{"id":492275,"date":"2012-04-01T06:30:39","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T13:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=28811"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:46:38","slug":"looking-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/looking-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Good"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Pete<\/a>
Pete Lyons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We start the new season with two interesting notes on the subject of pulchritude.
\nNear the end of January, Lorna and I spent most of a weekend planted squarely before the Flat Screen, surprised by how much we were enjoying Speed\u2019s marathon coverage of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
\nSurprised, because neither of us have ever been fans of Grand Am\u2019s Daytona Prototypes. We do watch parts of some of the races, and in truth the action is often terrific. But in their earlier generations, their burden of blunt restrictions made DP coupes so toad-ugly I found them impossible to love. In fact, seeing them mangled by their frequent collisions has never pained me at all.
\nI feel otherwise about DP Gen III. New this year, they have smaller greenhouses and certain other bodywork parameters that add up to much better looks. My eyes actually feasted on them, and when one suffered tail damage my heart felt sorrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Not a bad looking car, but Lotus’s first mid-engined F1, the 18\u2014driven by Stirling Moss at Watkins Glen in 1960\u2014lacked the grace of the 25. Photo: Ozzie Lyons \/ www.petelyons.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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that followed a scant two years later. F1\u2019s first monocoque, the 25\u2014seen during the 1964 season in the hands of Jim Clark, also at the Glen\u2014remained the design to beat well into 1965, when the evolutionary Lotus 33 took over. More evidence that looking good doesn’t necessarily hurt in racing.
Photo: Pete Lyons \/ www.petelyons.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Handsomest car of the race for me was \u201cRed Dragon,\u201d a Chevy-powered machine whose gorgeously scarlet body presented explicit Corvette styling cues. As a one-time owner of a Stingray (of the same color), I\u2019m now daydreaming about a streetgoing version of the new Corvette DP.
\nJust about the same time Grand-Am was racing, European teams began showing the first of this year\u2019s Formula 1 cars. What a shock! Nearly every one has a \u201cstepped nose,\u201d where the needle-slim nosecone seems to jut out from the face like a long-beaked echidna\u2019s, that weird little bug-eater from New Guinea.
\nIt\u2019s all because of new rules restricting nosecone height, apparently because the higher that rides, the better the afterbody airflow. Can\u2019t have that.
\nOne more reason I find it ever harder to take F1 seriously.
\nAs I write, the one car announced so far without the bug-eater schnoz is the new McLaren. How did this team avoid that?\u00a0 According to one Internet explanation, it\u2019s because McLaren has been designing the top line of its forward fuselage a couple of inches lower than other cars all along (I must admit I never noticed), so the 2012 nosecone blends in smoothly without the \u201cstep.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n