When Playboys Ruled The World

[ArrowsFA1]

How F1 star James Hunt and motorcycling legend Barry Sheene conquered the world and captured the public imagination with their playboy lifestyles in the long hot summer of 1976.
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=190125

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Watched it the other day. Couldn't believe how bloody good the doc was for ITV. All I kept thinking was 'shouldn't this be on BBC4?'

[Vitesse]

It was a great outcome - in the end - but what the programme didn't bring out (understandably, as it was for a general audience) was all the political to-ing and fro-ing in F1 with protests, counter-protests, disqualifications and reinstatements. If you read through the weekly press for the year you'll find the roots of the enmity between McLaren and Ferrari ...

[wedge]

May I suggest a NASCAR and their very own playboy Tim Richmond. I know there will be people groaning because its NASCAR and redneck good ol boys, but please trust me because you enjoyed the Sheene/Hunt doc then this is worth watching.

http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=855495&postcount=5


It was a great outcome - in the end - but what the programme didn't bring out (understandably, as it was for a general audience) was all the political to-ing and fro-ing in F1 with protests, counter-protests, disqualifications and reinstatements. If you read through the weekly press for the year you'll find the roots of the enmity between McLaren and Ferrari ...

Hate to be anal but it was about playboys first and foremost and contrasting with today's apparantly morally conscious media

[Bolton Midnight]

1976 seemed like a great yaer for British motorsport and I feel kind of sad I wasn't around then to witness it first hand. :)

Cracking weather too

Remember it well

Nice to see our heroes smoking all the time, didn't seem to harm their lap times.

[ShiftingGears]

Cracking weather too

Remember it well

Nice to see our heroes smoking all the time, didn't seem to harm their lap times.

There's no advantage to smoking or being unfit in sports, at all. Which is why if drivers are unfit or smoking in modern F1, they just wouldn't cut it. They just didn't cotton onto the fitness thing back then.

[Bolton Midnight]

It certainly didn't did it.
I would have preferred to see them not smoking if it meant they were both with us today though. :(

I thought Hunt had quit before he died (all clean living and that) and wasn't aware smoking was connected to his death. Sheene more likely though with cancer of throat/stomach.


There's no advantage to smoking or being unfit in sports, at all. Which is why if drivers are unfit or smoking in modern F1, they just wouldn't cut it. They just didn't cotton onto the fitness thing back then.

No there's no advantage but no disadvantage either - Keke Rosberg smoked 60 a day, remember him? 160mph lap of Silverstone just after having a smoke, maybe he'd have done 165 if he'd been munching on a carrot stick and then tossed that to the floor and stood on it.

I find cigarettes help me concentrate during an event and keep me alert.

[ShiftingGears]

No there's no advantage but no disadvantage either - Keke Rosberg smoked 60 a day, remember him? 160mph lap of Silverstone just after having a smoke, maybe he'd have done 165 if he'd been munching on a carrot stick and then tossed that to the floor and stood on it.

So then you admit that it is a disadvantage.

Look, its obvious cigarettes are detrimental to performance and therefore no professional sportsmen in a physically exhausting sport like Formula 1 or Tour De France or triathlons smoke now. How is this even debatable?

[Bolton Midnight]

I was actually being sarcastic re the carrot stick.

How does being a smoker make you a slower driver, bearing in mind the number of very fast drivers that smoked

Timo Salonen
Juha Kankkunen
Manfred Winkelhock
James Hunt
Keke Rosberg

off the top of my head

Assume you don't actually compete yourself theugsquirrel?

[maxter]

Did you even consider that in their time it was much more common to smoke and the physical aspect was overall more overlooked than it is today, thus the standard was lower? Can you prove that they wouldn't in fact be faster than they were if they would have been more fit (ie quit smoking among other things)?

[Bolton Midnight]

Even Schumacher has been known to smoke and drink, he's mega fit, but hey lets not let facts get in the way of inane dribbling.

'In their time' I think we've known smoking is bad for you long before those were all winning - nope it kinda points to smoking not being in the least bit disadvantageous re driving ability like I said originally.

[wedge]

There's no advantage to smoking or being unfit in sports, at all. Which is why if drivers are unfit or smoking in modern F1, they just wouldn't cut it. They just didn't cotton onto the fitness thing back then.

For years the likes of JYS and Ron Dennis told Jan Magnusson to quit smoking. He still does to this day and he's one of the best GT racers in the world. It hasn't stopped him from doubles-stinting and cocooned in a front-engined Corvette C6.

[Bolton Midnight]

I've never heard of anyone quitting and suddenly getting quicker or vice a versa.

[ShiftingGears]

For years the likes of JYS and Ron Dennis told Jan Magnusson to quit smoking. He still does to this day and he's one of the best GT racers in the world. It hasn't stopped him from doubles-stinting and cocooned in a front-engined Corvette C6.

I don't think its an accurate comparison to make between GT drivers, NASCAR drivers and F1 drivers.

In F1 you need your heart and lungs working as efficiently as possible as the drivers are competing to be the best in the world in the most physically demanding motorsport out there.


Even Schumacher has been known to smoke and drink, he's mega fit, but hey lets not let facts get in the way of inane dribbling.

Schumacher having one cigarette in some F1 World Championship afterparty does not prove any point. If he were addicted to cigarettes he would not be super fit in comparison to his peers, because his aerobic capacity would be greatly reduced, and therefore would have his competitive advantage greatly reduced.


but hey lets not let facts get in the way of inane dribbling.

Sounds like most of your posts.

[Bolton Midnight]

So how did chain smoker Keke Rosberg manage to be so quick compared to the non smokers, it made sod all difference.

[SGWilko]

So how did chain smoker Keke Rosberg manage to be so quick compared to the non smokers, it made sod all difference.

That's easy, he was racing for his next nicotine fix...... :laugh:

[SGWilko]

In F1 you need your heart and lungs working as efficiently

I would change that to 'In todays modern F1, where physical demands and G-forces on the body need your heart and lungs...............'

[Bolton Midnight]

That's easy, he was racing for his next nicotine fix...... :laugh:

Maybe

he certainly seemed in a hurry round Silverstone, but he had just had a smoke before doing that lap, the fastest ever if my memory serves me right - fastest lap ever with all that nasty smoke/drugs in hs body, how is that possible if all this botty water about it slowing them down were true

[SGWilko]

Maybe

he certainly seemed in a hurry round Silverstone, but he had just had a smoke before doing that lap, the fastest ever if my memory serves me right - fastest lap ever with all that nasty smoke/drugs in hs body, how is that possible if all this botty water about it slowing them down were true

What was that, 85 or 86? In those days, you needed to be bit of a brute to handle the cars - no power steering, super sticky qualifiers, mahoosive rear tyres, 1000+ HP - it was more physical strength that athletic fitness that was required.

WHile with today's cars they produce more G's on cornering, there is less power, torque etc. There are semi-auto boxes, power steering that make the need to be built like a Rugby Player not necessary.

Later in life however, when KR's lungs are trying to exit his trachea on their own, he may regret the smoking, but each to their own......

[Bolton Midnight]

Gilles Villeneuve lived off red meat almost exclusively but I'm sure give him a modern F1 car and he'd still be quick, ditto Keke Rosberg

all this fitness stuff is just PR bollocks, got to appear clean cut good boy etc

Was Kimi slow, he liked a drink

Piquet used to sleep all the time rather than train, didn't slow him up any

[SGWilko]

Piquet used to sleep all the time rather than train, didn't slow him up any

Which one, it makes a big difference....... ;)

[Bolton Midnight]

Which one, it makes a big difference....... ;)

Nelson Snr

Be hard to tell difference between asleep and awake with Jnr