On Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 9:02:31 AM UTC, Dave Baker wrote:

"Dave Baker" <Nu...@null.com> wrote in message news:hg5ih6$nl4$1...@news.datemas.de...

Putting modern slicks on the Lotus I get 2.0s, 4.2s and 14.5s respectively. Depending on just how grippy 1960s tyres were that at least gives you some limits to work with and an idea of its potential performance. Round a race track it would be quicker than any modern road supercar but lacking the ultimate power and massive downforce of a modern F1 car it wouldn't get close to one of those. With 3000 lbs of downforce, 4g cornering and 5g braking no none downforce car can approach that sort of performance.

Would be nice to see one on the Top Gear test track though. I suspect though that if you tried to run modern slicks it would just break its clutch and driveshafts unless they were uprated to take the loads.

I've tried to make some sense of lap times back in the 60s compared to today's but as most of the circuits (all of them?) have changed over the years it's very difficult. Monaco seemed to be the best bet although the current circuit is slightly longer than it was back then.
My best guesstimates make the Lotus about 25% slower than a modern F1 car in its early configuration before all the wings got added on and about 20% slower with them. That would put a lap of the Top Gear track at between 1:11 and 1:14 minutes which is actually about what I would have guessed anyway strangely enough given I'd already said it would be quicker than any modern supercar and those are lapping at about 1:17 at best.
That means a Lotus 49 would probably give a modern GT1 or Le Mans type car a run for its money on decent tyres and with modern brakes. The Cosworth DFV also ended up with over 500 bhp later in its life and with carbon fibre for aerofoils instead of the materials they had back then which couldn't take the loads and led to the wings being banned I reckon you could fairly easily modify a 49 to get within maybe 10% of a modern F1 car's lap times.
You'd need slicks, uprated power transmission components, a bit of wind tunnel time to design a decent front and rear wing, carbon brakes and Bob's your aunty's husband. I also reckon the racing would be much better than it is now with more overtaking which current aero designs pretty much rule out when you get close to the car in front.
The cars would also look a million times nicer. In fact it almost sounds like a plan. If you could design the tub with modern materials and safety features so it was slightly less than an absolute certainty that a driver would die in a high speed crash as they tended to do back in the day it might even work.
Show of hands?
--
Dave Baker

Sounds like a great plan.
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