Defunct Series

siffert_fan

Too old to watch the Asian races live.
Contributor
As I am sure we are all aware, various racing series have disappeared over the years. I was wondering which defunct series you all miss the most and why.

The two I miss most are the old Tasman series, and the Can Am.

The former because it was the series that got me interested in racing in the first place, and I got to meet most of the F1 drivers of the day in a less-pressure-filled environment than F1. The drivers were more relaxed and far more approachable, which is nice when you are a youngster.

The latter because, although the actual competition wasn't much, as each year (except the very first) one team was totally dominant, the cars themselves were amazing: big, loud, faster than F1 and the most innovative bunch I ever saw. With cars that awe-inspiring, you didn't NEED wheel-to-wheel competition.
 
I miss the old British F1 Championship. It's a shame F1 teams won't sell their old cars off to let gentlemen racers pootle around until they are about 20 or 30 years old. Can you imagine the interest in seeing a load of cars from the early 2000's racing against each other?
 
I never saw a Can am race but I saw this beast going around Nurburgring about 20 years ago. The noise was sublime.

1968 Lola T160
Screen Shot 2014-02-25 at 13.55.08.png
 
The Can Am Porsche 917/30 (seen here at Goodwood's Festival Of Spoeed) probably still remains to this day the most powerful racing car ever built:

porsche_917-30_goodwood_2011.jpg


Only the very most powerful F1 engines from the 1986 period would ever come close to the whooping 1,600hp it could reach in qualifying mode.
 
amazing: big, loud, faster than F1 .

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Would they really have been faster over a circuit lap than F1 cars at that time? I mean they certainly had the extra power, no problem there, but they weren't exactly featherweights either.
 
Incubus,
When comparing oranges to oranges, (i.e. a given years F1 lap time vs Can AM) on circuits where they both ran (Watkins Glen, Mosport or St. Jovite), the CAn Ams were quicker.
 
The oddest Can- Am car I remember was called the Mac's-it special. It had four 2-cylinder, 2-stroke engines (one at each wheel, although I believe it pooled the power) and used an early form of CVT. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a non-copyrighted picture of it.

As I recall, it never managed to even qualify for a race.
 
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Well, maybe that's why they (the 917 in general and especially the Can Am versions) weren't all that popular with even the bravest drivers then. I remember (well I wasn't born but from reading bits of quips and quotes) reading about how one or two of their drivers found them absolutely terrifying to drive. All that power with 1970's grip levels...:o
 
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Incubus
I remember Porsche asking Mark Donohue if he was satisfied with the amount of power the 917-30 had. His reply: I won't be satisfied until I can light the tires up in every gear on the longest straight there is.

Drivers were a bit different in those days:)
 
Well to be honest I think even then drivers like Donohue or Pedro Rodriguez were on a different level altogether...
I tend to agree. You could include Siffert in that group too.

Rodriguez and Siffert had a huge rivalry going on @ Gulf/Porsche. As I recall, in either 1970 or 71, in the pouring rain at Spa, they were basically rubbing door handles in their 917s battling into Eau Rouge on the first lap. You have to be a little "off" to do that, especially since the 917 wasn't the most stable of race cars at the best of times.

And yes, I also miss the old Sports Car Championship, although today's Le Mans series remains the pinnacle of the sport to me (others will obviously disagree with the latter).

I just checked youtube. If you type in "917 @ spa", there is a 9 second clip that shows the battle.
 
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The series I really miss and used to watch every single race of on eurosport who's coverage of the series was second to none is Champ Car or more correctly CART FedEx which was a breakaway series from the IRL and Indy 500 who's stars were men such as Alex Zanardi, Mark Blundell the Andretti's (Jeff, John, Micheal and Mario), Dario Franchitti, Chip Ganassi the sadly missed Gregory William Moore and many many more great drivers...

A great series and a great shame it no longer exists....
 
I miss the old British F1 Championship. It's a shame F1 teams won't sell their old cars off to let gentlemen racers pootle around until they are about 20 or 30 years old. Can you imagine the interest in seeing a load of cars from the early 2000's racing against each other?
Have you come across the EuroBoss series- it's almost exactly this- f1 chassis (and GP2, ChampCar etc.)....
 
FB. No - The cars stretch all the way through to (almost) the present day; there are 3 classifications:

Open class
F1 cars from 1997 onwards

Formula class
F1 cars from 1992 - 1996 (And Indycar etc.)

Masters class
Pre 1991 F1 cars (and others)
 
After your post The Artist..... I had a look at the website for the Boss series, not too many top cars unfortunately but then I presume McLaren, Ferrari et al don't sell off their old cars any more. Getting to see a 2004 Jag or a 1994 Tyrrell running round just doesn't stir my loins in the way that seeing some of the leading cars of the era would but could be fun to watch anyway.

I was at the Silverstone Classic last year and seeing cars from the 80's thrashing was exciting (and very loud) but not as breath taking as the 70's Le Man cars. I got one of James May's fizzy feelings....

http://www.bossgp.com/
 
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