is true.
anyway, great to see pictures of that astonishing machine again. thanks for posting RD.

[JohnnyCanuck]

I do remember those ... and, I recall they inspired this as well:

[roastbeef]

its all around better. less tire fatigue, more contact, more aerodynamic.

i think the only reason they did away with it was other manufacturers complaining, and goodyear not wanting to make a tiny tire anymore due to it being extremely uneconomical.

[Rich.Wolfson]

I am not sure what this guy was thinking but those Goodyear Bluestreaks didn't have much grip.

///Rich

[Poiseuille]

Originally Posted by Rich.Wolfson

I am not sure what this guy was thinking but those Goodyear Bluestreaks didn't have much grip.

///Rich

well, i guess the Ackerman setting for that must have been a bit of a crap-shoot.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Covini C6W