The COAT - Round One - Eifelland Type 21 vs McLaren MP4/4

[crmalcolm]

The first match in the first round - It's a car from the McLaren stable taking on the Eifelland Type 21. Which is your favourite?

Eifelland Type 21 (bleacher report):
Some would say "cool" is not the right word for the Eifelland Type 21. "Weird" is another one. "Slow" wouldn't be too far behind...

But maybe the most apt of all is "rad," because this car certainly had a radical design.

It went through many stages of design, becoming more conventional with each incarnation, but an ever-present was the bizarre, central, periscope-style rear-view mirror.

Why on earth car designer Luigi Colani, who had not previously designed an F1 car, felt this was beneficial has never quite been determined. The car's swooping lines (rather than conventional front and rear wings) were quite visually attractive though, and from a purely aesthetic perspective, the car certainly catches the eye.

It's one of the great follies in Formula One history, but as a prototype formula, the sport is always richer for those who try to innovate...even if they don't succeed.

McLaren MP4/4 (goodwood.com):
The McLaren MP4/4 is, statistically, the best F1 car of all time. In the 1988 F1 season, in the hands of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, the MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 races, only missing out on the complete set at the Italian Grand Prix when Prost’s Honda engine let go and Senna was then removed from the race while lapping Jean-Louis Schlesser’s Williams. The weekend after Enzo Ferrari died, even McLaren had to feel OK with losing that one win to Ferrari.

But for the rest of the season the MP4/4 was imperious in a way never seen before or since. It holds a 93.8 per cent victory rate.

Coming toward the end of the first turbo F1 era, McLaren’s first step toward the total dominance of the MP4/4 had been to basically steal the engine supply of its nearest rival. Williams had won the last two Constructors’ Championships with Honda power, while McLaren’s time using a privateer engine, financed in house, built by Porsche, had been initially successful, but was gradually being overtaken by the better financed manufacturer engines. Secured with the best engine on the grid McLaren now needed a chassis to match. Here we introduce not only McLaren chief designer, American Steve Nicholls, who designed the car, but also South African Technical Director, Gordon Murray, a name with which you may be familiar. Between them they clothed the Honda V6 in a chassis and body that proved well beyond anything its rivals could come close to. Prost won seven races, Senna won eight, and the Brazilian secured his first of three F1 championships.