Who manufactured the last formula one six wheeler

[khyndart in CA]

Terry,
Thanks for that informative Primotipo.com 6-wheeler site.
It reminded me of when Patrick Head sent me a photo of the FW07D 6- wheel project back in 1982.
As you can see there is more tyre rubber to the ground on the front compared to the rear 4 tyres which is one of the many areas they were experimenting with. This is a brief description of that concept.;

"This six-wheel set-up would again be four smaller wheels at the back, in a direct effort to improve straightline speed and traction out of corners due to the increased rubber contact, but also to allow the free flow of air along the sidepods all the way to the rear axle of the car. As ground effects were permitted within the wheelbase of the car, Head cunningly interpreted this rule as being from front axle to, well, the most rearward axle! In Head's mind, these would be ground effects almost to perfection. The leading rear axle was placed four inches ahead of its original place, with the driveshafts angled to cope.
Basically, to get more ground effects within the wheelbase, Head stuck an extra axle on the back to get more room!"



This is a rough sketch of Patrick's interpretation of the rules that shows in Orange the increased ground effects area gained by using the area from the rear most axle to the front axle.
As they say Patrick was a "cleva fella"



June 1996. Patrick Head with his "mentor " KJH, at the Williams Team headquarters, Grove, Oxfordshire, UK,
The papers in Patrick's hand were actually to use in preparing the 6- wheeler at Goodwood that year.

(Sean Hyndman photographer )

A brief clip of the FW08B in action at Goodwood. The FW08B had the biggest tyres on the back when it came out the following season.






(Ken Hyndman)