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Power and zero grip

16. Jan 2022 
by Ziv Knoll
2782 views

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.

 

Source: DR

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