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As much as automakers (especially those in the performance business) would like you to think otherwise, 95% of any road car’s external shape is driven by style. The aerodynamicists may have a bit of input around the edges, and there are certain interior volumes dictated by marketers and engineers, but by and large, style rules the roost.

Race cars, on the other hand, are designed and built with no concern over whether or not a pleasing shape results. If severe, brick-like contours will help it “do the job” and cut through the air faster on its way to a win, those are the priorities that shape the car. That said, in spite of the fact that form overwhelmingly follows function in the auto racing world, stunning and often beautiful bodywork frequently emerges from the engineers’ drawing boards. Today we begin a new series looking at race cars that, successful or not, in their single-minded pursuit of speed, happened to be visually arresting as well.

The Ferrari 412T, campaigned by the storied Italian team during the ’94 and ’95 F1 seasons, with Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi at the wheel, was the last hurrah for the Ferrari V12 in Formula 1. After turbocharging was banned starting with the ’89 season, teams had reverted to naturally-aspirated 3.5l V8s, V10s and V12s, Ferrari being the last holdout for the latter configuration. Compared to its competitors, the Ferrari engine was more powerful, offering more straight-line speed, but was heavy and complex, impeding handling and making reliability an issue.

Still, the 412T undoubtedly represented the beginning of Ferrari’s comeback after the championship drought of the ’80s and early ’90s, a resurgence that culminated with Michael Schumacher’s string of 5 world titles starting in 2000. Conservative and simple, the 412T also happened to be quite a beautiful car, and its shape, along with Ferrari’s underdog status that year, secured my fandom for the seasons that followed.

In a constant state of development throughout the ’94 and ’95 seasons, the 412T appeared in two primary external shapes, the switchover happening partway through the ’94 season. The first iteration was called the 412T1 (shown at top) and featured a raised, rounded nose and smaller sidepod air intakes. The 412T1B and 412T2, the latter pictured above driven by Jean Alesi, eliminated the raised nose and greatly enlarged the sidepod intake area. Coupled with the knowledge that they’re sporting a hugely powerful, classic Ferrari V12, either variation of the 412T shape is brutally elegant and completely stunning. In my mind, it’s the last “classic” Ferrari F1 car, its immediate successor the F310 and all the cars that followed being maimed by safety and regulatory changes, and looking far too computer-designed as well. The 412T was the swan song of the organic, assembled-by-an-actual-human Ferrari F1 car, and as such it stands alone.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series examining the aesthetic merits of cars designed almost wholly with function in mind. Read the other installments here:

• Ford GT40
• Toyota GT-One

It’s that time of year again. The time when F1 awakes from its winter slumber, the teams shake the cobwebs off their drivers’ uniforms and the engineers reveal the designs they’ve been burning the midnight oil over all winter long.

First of the major teams to unveil a 2012 standard-bearer, McLaren rolled out their MP4-27 (shown at top) last Wednesday. With few appearance-altering regulation changes from 2011, other than livery adjustments, most teams’ 2012 cars will resemble last year’s a great deal, and McLaren’s is no exception, showing only a few sidepod tweaks, a lower aft body area and a reprofiled nose.

A once-great team that hasn’t seen much success since the ’03 season, Williams recently pulled the wraps off their latest effort at a comeback, the FW34 (pictured above). Having secured a supply of top-tier Renault RS27-2012 engines (shared with the dominant Red Bull team), if the chassis and drivers are competitive, this could well be the year of William’s revival.

Speaking of Red Bull, the defending 2011 champions presented their reloaded racer, the RB8, on Monday. With the return of their seasoned 2011 driver pair in Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, they’ll be the team to beat this year.

Can you tell I’ve been in withdrawal during the F1 off-season? March 18, Australia, here we come!

I don’t know whether to call these favorites, or tracks I have some kind of personal connection with, or even tracks I would simply love to drive “in anger.” All I know is that if the bomb went off and I had to choose just three auto racing venues to save, these circuits would be the ones.

Monaco. Site of one of the pillars of the Triple Crown of Motorsport. Incidentally, as much of an F1 fan as I am, it’s the only F1 event I’ve actually attended. Twice, in fact—in ’87, at the peak of the turbo era, and again in ’94, exactly one race after the weekend which claimed the life of the legendary Ayrton Senna. It should be noted that in both instances, I didn’t attend the actual race, but one of the qualifying sessions. Still, for sheer spectacle, glamor and excitement, it’s hard to beat the race three-time world champion Nelson Piquet likened to “racing a bicycle around your living room.” Cementing my attachment to the circuit is the fact that I’ve actually driven it multiple times, or as much of it as you can drive in the off-season; several interchanges between parts of the track are set up specifically for the F1 race. It’s impossible not to visualize yourself as Alain Prost, Senna or Michael Schumacher when hurtling through the tunnel or rounding the swimming pool on the harbor’s edge, even while observing the relatively sedate speed limits. Take a lap.

Laguna Seca. I don’t have a personal connection to this one in real life, but of all the tracks I’ve raced “virtually” (read: in video games), it stands out as the one I’d overwhelmingly want to experience in real life, if for no other reason than to take a trip through the vaunted Corkscrew about 2/3 of the way through the course. It took me ages to get that bit just right in my Viper GTS-R in Gran Turismo 2. Take a lap.

Virginia International Raceway, or VIR. The “hometown” track, just 90 minutes away in Danville, Virginia. Reopened in ’00 after years of neglect, the venue has since vaulted into in the top tier of American circuits. It’s not hard to see why: Offering a number of distinctive segments and corners, elevation changes and able to be reconfigured into half a dozen layouts, VIR is a model of versatility and character. It’s anything but a sterile, technical track, and as such has hosted everything from a Top Gear episode to magazine comparos. Take a lap.

Editor’s note: This post is part of an ongoing series discussing legendary and notable racing venues from around the globe. Read the other installments here:

• Hockenheim
• Spa-Francorchamps

Closing out the 2011 Formula 1 season, the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix saw Mark Webber’s long-awaited first win of the season, some technical difficulties for the now-crowned 2011 champion Sebastian Vettel, and good drives by the supporting cast.

After last race’s rear suspension failure that sidelined Vettel’s Red Bull on the first lap, today’s gearbox troubles at Interlagos weren’t terminal, but did keep the German prodigy from notching his 12th win of the year, relegating him to second place behind his teammate Webber. The Australian qualified second, and had an excellent drive, with Vettel keeping the pair of Red Bulls comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack.

I was especially disappointed for Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari, after undertaking a brilliant passing maneuver to take third place from Jenson Button’s McLaren early in the race, only to see the British driver retake third in the closing laps and secure the final podium spot. Not only was Alonso unable to participate in the trophy-hoisting post-race, the three additional points tallied by a third- over a fourth-plate finish would have pushed the Spanish double world champion past Webber for third in the season-ending points standings.

In the spirit of the newly-descended Christmas season, here’s a brief wish-list for F1 next year:

• After the dominance of the “Big Three” of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, it would be nice to see another team make a comeback (Williams?) or stake a new claim on the sport (Mercedes? Sauber?)
• The jury is still out on the merits of DRS after its first season in F1. It undoubtedly allows for more overtaking, but adds another layer of regulation to an already over-regulated sport. Still, I’d like to see what, if any, new strategies emerge in the offseason to exploit its full potential. Here’s hoping for its return.
• I sincerely hope the US Grand Prix returns to the calendar. Its status is somewhat in limbo at the moment, but if everything is ironed out to the satisfaction of all parties involved, it will be great to have F1 return to the States, putting more race distance between the present and the infamous 2005 US GP, the bitter memories of which still linger.

Stay tuned for 2012!

A world-beating 3.8l inline-six engine. Then-radical four-wheel disc brakes. Space-frame construction at the front, monocoque in the rear, with aluminum panels that looked like they had been lifted from a Spitfire. An aerodynamically-refined shape with minimal frontal area. Forget pretenders like the Mercedes 300 SLR and Ferrari 375 MM—the ’54-’57 Jaguar D-Type was the true pinnacle of race car development for its era.

It may be a bit cartoonish, but I can’t think of another car, racing or otherwise, that looks like more of a plane-automobile hybrid, from the rounded body contours mimicking an aircraft fuselage to the tail fin. The latter was critical for stability at the D-Type’s 162 mph top speed, a velocity it hit regularly on the non-chicaned Mulsanne Straight at the 24 Hours of Le Mans—an event it won outright three years in a row, from ’55 to ’57.

The car was an evolution of the successful C-Type, itself a special build of the company’s legendary XK120 roadster. Recognizing the limits of the full space-frame design the C-Type employed, Jaguar engineers took a page from their aeronautical counterparts, fashioning a light-yet-strong monocoque for the car’s rear half while retaining a tubular skeleton for the front, all enveloped in ex-Bristol Aircraft designer Malcolm Sayer’s pioneering, slippery sheetmetal. Powered by a dry-sump version of Jaguar’s proven twin-cam XK engine and arrested by fade-free discs all around, the convergence of engineering excellence took the racing world by storm. And even after the D-Type faded into obsolescence in the late ’50s, its innovations long since having been adopted by other manufacturers, the car would lend much of its design elements—the semi-monocoque chassis, XK engine, aerodynamic focus and disc brakes, among other things—to the acclaimed ’61 E-Type, extending Jaguar’s leadership from the racing to the road car realm. An evolutionary step in the progression from XK120 to E-Type it might have been, but the D-Type’s striking looks and racing success cement it as a icon in my mind.

Cozied up to the enormous complex that is Ferrari World, the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a spectacle of new money splendor kicked off by a surprising turn of events for the world champion.

Yes folks, much as I don’t wish misfortune on anyone, I’m pleased to be able to report that Sebastian Vettel did not win the event and clinch his 12th win of the season. No, the world champion-elect’s Red Bull RB7 suffered a right rear suspension and tire failure three corners into the race, spun out and limped back to the pits, where it was determined the car was too damaged to continue. Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren seized the opportunity afforded by Vettel’s first retirement of the season to go into full-attack mode, building a substantial—dare I say, Vettel-like—lead, leaving the rest of the field slogging it out for silver. Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari maintained a solid pace behind Hamilton, racking up a few fastest laps himself, while Jenson Button, Felipe Massa, and Mark Webber in the other McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, respectively, leapfrogged each other multiple times before Button eventually crossed the line in third to claim the final podium spot. If there’s any doubt about which three constructors have completely dominated this season, races like today’s provide ample confirmation of the Austrian, British and Italian teams’ mastery of the 2011 formula.

The venue was a kind of mash-up of the urban, lifeless Singapore race and the organic-yet-technical Indian GP two weeks ago. The race was held at dusk and bridged the transition between day and night with powerful circuit-illuminating floodlights. And strangely, as much as the whole F1 circus is a larger-than-life affair, completely taking over the atmosphere of a host city during a race weekend, in Abu Dhabi, surrounded by so much oil wealth-fueled grandeur, the F1 race seemed like a sideshow. More than any venue I’ve seen so far, the cars looked almost like toys in some unimaginably wealthy oil sheik’s playground. I got the sense that with a word, any of the race’s high-dollar patrons could have bought the whole multimillion dollar sport outright several times over, had they wanted to. For a competition that takes itself far too seriously at times (most of the time?), it was an interesting effect.

I normally focus on car-related news, design and engineering here at Spannerhead, but the recent discovery of a little event called the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race prompts me to take a little detour into the two-wheeled world.

Held annually over a 37-mile public road course lapping the Isle of Man, the race features some of the most insane—and I do mean genuinely crazy—racing I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine another motorsport where simply crossing the finish line intact would require a greater percentage of luck versus skill. If the entrance application had a “Do you have a death wish?” question, all the entrants would check the box.

The course record of just over 17 minutes, 12 seconds was set in 2009 by John McGuinness, a time that works out to an average of 131.5 mph—meaning the bike was traveling at an even faster clip for much of the race. The all-time wins leader is Joey Dunlop, with 27 victories under his belt, over a fourth of all the Isle of Man TT races that have ever been held. As with the Nurburgring, course familiarity probably helps.

To see the bikes in action, click on the jump below.

Watch the clip!

Guess who won the inaugural 2011 Indian Grand Prix, contested at the brand new Buddh Circuit (shown above) near New Delhi? If your guess has a German passport and a last name starting with the 22nd letter of the alphabet, you’re right on the money.

As usual, it wasn’t even a contest, as Sebastian Vettel led from pole to checkered flag, piling on one fastest lap after another. Farther back in the field, though, there was some excitement between Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, as they duked it out for fifth place. And as had already happened four times this season, there was contact between the two cars as Hamilton tried to squeeze through. Neither car was irreparably damaged, but the McLaren driver eventually had the last laugh as Massa retired a few laps later with suspension failure. Slumming 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher had a noteworthy drive in his Mercedes, starting from 11th on the grid and finishing fifth. And I was pleased to see Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari hold off Mark Webber’s Red Bull for a podium finish in third place.

As for the venue, I thought it looked like an exceptionally rewarding circuit to drive, with many elevation changes, some nicely strung-together esses in the backfield and a couple of flat-out straights. It was fun to watch the F1 cars dance from one apex to the next, up and over the crests and dips. The organic, almost “natural” quality of Buddh presented a remarkable contrast with the sterile, quasi-clinical atmosphere at Singapore a month or so ago. From what I’ve seen, when it comes to the new crop of venues dotting the formerly F1-deprived expanse between Europe and the far east, I’ll take the new Indian GP hands-down.

Red Bull F1 laid claim to the 2011 F1 Constructor’s title today with a routine Sebastian Vettel win at the Korean Grand Prix.

Same story, different track. Vettel actually started from second, but took the lead from a pole-sitting Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren on the first lap and never relinquished it, increasing his distance from the rest of the field for the remainder of the race. Mark Webber, in the second Red Bull car, desperately wanted to make it a one-two finish for the constructor as they clinched the championship, but his driving skills aren’t the match of his teammate’s, and Webber couldn’t get past a recently-resurgent Hamilton.

There few relatively few retirements throughout the day, the most noteworthy being when Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes was broadsided by Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, giving the 7-time world champion another inglorious race result.

With three races left in the already-decided season, we’ll see if Vettel will relent and make the remaining races anything but a battle for second, or if he’ll maintain his, and his team’s, crushing dominance in 2011.