Wow seems like lots of people have thought about it.
1/8 would be cool but I might start with 1/10, easier to get an f1 chassis. I was thinking running some pipe from the pontoons to cool the engine, and then one from the air duct to the carb. I would probably have to use some mesh of sorts to keep stones out.
On the note of the nose cones, I don't mind the new ones, the McLaren and mercs look quite alright. The lotus us a bit odd but I don't think that will last. Their more worried about the noise now, its very quiet but I thought the sound was good, no earplugs were needed and I thought it was a better sound.
My nitro version certainly won't have any noise problems.