Brilliant. It was very classy too how Derek got the seat. Waited for Bernie Ecclestone to call him after enough time had passed after Elio De Angelis died.
Even from this 4 cilinder specimen. I was shocked and in awe hearing them live in 1986 as a kid at the Austrian GP. Infernal would be the best way to describe the V6's boosted sounds
0:24 these few seconds, culminating in the popping at the end of the straight, take me right back to being an awed 10 year old kid hearing F1 cars for the first time at Silverstone. Sat qualifying in the late 80s. The sound was amazing
The reason Warwick was available late on the season was, that Lotus wanted him to drive the second car as Senna's team mate but Senna opposed, so they hired Johnny Dumfries to drive the second Lotus.
To be fair that car did not look safe at all, it looked too low and the shoulders were not protected or hidden by anything, compared to the BT54 that was the opposite
@@paulo9504 it wasn’t Gordon’s fault, he wanted to use a 120° Turbo V6 instead of the M12/13 Inline 4 motor. Bernie opted not to use the V6 proposed by Murray and forced him to shoehorn a inline 4 that was meant to be used at 90°
@@paulo9504 Thats nonsense. It couldn't be the design that failed, we must remember that the design of the McLaren MP4/4 was largely based on the BT55. If we let ourselves go by the design, the MP4/4 would have been a failure, which it was not.
@Satanic Panic Fun and Games I'm not saying that he was in charge of the design, who was in charge was Steve Nichols, but Murray was the technical director, and the design nobody can deny that it was based 75% on the BT55, only just have to compare them carefully.
Derek talking about how low he had to sit. Gordon Murray later said that he learned from the mistakes he made on this car (being too low was one of them) and corrected them on the McLaren MP4/4 that won 15 out of 16 races in 1988. Edit: Now that I've seen the Steve Nichols video (and I recommend everyone see it) I stand corrected.
Gordon Murray sure likes to take credit for something he had little to do with. The gearbox was the only part of the car he had any meaningful input with on the MP4/4. Pete Wiseman was referred to chief designer on the car, Steve Nichols. I guess Murray has always needed to something to protect his legacy seeing that the last F1 car he was truly responsible for was the BT55 which was an utter failure. Murray even claims he brought drawings from the BT55 over to McLaren as basis for the MP4/4. Nichols has said this is not true and that he never saw the drawings of the BT55. He said the MP4/4 was an evolution of the MP4/3 and anyone can see the resemblance between the two cars.
@@chrismc1977 Yeah true but I know very well the story , the rear wing fell off and that cause the accident, the real killer is the fire extinguisher powder. I've chat a lot with people involved these days. But if the rear wing didn't fell off, Elio will be there today. So the car killed indirectly the driver it's just a pure bad luck of events
Had a poster of the bt55 on my wall as a kid I absolutely loved it. Can anyone tell me which circuit this is at please? I think it's Donington but I'm not sure.
Murray's cars were usually very safe, but was never helped by Bernie compromising what Gordon was doing by giving him things he didn't want, like Alfa Romeo in the 1970's and the awful Pirelli tyres from 84. I wonder if Gordon went too radical with the BT55 because the compromises of the engine and types respectively?
