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1994 Jordan 194

Eddie Jordan had come into Formula One with the simple, yet effective, 191. In its first season the compact and nimble car would help Jordan Grand Prix to earn 13 points and finish the inaugural season in 5th place. Unfortunately, the successors of the 191 would be unable to do anything and the team would slip down the Constructors' Championship order. Two years of bitter disappointment would see Jordan have a continual revolving door of drivers coming in and out. The team needed to create a fast, stable racing car, and, in 1994, they would build it. It would become known as the 194.

Today, a Formula One car is designed and built by a whole regiment of engineers and individuals. However, when Gary Anderson set about designing and building the Jordan 191 in anticipation of the team's inaugural season in Formula One he would join two other staff members and would get to work.

Designing and building a car around the 3.5-liter Ford HB engine, Anderson and his team would fashion a small, agile-looking chassis that featured a forward-swept front wing, an inward-canted leading edge and a heavily-rounded nose that blended into the leading edge of the front wing. Utilizing the shape and design of the front wing, airflow would be allowed to pass under the nose bulkhead to the floor splitter directly under the driver's legs.

Constructed of carbon fiber, the monocoque body structure would be shaped to produce a tight package around the 75 degree V8 Ford engine. The sidepods would sit relatively low to either side of the cockpit and would have a leading edge that contoured back and wrapped tightly around the sides of the car.

The airbox/roll-over hoop would have a rather large opening but would wrap tightly behind and would have a forward rake that would give the compact car a very aggressive look. Combined with a Jordan/Hewland 6-speed manual transmission and double wishbone suspension all-around and Jordan had itself a very competent debut grand prix car. This would be proven by the seven points-scoring and numerous top-ten results earned over the course of the season. The fact the team would also set a fastest lap of the race at the Belgian Grand Prix would cause many to think Jordan was either enjoying beginners luck or was destined to become one of the great manufacturers in Formula One history.

Unfortunately, the former would be the case as proven by the team's sophomore season. Following the end of the remarkable 1991 season Jordan would lose its deal with Ford as an engine supplier. The only choice the team had, or could afford really, would be to go with Yamaha. There would be a couple of problems with that choice. For one thing, the Yamaha was a V12 and was much longer than the Ford V8. This would force Anderson to alter his neat, stable design in order to house the larger powerplant. The other issue could best be explained by the phrase 'you get what you pay for'. Yamaha had an engine that was capable. It was also much cheaper than the Ford. But while the cost factor would be good for Jordan the terrible reputation for unreliability would be proven to be true and the 191's successor, the 192, would suffer terribly from unreliability.

Of course, the 191 would be a tough act to follow. When the 1991 season would come to an end the motor racing magazine Autosport would recognize the work of Anderson and his crew giving the 191 the Racing Car of the Year Award. This reality would make life terribly difficult for the 192. And, while a major stone could be cast in the direction of the Yamaha engine there would be other contributing factors to the 192's struggles and the resulting lean years of 1992 and 1993.

Williams had really perfected the electronic grand prix car. Their FW14B would be miles ahead of the competition as it would be the first to unite active suspension with traction control and a host of other electronic features. This would see the Williams cars disappear off into the distance and would leave the rest of the teams to wander in the woods like Hansel and Gretel desperate to find their way home.

To a team like Jordan, whose resources were already terribly limited, such electronic aids meant a whole new level of cost and consideration when it came to the construction of a grand prix car. Immediately the price of designing and building a car shot up to astronomical proportions. Left without too many options if they wanted to be competitive, Jordan would have to make some compromises.

Anderson and his team would stick with the basic elements of the 191 for the 192. And why not, the 191 had performed quite well over the course of the season. It certainly seemed like a strong foundation upon which to build.

The car itself was quite capable but it still had some growth it could have gone through over the course of the season to make it even better. However, the team could do little about the car itself when most of its time and resources would be spent with other troublesome elements.

Jordan could not keep up with such things as the active suspension and traction control but they would invest in a seven-speed sequential gearbox. This was the direction many teams were going in besides the semi-automatic gearboxes. However, the arrangement would prove must unreliable and fragile and would be replaced by a more conventional gearbox until the new gearbox had had the opportunity to be perfected further.

And then there was the Yamaha engine. Less powerful and bigger than the Ford it was to replace, the Yamaha also had a very big problem with reliability. Extremely fragile, when combined with the gearbox problems, Jordan would only have one car finish two races out of the first nine races in 1992. By the end of the year the Yamaha-powered 192 would score just a single point and the team would go from finishing 5th in the Constructors' Championship in 1991 to 11th one year later.

Jordan knew the Yamaha was just not going to be the engine that would take the team back up to where it was the year before, nor where everyone desired to go for the future. Therefore, at the end of the 1992 season the step would be taken to terminate the use of the Yamaha and a deal for the Hart V10 would be reached.

Brian Hart had been in and around motor racing for nearly three decades when he would determine to build his own in-house 3.5-liter V10 engine for use in Formula One. Just prior to this he had been working freelance tuning Cosworth DFR engines for a number of Formula One teams. So he certainly had a basis of knowledge that he could pull from, specifically knowledge of the Ford engine that Jordan had lost out on at the end of the 1991 season. And so, while still rather cheap, Jordan would be getting what was virtually a Ford engine for the price of the terrible Yamaha.

At the same time the deal for the Hart V10 would be made, Anderson and his team would be at work creating an updated chassis design. Having the smaller V10 engine to design and build around, Anderson would stick with the same overall design that had been utilized in the 191 and 192. However, the 193 would have a shorter wheelbase than the 192. Additionally, the nose would feature a straight front wing for the first time. But, the nose would remain lifted into the air to help with the flow of air under the nose and to the splitter that helped to direct some of the air around the sides of the car. This meant three support pillars would be designed into the nose of the car.

Aft of the nose the 193 would be virtually similar to the 192. But while the team would not have the resources to go the route of active suspension, the team would begin to develop its own semi-automatic gearbox with the help of XTrac.

While the Hart offered the team hope for the 1993 season, there would still be a lot of the same. Engine-related problems, electronic issues, wheel bearing problems and gearbox issues would all come to plague the car throughout the first half of the season. Additionally, the short wheelbase of the 193 would negatively impact the handling characteristics of the 193 and would make it quite a handful for drivers like Rubens Barrichello and Thierry Boutsen to drive.

The continual revolving-door of drivers would not help the Jordan team to find any kind of continuity either. By the end of the 1993 season the only continuity it would have would be the presence of the talented Rubens Barrichello as one of its drivers and the steadily-improving reliability of the Hart engine.

Following the end of the very difficult 1993 season Jordan would be on the verge on very big financial woes. The investment into the electronic age had cost the team, like many others, dearly. Unfortunately, the terrible results due to the fragile Yamaha engine and the new technological leaps throughout 1992 and 1993 would leave the team in a big hole after having finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship in its debut season.

However, the team would have a couple of good building blocks upon which it could build. The overall design of the Jordan would still be quite good. Secondly, the Hart engine was smaller and certainly quite a bit more reliable than the Yamaha. Therefore, Jordan had a couple of good key components.

Still Anderson would set to work preparing the chassis for the upcoming season. Immediately the nose of the car would be reworked. It would come to be realized that the raised nose and straight front wing really did nothing for the 193. Therefore, Anderson would revert back to the days of the 191 and the 192 by giving the new 194 a contoured front wing. However, there would be some noticeable differences between the nose on the 194 and its early predecessors.

The first couple of chassis built designed and built by Anderson's team would feature highly-contoured front wings with bird-like leading edges. The 194, on the other hand, would feature a much more subtle contour and leading edge. Furthermore, the less dramatic front wing meant the nose of the car would be longer and tampered much more to a point that extended beyond the leading edge of the front wing as with the 191 and 192. This reduced the amount of air that would flow under the nose of the car to the splitter underneath the driver's legs but it would certainly help to smooth the airflow striking the nose and traveling aft.

The large front wing would then be built with an ever-changing design of planes to help the necessary downforce over the course of the season but the wing would basically consist of two upper elements. Out toward the endplate there would be one element that would allow for a slot underneath to help generate increasing downforce out to the ends of the wing. In between the upper element and the nose would be a single plane that would sport a gurney flap and would be raked much further back to help air to flow around the nose.

Looking much like the talon on a bird of prey, the bulkhead of the nose would curve upwards and then down again around the driver's seat. For the sidepods, Anderson would take a little step back in time and would use the 191 as the inspiration. As a result, the sidepods of the 194 would be practically the same as those used on the 191. They would be tightly wrapped on either side of the cockpit giving a small radiator inlet. Bargeboards would later be attached to the sides of the nose bulkhead just ahead of the radiator inlets to help improve airflow in and around the radiator ducts. The aft portion of the sidepods would be about the only real noticeable departure on the aft portion of the car from the 191. The bottom edge of the sidepod would be pulled in tighter than at the top providing a channel for the air to flow to the rear disc brake ducts and out over the rear diffuser. The 191 had featured a highly-contoured piece of bodywork that helped create the channel but that was nowhere near as flat to the tray as what would be employed in the 194.

Looking up slightly, the entire chassis from the cockpit aft would look quite similar to every previous Jordan chassis. The airbox and engine cover would be designed with a sharp forward reach. The engine cover would then be pulled in tightly going aft to help as much air to flow to the standard triple-element rear wing. One element that would be employed on the rear wing of the 194 at the slower-speed venues would be the addition of another wing element attached upwards and forwards of the upper element on the main rear wing. This provided even more downforce at the rear of the car.

Since the use of electronic aids had been banned, conventional double wishbone suspension would be employed on the 194. About the only electronic aid the drivers would have at their disposal within the car would be the Jordan six-speed semi-automatic gearbox. Utilizing Brembo disc brakes on all four wheels and Penske dampers, Jordan would have a good car to compliment the improving Hart V10 engine sitting right behind the driver.

Thanks to the new car, the improved engine and the talents of Rubens Barrichello, Eddie Irvine and Andrea de Cesaris, the Jordan 194 would go on to score the first ever podium for Jordan at the Pacific Grand Prix. Additionally, the car would go on to score seven 4th place finishes and would finish the season with a total of 28 points to reclaim the 5th position in the Constructors' Championship. The car's performance would also allow Barrichello to earn his and Jordan's first pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix. The car would also enable Barrichello to sit as high as 2nd in the Drivers' Championship standings.

Of course, one of the greatest praises the 194 would have to receive would come in one of the most famous crashes on a weekend that would be considered the darkest in Formula One history. While attempting to qualify for the San Marino Grand Prix following a brilliant 4th and 3rd place to start the season, Barrichello would clip the high curbing at Imola's Variante Bassa chicane. Rubens would end up being launched into the air and would slam into the tire barrier lining the circuit. Having hit the curbing at a high rate of speed, the collision with the tire barrier would decelerate the 194 very rapidly causing it to roll over and come to a rest on its top. The safety crews would right the car and due to the strong construction of the car Rubens would be later released from the hospital with a terribly foggy memory and a couple of nasty cuts but not much else.

The Jordan 194 had reclaimed what had been lost over the previous couple of seasons. It would also help to restore Jordan Grand Prix for a future that would include a brilliant one-two finish at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix and a 3rd place result in the Constructors' Championship the following year.

Sources:
'Jordan 191', (http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-191.aspx). StatsF1. http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-191.aspx. Retrieved 23 May 2013.

'Jordan 192', (http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-192.aspx). StatsF1. http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-192.aspx. Retrieved 23 May 2013.

'Jordan 193', (http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-193.aspx). StatsF1. http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-193.aspx. Retrieved 23 May 2013.

'Jordan 194', (http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-194.aspx). StatsF1. http://www.statsf1.com/en/jordan-194.aspx. Retrieved 23 May 2013.

'Jordan 191 Ford', (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/688/Jordan-191-Ford.html). Ultimatecarpage.com: Powered by Knowledge, Driven by Passion. http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/688/Jordan-191-Ford.html. Retrieved 23 May 2013.

Wikipedia contributors, 'Brian Hart Ltd.', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 February 2013, 18:17 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_Hart_Ltd.&oldid=540316787 accessed 23 May 2013

Wikipedia contributors, 'Jordan 193', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 March 2013, 16:36 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jordan_193&oldid=547468105 accessed 23 May 2013

Wikipedia contributors, 'Jordan 191', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 February 2013, 02:59 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jordan_191&oldid=540472192 accessed 23 May 2013

Wikipedia contributors, 'Jordan Grand Prix', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 March 2013, 20:52 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jordan_Grand_Prix&oldid=544462694 accessed 23 May 2013

Wikipedia contributors, 'Jordan 194', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 February 2013, 02:59 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jordan_194&oldid=540472218 accessed 23 May 2013

By Jeremy McMullen

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