I was confused by what at first appeared as a minimalist roll bar, but on further inspection it seems that the original roll bar was simply cut off. Do you think someone just decided they didn't like the look?
stupid to remove a roll bar, no matter why. Either the car will not be as raced, will not have that safety feature when driven, or will have this ugly reminder that it once was a cool race car and now looks like amateur hour with a sawzall
I have to wonder if roll bars were even required at the time this car raced. As late as 1960 roll bars were not required for F1 cars, and although the record seems to indicate most cars had them in 1961, whether FIA required them is another matter. I realize that the FIA did not sanction races the posted car competed in, but I can’t imagine the rules being that much different between the various sanctioning groups. If one looks at pictures of F1 cars in the early 60’s they will be hard pressed to find any without the drivers head well north of the cars roll bar. This of course is not to say anything about the merits of roll bars, which is a separate issue, but it is to say they were likely not part of the landscape then. In 1961 at Monza Wolfgang Von Trips in a Ferrari 156 Sharknose mixed it up with Jimmy Clark. As I recall, Von Trips was thrown from his car and that killed him. The car itself was destroyed in a horrific sequence of rolls, the intensity of which rendered the roll bar moot. My libertarian instincts lead me to believe much of this stuff should be left to the individual team owners and drivers.
This beauty is a 1959 Ferrari 250/500 TRC Spider, body work compliments of Scaglietti.
ReplyDeleteI was confused by what at first appeared as a minimalist roll bar, but on further inspection it seems that the original roll bar was simply cut off. Do you think someone just decided they didn't like the look?
ReplyDeletestupid to remove a roll bar, no matter why. Either the car will not be as raced, will not have that safety feature when driven, or will have this ugly reminder that it once was a cool race car and now looks like amateur hour with a sawzall
DeleteI have to wonder if roll bars were even required at the time this car raced. As late as 1960 roll bars were not required for F1 cars, and although the record seems to indicate most cars had them in 1961, whether FIA required them is another matter. I realize that the FIA did not sanction races the posted car competed in, but I can’t imagine the rules being that much different between the various sanctioning groups. If one looks at pictures of F1 cars in the early 60’s they will be hard pressed to find any without the drivers head well north of the cars roll bar. This of course is not to say anything about the merits of roll bars, which is a separate issue, but it is to say they were likely not part of the landscape then. In 1961 at Monza Wolfgang Von Trips in a Ferrari 156 Sharknose mixed it up with Jimmy Clark. As I recall, Von Trips was thrown from his car and that killed him. The car itself was destroyed in a horrific sequence of rolls, the intensity of which rendered the roll bar moot. My libertarian instincts lead me to believe much of this stuff should be left to the individual team owners and drivers.
DeleteI bet the roll bar was required by the vintage racing association, and the handfull of stickers on the windshield show it's been to Monterey, etc
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