Williams FW08B

[deathjester]

As the saying goes, here's one I made earlier!
This is the Williams FW08B, six wheeled, 4WD F1 car.  You can thank the FIA for the incessant rule changes that kept this off the track!

[PR19_Kit]

Nice one! 

Is there a kit of that, or did you heavily modify the Tamiya 1/20 Williams FW07, the Alan Jones car as I recall?

[deathjester]

Hello! 
        You are quite right, there is no kit of this, but there is a Minichamps diecast model.
I did have to do a lot of surgery to the FW07, splicing in the entire gearbox/suspension assembly from the similar Benneton B188, cutting back the rear bodywork, and creating a racetrack section display base, as you can see here;



And yes indeed, this is meant to be Alan Jones' car!

[nev]

Cool, I remember Alan Jones as a kid.  He always seemed to be battling his way through the midfield to the front of the race, very exciting driver to watch.

[PR19_Kit]

That brings back funny memories. 

I worked on the moving floors of both Williams F1's wind tunnels at Grove, and was building the Alan Jones Tamiya kit at the same time. One day when I arrived at Grove they had the actual Alan Jones car in the foyer where I had to check-in so I asked the receptionist of I could take some piccies of it, but she said photos were totally forbidden on the site. While waiting for my host engineer to show up I spent some time looking at the car and memorising bits for the model, and at one stage I was kneeling on the floor looking at the gearbox and rear wing when this wheelchair wheel appeared alongside and a voice said 'We've advanced a bit since those days you know, you won't learn much from looking at it that closely!'

It was, of course, Sir Frank himself, and we both laughed and I told him why I was looking at it so hard as photos weren't allowed. He said 'Oh, I think we can waive that ruling for you and this car!' and so I was allowed to take my piccies. 

Later, having lunch in their canteen, Sir Frank and Patrick Head came in and he saw me, wheeled over and asked how my job on the wind tunnel was going and how my piccies went. A great day and a great bloke too. 

[deathjester]

Now that's a good story, and what luck!  Apparently, the FW08B is in the Williams museum, I don't suppose anyones seen it in the flesh have they?

[PR19_Kit]

Did I ever TRY when I worked there!

They only let people into the Museum as part of their 'Conference Package'. You have to sign up to use their full Conf. Facility for a whole day, including the lunch etc. and the Museum Tour is included. Needless to say it costs a FORTUNE!

They take one car out at a time and put it in the foyer, thus the FW07 that I saw then, but I've also seen Damon Hill's FW18 (I think...) there a couple of times.

Of course if you're good enough to drive for Sir Frank I bet he'd let you see it then.... 

[nev]

Cool story Kit - and goes against the "Frank Williams is a joyless martinet" persona that is projected.

[Fendt936]

There where at least three different kits of the Williams six wheeler produced.
First there is the Provence Moulage kit (K 1456) of the 1981 FW07D (1:43)
then there is the Tameo (TMK 285) of the 1982 Williams FW08B (1:43)
and then there is the AMD kit (20016) of the 1982 Williams FW 08B (1:20)Nice Multimedia kit.
I have all of the above kits in my collection.


Your model has more similarities with the FW07D than the FW 08B.

[rickshaw]

What is the point of the 6x4 layout?   Wasn't there also an Elf car with 6x2 with four wheels at the front at one point?  I seem to remember Tamiya producing a kit more decades ago than I wish to remember. 

[Hobbes]

6x4 would have had more traction than 4x2. But whether the advantage compensated for the extra weight?

The Tyrell with 4 front wheels was an attempt to minimise drag: the 4 front wheels could be smaller for the same amount of grip.

[Mossie]

The Tyrell P34 (sponsored by ELF) led the way.  Like Hobbes said, four small wheels were designed to reduce drag.  Other teams took up the challenge & decided that the rear wheels continued to cause drag.  Williams replied with the FW08 with the four wheels at the rear which would help with grip & March with the similarly configured 2-4-0.  Ferrari had the 312T6 which put the four wheels on a common axle, which made for a really wide car.  The Tyrell was the only car to compete in a Formula 1 race, although some of the others.

There was another Ferrari, unofficially dubbed the 312T8 that had eight wheels, four front, four rear, but was only ever a mock up & I don't think was seriously considered.  Like Deathjester says, the FIA couldn't make their mind up on multi-wheeled cars & kept moving the goalposts, until they finally banned them altogether with four wheels being the only allowable configuration.

Nice build by the way DJ!!!

[Fendt936]

The Williams design was supposed to reduce drag with the smaller rear wheels and also increase traction because of the 4 wheel drive.
In effect this car took of like a rocket from a standing start. In computer simulation The 1982 version was 1 second quicker than the 1985 cars who where powered by turbo engines and produced up to twice the amount of Hp.
When Jonathan Palmer entered a race at Goodwood in 1994 (historic) he imidiatly produced a record  time.

All in all an ingenious design that was never raced due to regulation changes outlawing 6 wheel F1 cars.

[PR19_Kit]

The Tyrell P-34 was at Goodwood this year and they ran it up the hill. First time I've ever seen it for real.

[RotorheadTX]

I found this page:

http://forix.autosport.com/8w/sixwheelers.html

not long ago, while searching for info on that Williams and the Ferraris.
An interesting read, for certain.