It was a man’s world
Fittingly, given the ’80s was the decade of excess, F1 cars in the ’80s were fast; outrageously so. In fact, the turbo cars of the mid-’80s remain the most powerful F1 cars ever built.
The Williams FW11 epitomised the era. It was, quite simply, a beast. In the hands of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet it won the 1986 constructors’ title, and the secret to its success was the potency of its Honda twin-turbo V6. The engine first caught people’s attention the previous year, when Keke Rosberg recorded the sport’s first ever 160mph lap of Silverstone. A more refined, more driveable and more fuel-ecient engine for ’86 raised the bar even further.
In qualifying trim the RA166-E produced more than 1300bhp – in a car that weighed just 540kg… It had a power-to-weight ratio of 2500bhp-pertonne, and all that grunt was delivered via a manual six-speed gearbox.
‘It was a beast to drive,’ says Nigel Mansell. ‘Wheelspin in sixth gear. It was hard to keep the car on the circuit. But it was also very rewarding to drive; it was very physical and a real racer’s race car.’
The FW11 won nine of the 16 races in the ’86 season; five with Mansell and four with Nelson Piquet. The car’s dominance in race conditions reflected not only the power of its engine, but its fuel eciency. The governing body had reduced the fuel allowance from 220 litres in 1985 to 195 litres in ’86, and Honda were leagues ahead of their rivals. You might remember Alain Prost pushing his McLaren-TAG Porsche over the line at the German Grand Prix after running out of fuel; there were no such problems at Williams.
But the FW11’s appeal was greater than the sum of its mechanical parts because there was an incredible human story going on in the background. Frank Williams suffered a horrendous car accident prior to the season’s start, and the team attended the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix with its boss fighting for his life in hospital. When Piquet won at Jacarepagua, there wasn’t a dry eye in the pitlane.
There was less sentimentality after the title-decider in Adelaide, scene of the tyre blow-out. Mansell’s title hopes were left in tatters when his left rear let go at 180mph (if you were a tyre, you’d probably throw in the towel at sustained abuse from Honda and Mansell’s right foot…) and the images of him wrestling his car to a halt summed up the season.
Williams developed a B-spec version of the FW11 for 1987. It featured active suspension from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, but it was less outrageous than the ’86 car. Less of a beast. Boost restrictors limited the power of the engines and the cars became a bit tamer, a bit less ’80s.
The secret to the FW11’s success was the potency of its Honda twin-turbo V6