SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: Grand Prix Classics 1979 F1 Mod for rFactor

We’ve already dealt with most of the top teams in ´79: Ferrari, Williams, Lotus Renault and Tyrrell. The other top team notable during this period was Guy Ligier’s Ligier team entering what must be considered some of the entire Grand Prix history’s most beautiful cars, and with great success, despite never winning a drivers’ or constructors’ championship.

McLaren were in a crisis with the models after the venerable M23 in which Emerson Fittipaldi won the driver's title in ´74. The M28 in ´79 was generally not a successful car and it would take until the mid-eighties and the advent of Ron Dennis and John Barnard to lift the team and eventually the entire sport to the next level, introducing "space-age" materials like carbon fibre and honeycomb production techniques, as used in the revolutionary MP4 (McLaren Project 4).

In the days pre-dating new materials and construction techniques, you could still manufacture a car with modest facilities and in the old fashioned ways. Just weld a chassis together, beat or press a few plates, stick in a Cosworth DFV and a Hewland gearbox, and you were ready to go motor racing. As pit stops for tires and fuel was not part of Formula 1 in those days, cars were carrying a lot of fuel and the dangers were very much a concern to be reckoned with.

The Walter Wolf entered Wolf-Ford was more or less such a car, and was remarkable in the sense that this was probably the last car entered in a F1 race by an industrial / financial tycoon with no real motor racing background, and only a glowing passion for the sport.

James Hunt's Wolf

With 16 teams active over the duration of the season, the year was a busy one in comparison to the current 10 or 11 teams that field two cars each for a contemporary race. In reality, half the field consisted of fledgling organizations or drivers with a desire to provide a car for others or themselves to compete and show their value in. Regulations limiting entrants and entry fees in those days were far more modest than what has become the norm in the 21st century.

Emerson Fittipaldi, Drivers Champion in 1972 and 1974, languished in a Brazilian F-1 team carrying the name of his brother and himself, Fittipaldi Automotive. The Copersucar which was also known in the paddock by less flattering nicknames never lived up to expectations.

There were however seven different winners in the 1979 season, testifying to a very competitive year amongst the top teams.

The Mod

Finally, the wait is over and Grand Prix Classics have released the long anticipated 1979 mod for rFactor. This feature is not intended as a review of the Grand Prix Classics ´79 mod, but some observations acquired through driving it for a few days will be passed on.

We can now recreate epic battles such as the legendary fight for 2nd place between Arnoux and Villeneuve in the French Grand Prix at Dijon.

Installation - and a Caution

Before installing, it is strongly recommended to remove any previously installed versions of the mod (the demo). DO NOT UNINSTALL the demo from the "Add or Remove Software Programs" icon on the Windows control panel. Due to a bug with the installer creation program, using that will remove your ENTIRE rFactor installation. To uninstall the '79 F1 demo safely, use the "uninstall79.exe" file in rFactor´s main folder. To install v1.0 just point both "GP79_v10.exe" and "GP79_tp_v10.exe" installers to your rFactor folder, or if you use the JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler (JSGME) install to a directory in the folder structure. There's an excellent tutorial written by "Chipwich" in our FAQ section for Motorsports here.

Ferraris on the front row.

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