Why aren't F1 cars popular on the street?
11.06.2025 18:29
Now here is the rest of the story. Here is a picture of that car, sitting in front of my mobile home in Pompano Beach, Florida in 1968.
Well, they are not too practical. Now I write this as someone who actually used to drive one, to work, almost daily, for a while. It was fun…. As long as it did not rain.
The rest of its lifetime here had included an owner, a stripper at a Hollywood, Fla club whose lovers wife retaliated by driving her car into it while parked. Hence the smashed front end present when I bought it. I actually drove in from Jupiter, Fla. to Pompano Beach minus the front end, which made the journey in a pickup. I had traded an Austin Healy 100–6 for it even up.
It was a stopgap solution and due to the change in engine capacity from 2.5 l to 1.5 l, OSCA decided to enter their popular and fast 1.5 l sports-racing cars in the first race that year as there were very few cars actually produced as F1 cars for the start of the season. They converted it into a single seat car by the simple expedient of installing a removable aluminum cover over the passenger seat and installing a small windshield and fairing around the drivers seat.
Now this was a long time ago. In the 1967–69 time period. And while my car had never actually competed in a F1 race, it was entered as a factory team car and attempted to qualify for the Monaco GP in 1961.
Here is the engine:
I saw pictures of this car in an old issue of a sportscar magazine and the explanation of its F1 history. The article showed the cars in their qualifying attempt. They were, unfortunately, too slow and did not make the grid. Nevertheless, they met the requirements and were a legitimate F1 car.
Several years ago the same model car sold for over $1M at auction. Restored of course. But it lacked the optional passenger set cover I included.
I pounded out and installed the front end and drove it around, including to work on sunny days as it had no top. It did have a tiny windshield wiper for its tiny windshield though. It garnered lots of attention when I parked it at the Chris Craft New Product Development center on US 1, where I worked. Including a State Trooper, who seeing it, drove in and filled in part of its stripper history for me. It was apparently well known, for that stripper, among the law enforcement community in the area.
What is the best interracial stories that you hear or know and want to share?
And finally, here is a picture showing the cockpit with the single rollbar and small windshield.
It was fast (150 hp according the little plaque on the firewall from its DOHC 1.5 l engine with 8 spark plugs). It actually ran just fine and never failed me, other than the overworked clutch. I entered it in time trials and won the first 4 overall. Then I hit a dry spell, my (now) ex-wife had another mental breakdown and I decided to go to graduate school. So I was forced to sell it. Got $550 cash, what I had into it.
The cockpit cover was not on the car at this time; It did not come with the car and was actually given to me by Bud, the mechanic who did some work on the car for me (replaced the clutch). He dragged it out of his storage room where it had sat for some time. He was the one who filled me in on some of the history of the car, including that it was purchased by Augie Pabst, imported into the US and raced for some period.
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It was fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat. But I might have held it a little longer and gotten a little more money.