Jim Clarke <tick>

Lotus 49 <tick>

4 wheel drifting <tick>

That is still the Golden Era of Formula 1 – to me anyhow

Lotus 49 @ Zandvoort

Jim Clark was a mate of my Dad!

And yes – a golden age. One where drivers had to drive.

Senna, Mansell et al was the best era IMO…but thats what i grew up with. Cant remember a worse season than this years. 🙁

Golden Era of Formula 1

Surely that’s the 1.5l turbo era? 1400bhp in qualifying trim.

Cant remember a worse season than this years.

Some of the Schumacher years were pretty awful. Love/hate DRS at least you get battles further down the grid.

Overtaking in the bridgestone groove / schumacher years was much rarer.

Agree with matther01, the senna / prost / piquet / mansell was an extremely rich era for f1.
The cars were pretty amazing then too, right blend of technology….but still had to be driven.

I think we are in an extremely rich era a the moment, for driver talent (alonso, raikonneon, vetted, hammy, button etc). Its just a shame the others can’t match Red Bulls Pace.

Agreed. Best F1 cars ever.
How ‘racing driver’ does Graham Hill look?

1988-1994 for me. Loved watching Senna when growing up. Never felt the same about F1 since.

I love the sheer drama of the 1.5 Turbo’s and can only admire the engineering of running an engine with that much boost and there have also been some amazing drivers since…

However – I love to watch these guys controlling their cars so perfectly that they drift all four wheels across the track and still exit each corner in just the right place, going just as fast as the laws of physics allow 8)

That’s why I watch Moto GP racing these days – those guys are the modern day equivalent of these fellas!

+1 the kingisdead

This season was less thrilling than the previous three but still had a lot more overtaking than the Schumacher years.
And I was a huge Schumi fan too!

The previous three years have been so good and therefore this one seemed dull only by comparison to them.

The ones through the rose tinted spectacles, where every race was won by a different driver, and no one ever won from pole.

Every race pre 1990 was a villnue/arnoud style battle dontcha know.

Any money F3 was still more entertaining then.

end of V8’s in F1…especially these one’s where the Red Bull guys got to rev the nuts off them! See how they glow!

Gotta say, Jim Clark was before my time but the Lotus 49 is the purest racing car ever, for me – big power, lighweight, low drag, zero downforce and all the grip coming from them big tyres. Abeautiful car, too – in that vid it has a much more balanced look than anything else, only the Ferrari comes close to looking as good. 🙂

My favourite glowy exhaust vid 🙂

Clicky

Have to say late 70’s early 80’s for me, Arnoux, villeneuve, Piquet etc, it was the decade of the car and formula 1 reflected it better than ever.

current formula 1 is not interesting for me

Show me another race like that from the eighties. Or any era. 🙂

Villeneuve was special.

1st to 5th seperated by half a second!!!

Mid eighties to late nineties, although I’d also say the last few years has been great, there’s certainly a greater number of driovers out there who are able to give each other a hard time, even in mismatched machinery.

I’m hoping that the regulation changes next year will level the technical field a little and stop the fingermeister from escaping up the road by lap 3.

I’ve been impressed by Vettel this season, he’s shown a lot of adaptability and won races that he really shouldn’t have been in the running for.

I was lucky enough to be present at 2 of the greatest F1 races ever to have occured…

1987 British GP at Silverstone, Mansell caught 40 seconds up on his team mate Piquet, using WAY too much boost (the engine melted on the parade lap!) throwing all caution to the wind, but he did it! He was my hero at the time (hey, I was 7!), and it was an incredible race.

1993 European GP at Donington. I probably don’t need to say any more, but in my mind there is, never has been, and never will be a more talented and more spectacular driver than Ayrton Senna. Plenty of great drivers have won in good cars, and some have dominated in great cars. Senna could take a grossly uncompetitive car and not only win races, but challenge for the title, and he did so several times! In a competitive car, he was untouchable. I have no doubt Schumacher would have had to wait a lot longer for his first F1 title had Senna not died at Imola in 94.

Great rivalrys make the best motor racing, and to be honest, we’ve not had one for donkeys years. As good as it has got in the last decade or more, is Lewis and Jenson in the same team, slogging it out, sadly for a place on the podium rather than 1st place! In the Mansell, Piquet, Prost and Senna years, each one of them was a world champion, and each one would have done anything to beat any of the others. The Senna/Prost rivalry was the greatest publicised of the lot, but Mansell and Piquet were just as bad.

Any year with a proper clutch pedal and gear stick gets my vote
When was the last time a driver missed a gear and the guy behind sailed past ….a long time ago I bet

And as a F1 fan who used to get up at 4am to watch races in the past..this year I have watched nothing to do with the sport, no race or chit chat at all

passing zones my arse.

I’d say the turbo cars were probably the best machines drama wise but Jimmy’s era probably had the best drivers and he was head and shoulders above any of them. Even Ayrton said he was the best ever.

“Jim Clark won the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely wet, foggy and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid Clark passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than ever, Clark had not only lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, but he was almost five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper.”

ratherbeintobago – Member
Golden Era of Formula 1
Surely that’s the 1.5l turbo era? 1400bhp in qualifying trim.
POSTED 9 HOURS AGO #

^^ this for me!

From the perspective of someone who only watches when I’ve something to cheer on in a “yey someone from the UK might win”

The current season is as dull as dishwater.

And I agree with the OPs sentiments. Followed not too far behind by the Senna era, which at least I’m old enough to remember. (But not too old to have forgotten again)

1,400 hp in qualy and the rest 😆 an article in Autosport one of the BMW techs said they didnt have a dyno that would go high enough he estimated 1550hp but the engine would disintergrate in about 3 laps 😆 that claim was also in a book on Prost.

For me the golden era is a difficult one.

I grew up in the 70’s but watched very little of it. Became a huge fan in the early 80’s with the Mansell, Prost, Senna, Piquet, etc races.
So of what I watched this was probably the best time, but to what I wish I had seen nowhere near.

The 60’s with Clark (I’m a huge fan despite being born after he died), Hill, Hill, Brabham, McLaren, Surtees etc, proper cars without all the stick-on aerobits, from teams like Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari, Cooper, BRM, Porsche, Honda etc, on proper old road circuits like Spa, Nurburgring, (the real versions), Rouen, Reims, etc. The drivers would do more than just F1 (Clark went off to do Indy, and a couple of NASCAR races, he was excellent in the BTCC, raced F3, the odd rally etc).
Not to mention the non-championship F1 races that most of the teams would enter (Oulton Park Gold cup springs to mind)
That is probably my favourite era, and the Golden age IMHO.

However, I do think the 30’s runs it close but for other reasons (and I know it’s technically not F1).
There were only 2 teams of note, Mercedes and Auto Union, the others were bit parts (ERA, Alfa) the cars were amazing for their time, they ran on proper circuits, and it wasn’t a forgone conclusion who would win, even had a British GP winner at the time (Dick Seaman in a Mercedes), people like Bernd Rosemeyer became superstars in Germany and Europe, and were probably the match or better than a number of the so-called F1 greats.
Unfortunately for the sport the early 40’s happened and most drivers are forgotten.

Rosemeyer would be in my top 5 GP drivers of all time.

This was the golden era of Formula One for me;

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMPDCNyQxE[/video]

v16 twin supercharger (in this case), 1.5l 600bhp and tyres that you’d put on your fat bike.

plus all sorts of other fantastic cars like the 250F

best of all you can still see a lot of them racing today 🙂

just found this with original footage – the amount of drifting they did was amazing, just no grip at all. The accident is pretty chilling too.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_A4WjcJ6DQ[/video]

The human cost of motor racing untill recently was appalling which does temper my thoughts.

agree on the turbo era, the mid 80’s was a defining moment for F1 – technology, carbon tubs etc. There was also the emergence of lead designers like John Barnard and Gordon Murray who placed emphasis on design rather than out and out POWER!

I still think F1 today is just as exciting as the yesteryear’s, in my view what attracts the ‘ordinary folk’ to F1 is not just a bunch of cars racing around a closed circuit but also the lifestyle of the very rich and famous + the evolving car designs and the technology that develops in the sport.

Long may it continue – haters will hate (but they still watch it if only to add fuel to their hate)

Hmmmm Clarke drove from 60-68 when he was killed at Hockenhiem, quick google shows 13 other drivers killed in just F1 alone ( Clarke was driving a F2 car at the time if my memory serves)… Golden era indeed.

Andy W – Member

Any year with a proper clutch pedal and gear stick gets my vote
When was the last time a driver missed a gear and the guy behind sailed past ….a long time ago I bet

+1 on that. It’s too easy not to make a mistake in the modern cars, especially the Red Bulls.

Watch Vettels pole laps inthe second half of the season. Barely any corrections needed. Now watch Senna’s pole lap at monaco or anything from that era. So much more going on, more chances to make mistakes=closer battles.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfV44lnq6k4[/video]

Jackie Stewart racing around the Nurburgring. That was pretty special even though it was before my time. I reckon the Clark, Hill, Stewart Era takes some beating. Would have been interesting if Senna was racing in those days.

an article in Autosport one of the BMW techs said they didnt have a dyno that would go high enough he estimated 1550hp but the engine would disintergrate in about 3 laps that claim was also in a book on Prost.

I’ve read that, too – it was based on Berger qualifying at Monza in a Benetton, at the end of one of the straights the boost gauge just flashed 5.5 bar before he lifted, which Heini Mader estimated at 1500 hp. You could spin the wheels in any gear on a dry track, including sixth. 🙂

However, I do think the 30’s runs it close but for other reasons (and I know it’s technically not F1).

I think that’s a great shout – monsterous cars with rubbish tyres on proper road circuits. Rosemeyer, Carraciola and Nuvolari would be contenders for anyone’s list of the greatest.

BRM v16 twin supercharger

Nutsiest car of them all – only three made, and none of them ever ran right! 🙂 Without clicking on it, that link will be to the audio track of Nick Mason’s, he did a book on his cars that came with a CD of them running. The BRM never ran clean (you can hear it missing at the end of the first lap), but then it never did even back in the day.

Watch Vettels pole laps inthe second half of the season. Barely any corrections needed. Now watch Senna’s pole lap at monaco or anything from that era.

I think that’s a consequence of A – Vettel’s style and B – the increasing reliance on aero. There’s onboard video around of Prost driving a Renault at Zandvoort, early eighties, and he’s so silky smooth it’s almost dull – contrast that with, say, videos of Depailler in the Tyrrell, and that’s someone who’s on the ragged edge all the time! But the cars are so aero these days, thee’s no percentage in ragging them.