Skirts on the F1 Grid?

Clippings from news sources involving fashion freedom and other gender equality issues.
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Sinned
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

Post by Sinned »

Tom, I remember the saloon car races at Croft with little Minis and an American V8 in opposition. The Minis would get past the V8 on the twisty bits but couldn't get far enough ahead before the V8 blew past them on the straight. The Minis were just too nimble on the corners. And no, I can't remember what the V8 was just that it was big, white and emitted a throaty rumble compared to the Mini's whine ( in comparison ). John Woolfe used to race at Croft and I was saddened when he was killed at Le Mans in 1969. Croft is in spittin' distance of Darlington, my home town, and still hosts racing, including the British Touring Car Championship ( BTCC ).
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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Sinned wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:21 pmTom, I remember the saloon car races at Croft with little Minis and an American V8 in opposition. The Minis would get past the V8 on the twisty bits but couldn't get far enough ahead before the V8 blew past them on the straight.
There's a reason why the big American cars were known as "muscle cars" instead of "sports cars". They went like a bat out of Hell on the straight-away but couldn't corner for anything. Thus the small European sports cars would eat the Americans' lunch in the curves whist the American cars could simply use brute force on the straight.

I've driven both, and I know which type I prefer.

I'd love to have a go at that Tyrrell P-34. However, it'd possibly kill me.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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Sinned wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:21 pm I remember the saloon car races at Croft with little Minis
I guess those skirts would have been considered racy in those days.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

Post by Kirbstone »

I do believe Dennis's minis he referred to were motor cars.

Serving to immortalise the 'mini' franchise, Miniskirts came out almost at the same time as Alec Issigonis's automotive creation. This was subsequently latched onto by shrewd BMW who have perpetuated the brand big-time.

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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

Post by denimini »

Yes, there was often a concurrence of minis and minis.
Image
Anthony, a denim miniskirt wearer in Outback Australia
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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The current Mini is more of a Midi. The classic late 2oth century Mini was approximately 10ft x 4ft 7.5in x 4ft 5in tall. The new Midi is approximately 12ft 7in x 5ft 8in x 4ft 7.5in. It may not seem a lot but 2.5ft on the length and a full foot on the width is massive when considering what the classic Mini was designed for so the new Midi no longer qualifies in my opinion. The new car LOOKS a lot bigger as well. Look under the bonnet ( hood ) and the new powertrain is positively crammed in with barely a mm to spare. The engine bay in the old Mini looks mouth wateringly spacious even though it seemed claustrophobic to work on in those days. The engine then was so simple and devoid of all the clutter of the various sensors that modern engines have. Ah. I feel nostalgic for those times when I could work on the car by the kerb side [0] ( plus the unique smell of racing engine oil at the circuit ).

[0] We lived in a terrace house, didn't have a drive, just the kerb side. Mini ramps or axle stands were essential.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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Sinned wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 5:57 pm The current Mini is more of a Midi. The classic late 2oth century Mini was approximately 10ft x 4ft 7.5in x 4ft 5in tall. The new Midi is approximately 12ft 7in x 5ft 8in x 4ft 7.5in. It may not seem a lot but 2.5ft on the length and a full foot on the width is massive when considering what the classic Mini was designed for so the new Midi no longer qualifies in my opinion. The new car LOOKS a lot bigger as well. Look under the bonnet ( hood ) and the new powertrain is positively crammed in with barely a mm to spare. The engine bay in the old Mini looks mouth wateringly spacious even though it seemed claustrophobic to work on in those days. The engine then was so simple and devoid of all the clutter of the various sensors that modern engines have. Ah. I feel nostalgic for those times when I could work on the car by the kerb side [0] ( plus the unique smell of racing engine oil at the circuit ).

[0] We lived in a terrace house, didn't have a drive, just the kerb side. Mini ramps or axle stands were essential.
I have a new MINI - 2006 - small but HUGE compared to the classic. And yeah - my previous car was a VW Bug (vintage) and I was saddened by the complexity of the new car - you give up a lot of "freedom" when you buy a modern vehicle. It's CVT transmission isn't doing so well these days, and I'm not sure what to do.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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Coder, you've no real choice but to take it to a garage or dealer nowadays. Without the diagnostic tools you can't tell what is wrong, never mind how to fix it. Plus you have to remove so much stuff to get at what you want to get at. With the old Mini you could pull the engine out quite easily to work on without dismantling half the engine bay. It was accessible to the roadside mechanic. It. Was. Simple. There were magazines and people around that knew just about everything about the Mini. There were thousands of Mini accessories [0] to customise or improve performance. What a car.

[0] As opposed to mini accessories that were smaller versions.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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I had a French Simca for several years and really enjoyed it it was good on petrol drove like a dream but had one big problem, getting parts for it. The dealer was not very helpful at all. He did not have a good supplier to keep him in parts. Then after the Federals closed him down due to tax evasion. I slipped in to the now abandoned building and gathered up all of the few parts he had left in his store room. It did keep it operating for another two years until my wife at the time destroyed the drive axle by slamming the car into the curb side ways. Alas no spare parts for that. It was a 4 door car that was 1/3rd the size of regular cars about 1/2 the size of a Ford Pinto at the time.
It would run like a scalded cat.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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Kirbstone wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:13 am I do believe Dennis's minis he referred to were motor cars.
Thanks for the clarification Tom but I was going by the title.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

Post by Uncle Al »

:hmmm: The picture of the"Two" minis was great to look at :D

The one on the right is what I always thought the car would look like.

On the other hand, the one on the left is, to me, softer eye-candy
to admire :!: The curves are sleeker and, and, and..................
......OK - :lol: - this ol' fart will go :hide:

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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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I had two minis, both 1000cc; one a Mayfair automatic and the other a plain mini.

Both rusted badly, let water in through the windscreen, refused to start when I was late for work and need constant cajoling to keep going (adjust the brakes every week so you would have a chance of stopping). They were badly designed and badly built.

However they were cheap to fix; a full exhaust £8 in 1995, it cost more to get it fitted. I once drove round a BMW something or other that was sliding down an icy hill in the Mayfair and kept going, the drivers face was a picture. They also handled great, going round corners like go-carts.

They were beyond their time at the end and having seen the aftermath of a crash, I wouldn't ever get back in one.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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bodycon, reliability with them was always a problem. Everything was done on the cheap. Also having a carburetor meant the possibility of starting issues, manual choke and bad adjustment, and distributor, bad adjustment and cracks in the distributor case. Dampness on the plug leads was an issue. I remember in winter sometimes having to get up and wipe the distributor and leads and spray them with WD40 or the equivalent at that time in order to kick the engine to life. Mine strew all those BMC/British Leyland/whatever 'A' series engines suffered from those same faults. However when well maintained they would run forever. Bodywork would generally go before the engine. I had an ex-police dark blue minivan and I could get 90 out of it. The book top speed was 70. Memories. Would I have another Mini? Hell, yes, but at £10k+ for an example in great condition I'm not sure I could justify the expense even if I could afford it. But if I was offered....

As for handling, well there was nothing even close to compare. Racing, rallying, they just stuck to the road and inspired confidence.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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A classic mini is on my short list of cars I’d love to own but shouldn’t :D I’ve never driven one, but a family member used to drive an automatic mini (supposedly rare?) in Italy when she lived there.
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Re: Skirts on the F1 Grid?

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No doubt everyone has seen and enjoyed that riotous Michael Caine film 'The Italian Job', which was the greatest advert for the original Mini ever.
British Leyland at the time totally failed to capitalize on that.

No. I never owned one. My first cars were Triumphs, a Vitesse which was a model of engine accessibility and then a 2.5 PI estate which was a great looker at the time but was pretty shoddily engineered and painted. I then went French...Citroens & Peugeots, which all had their fair share of foibles. Hauling four children and an au-pair around influences one's choice of family transport. In those days pre SUVs & Crossovers, only Citroen and Peugeot offered three-row seating, all facing forward. Renault attempted something similar, but was designed for little Frenchmen....No room for tall people like us!

MOH wore the Minis.

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