A car that is 5 seconds off the pace, sure. 10 seconds, maybe, but again and again 18 and 20 seconds off pole time?

Can anyone tell me why that car was so horribly slow?

Seriously bad karma....

A triumph of ambition over budget?

Lets face it - if you turn up at a GP and your mechanics have to borrow tools from the the other teams then you are hardly going to be on the pace...

Magatron,

The answer is probably contained in what FlagMan points out: the ambition of the team was not in synch with their budget. The technical issues with the engine, the lack of a solid infrastructure (the tools being only one symptom of things being not well with the team), and just biting off more than could be done by a fledgling team all just overwhelmed them.

Yep, i would have to agree with that. It was definitely a case of ambition over budget. They bought a still born Chassis and tried to mate it to a very 'interesting' engine design. When it was announced I was hoping it would work but as usual with these teams that come out of nowhere it bombed big time.

Cheers
Matt

for the full story have a look at this site
http://www.crosswinds.net/~f1rejects/index.html

The car had just 390hp, problems with conrods and a bad W engine. Sometimes they just complete two laps per weekend. It was also a desaster for the driver Bruno Giacomelli. But he was the perfectest part of this team.

js_schmidt@hotmail.com

Someone posted the F1 reject link, yea I know all about that site! In fact, there next "reject" is Bobby Rahal, and guess who wrote it for them! Yours truely! Also, if you will look in the "hall of shame", I wrote the bulk of the
"VHS VS Beta" awards!

brilliant site!!!

You're new around here, still have to learn what hides in our hallways... patience, jmcgavin.

Oooh Id never seen the actual HP quoted before - that was less than a DFV!

I read somewhere that the power output was estimated at just 360 BHP!

When there was output. ;-)
I recall we arrived late for pre-quallification at the Hockenheimring. There we learned that Bruno had just managed to get out of the pit, coast one lap and back to the garage. End of raceweekend...

Also Mr. A. Moda was keen to pose with the car and make it somesort of photo shoot/ego promotion.

Link for full storty is here nowadays:
http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/life/profile.html

Paving the way for his own glorious arrival!!!

Actually, I think "Moda" is Italian for fashion? His name was Andrea Sassetti (sp?)

I'm a bit confused, don't recall Andrea Sassetti having any connection with the Life W12 project. Life ran in 1990, initially with their disastrous W12 engine, and later with a Judd V8, though that didn't make the car any faster. Sassetti's team Andrea Moda came along in 1992, but their equally unsuccessful car was only ever Judd V10 powered, or am I missing something here?