F1 SUBARU
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Scooby Newbie
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When i was looking through this weeks copy of AUTOSPORT magazine i saw in the classified section a 1988 minardi F1car for sale fitted with a 3.5 litre 12 cylinder subaru boxer engine(squeeze that in your impreza) .Does any body know any thing about this car? Did it ever race in F1? I didnt know subaru ever enterd F1.
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I believe Subaru briefly attempted F1 in 1990 with Coloni.
I think they attempted to prequalify about 4 or 5 times, all of which were unsuccessful...
Taken from F1 Rejects:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>
Coloni joined forces with Japanese giant Subaru, entering F1 with muscly V12 boxer engine developed by Carlo Chiti's Motori Moderni company, which had previously made engines for Minardi. Scaling back to a one-car team, Coloni signed Bertrand Gachot to drive a revised chassis tagged the 189B.
There is quite a story behind the engine. Dubbed the '1235' model, it was in the flat-12 style, hence the 'B12' label. This style had been seen in the 1970s, and had an advantage in that it provided a low centre of gravity. But it was also a bulky style of engine, and the Subaru weighed in at 159kg. With five valves per cylinder, it was reputed to produce 417kW (just under 600bhp), which was not great.
Chiti believed the flatness of the engine would be aerodynamically beneficial, and Subaru threw in the money behind the Motori Moderni effort. The engine had in fact been ready by mid-1989, and Minardi had already done a few tests with it.
But it would not take long for the Subaru-Coloni relationship to be strained. The car was prepared just in time but Gachot could not complete a single lap in pre-qualifying at Phoenix. It was then ten seconds off pre-qualifying pace in Brazil. Morin and Burgess both left after that, and the problem seemed to lie with Enzo Coloni himself, who allegedly was unwilling to pay his staff or put Subaru's money into developing both car and engine. As a result, Subaru began a bid to buy out the team.
Coloni, though, stubbornly refused to give in. Van der Pleyn returned to look after the team whilst the boss tried to thrash out a deal with Fuji, but after continuing to be miles off pre-qualifying pace, Fuji decided to pull Subaru out of Formula One after the British GP. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Check out:
I think they attempted to prequalify about 4 or 5 times, all of which were unsuccessful...
Taken from F1 Rejects:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>
Coloni joined forces with Japanese giant Subaru, entering F1 with muscly V12 boxer engine developed by Carlo Chiti's Motori Moderni company, which had previously made engines for Minardi. Scaling back to a one-car team, Coloni signed Bertrand Gachot to drive a revised chassis tagged the 189B.
There is quite a story behind the engine. Dubbed the '1235' model, it was in the flat-12 style, hence the 'B12' label. This style had been seen in the 1970s, and had an advantage in that it provided a low centre of gravity. But it was also a bulky style of engine, and the Subaru weighed in at 159kg. With five valves per cylinder, it was reputed to produce 417kW (just under 600bhp), which was not great.
Chiti believed the flatness of the engine would be aerodynamically beneficial, and Subaru threw in the money behind the Motori Moderni effort. The engine had in fact been ready by mid-1989, and Minardi had already done a few tests with it.
But it would not take long for the Subaru-Coloni relationship to be strained. The car was prepared just in time but Gachot could not complete a single lap in pre-qualifying at Phoenix. It was then ten seconds off pre-qualifying pace in Brazil. Morin and Burgess both left after that, and the problem seemed to lie with Enzo Coloni himself, who allegedly was unwilling to pay his staff or put Subaru's money into developing both car and engine. As a result, Subaru began a bid to buy out the team.
Coloni, though, stubbornly refused to give in. Van der Pleyn returned to look after the team whilst the boss tried to thrash out a deal with Fuji, but after continuing to be miles off pre-qualifying pace, Fuji decided to pull Subaru out of Formula One after the British GP. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Check out:
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