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  Alfa Romeo 179      

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Country of origin:Italy
Produced from:1979 - 1981
Numbers built:6
Successor:Alfa Romeo 182 F1
Author:Wouter Melissen
Last updated:October 06, 2014
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Click here to download printer friendly versionDuring the 1979 season, the 179 was never on the pace and only managed to finish once, last and one lap down from the winner. Autodelta worked hard throughout the winter to increase the car's competitiveness and reliability. In the first race of the 1980 season, Giacomelli proved that Autodelta succeeded in the latter with a fifth place finish. In the following races some of its reliability was apparently sacrificed for speed, with the 179 improving in qualifying every race, but rarely finishing. In the final race of the season Giacomelli managed to qualify the 179 on pole, but again failed to finish. Alfa Romeo finished last in the constructor's championship with 2 points.

To decrease the cars' cornering speeds, the sliding skirts, which were a key element of the ground effect setup, were banned at the end of the 1980 season. Many teams tried to circumvent the regulations, by fitting their cars with adjustable hydro-pneumatic dampers. The mandatory skirt-ground-clearance of 60 mm could only be measured when the car was parked in the pits. When driving the car including the now static skirts could be lowered, achieving a similar result as with sliding skirts.

To accommodate the adjustable dampers, Autodelta modified the cars and at the beginning of the 1981 season they were known as 179C. The constant adapting to changed regulations did not help the team's development program. On the track the 179C rarely matched the speed of its Naturally Aspirated competitors and was easily outpaced by Turbo-charged Ferraris and Renaults. The lower D variant or the fully carbon-fibre 179F did not fare any better and the V12 engine was abandoned in favour of a Turbo-charged V8 unit.

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  Article Image gallery (34) Chassis (2) Specifications User Comments (1)