Power and zero grip

Ferrari’s early turbo cars were all about their engines. Then came engineer Harvey Postlethwaite in 1982 who designed a chassis, the 126C2 and C3, able to rein in 1000bhp.

And it worked. Between them, Patrick Tambay and René Arnoux (seen here-above battling for the lead at the 1983 British Grand Prix) took nine of the 14 front-row spots in the second half of the season, including four poles – and this was in the middle of the title battle opposing Brabham’s Nelson Piquet and Renault’s Alain Prost.

Patrick Tambay recalls: “The C3 was a very good car, and the engine was excellent. I had a very good technical working relationship with Mauro Forghieri. He had a sixth sense for the track set-up. With very little input he would understand immediately what was happening, and react perfectly.”

Tambay continues: “Harvey Postlethwaite was the designer and was doing the development. I don’t know exactly what input into the car one or the other had, but there was a great synergy between the two.”

“The C3 was a very strong package. The engine performed well in qualifying set-up, and the tyres were well suited to banzai laps. I really enjoyed driving this flat-bottom car with zero grip and lots of drift. I was in contention for the drivers’ title at mid-season, until we had back-to-back reliability issues.”

René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay (picture below) finished third and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, which enabled the Scuderia Ferrari to win the 1983 World Constructors’ Championship.