Lest there be any doubts about foot and leg injuries in 80's Indy cars

[KnockOff]

I present the 1982 March82C:

[Dick Ralstin]

Hey KnockOff,

That is one of the scariest photos ever taken. You would think common sense would have take over somewhere along the line.

[badart]

It goes to show you how truly brave these drivers have been/are...

[cheeseczar]

Yikes!

[Jamski]

Won a lot of races though...

KO...any chassis history?

[KnockOff]

Chassis history

[Indy500fanatic]

Chassis history

I was pulling out some 20 something year old pics of the Indy cars not too long ago...my fiancee (whos been into Indy cars for about 4 years) noticed that the driver sat so much farther forward than what they do today. As shes thumbing thru the pics, I told her about the foot and leg injuries of that period. I expained that if you drove an Indy car in the early to mid 80's, there were lots of 'ugly' feet created during that period.

[Jamski]

Chassis history

Ah, so that's the Gene Hackman/Bill Simpson car then. An interesting history.

[IndyJim1]

Hey KnockOff,

That is one of the scariest photos ever taken. You would think common sense would have take over somewhere along the line.

Exactly.

[Ken-Paul]

Hey!

Where the front end of that car at?

Unbelievable!

[ellswrth]

Hey KnockOff,

That is one of the scariest photos ever taken. You would think common sense would have take over somewhere along the line.

Everyone was doing that in the time ... this is Patrick Tambay in a 1982 Ferrari 126 C2 F1 car, the car in which Gilles Villeneuve lost his life and Didier Pironi suffered horrendous leg injuries during 1982.

But you're right - and thankfully, common sense did prevail eventually.

[Sea Fury]

Everyone was doing that in the time ... this is Patrick Tambay in a 1982 Ferrari 126 C2 F1 car, the car in which Gilles Villeneuve lost his life and Didier Pironi suffered horrendous leg injuries during 1982.

But you're right - and thankfully, common sense did prevail eventually.

Mario drove that car a couple of times that year, too-put it on the pole at Monza IIRC.

I remember reading an article in CIRCLE TRACK a few years ago, on this very topic, that said at the big motorsports media dinners back in the '80s, you could tell who the sports car and stock car drivers were because they walked in normally; you could tell who the Indy and F1 guys were because they waddled in like penguins.

[indyracefan]

...it's kinda amazing to think that even back then there wasn't more thought into having the feet further back.

Curiously what was the wheelbase on an early 80's chassis as compared to today. The Indycar Series web-site states that the current chassis are 120", plus or minus 2 inches. The 2002 Champ Car Lola has a wheelbase of 122" .

I found a 1999 Penske CART chassis with a wheel base of 117". But I also found on the same web-site that Dan Gurney's 1999 Eagle had a wheelbase of 116", while the 1999 Swift chassis had a wheelbase of 118".

[LittleFauss]

'A more dramatic illustration of the driver sitting so far forward than the Ferrari 126C was the Lotus 79 that Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson drove in 1978 and with Carlos Reutemann in 1979. Year by year the rules makers began gradually sitting the driver further back because of rules by the sanctioning bodies; not because of common sense by the designers. ' None of these changes would have done drivers like Gordon Smiley anygood, anyway.

[indyracefan]

None of these changes would have done drivers like Gordon Smiley anygood, anyway.

...no but A.J. Foyt, Bobby Unser, Rick Mears, Jim Crawford, Scott Pruitt, Nelson Piquet, Jeff Andretti and a host of others might have appreciated it and walk a little better than they do today!