Categories
Porsche Video

Porsche’s Beautifully Shot Rennsport Reunion Video

Speaking of Rennsport Reunion IV…

Categories
Event Porsche

Reader Report: Steven Cabales’ Rennsport Reunion

Friend of the blog, Steven Cabales wrote in about his trip up the coast with my dear friend (and old housemate) Heather for the Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca. Part of me thinks he just sent it in to fuel my envy.

Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV. After this weekend I’ve learned that no other manufacturer has earned more endurance racing victories than Porsche. Was this new knowledge? Not really. I like Ferraris and Alfas (had a 1974 Alfetta GTV) but I love Porsches. Nothing could prepare me for what we were about to witness. Being in the midst of the legendary winning vehicles and their legendary drivers was total nirvana.

We rolled up Saturday at Mazda Raceway at 7am and directed to the 993 section of the Porsche corral. There were a few cars there already but pretty empty that early. Foggy and cold we slowly made our way to the track. Vendor stalls started opening as we walked past. Once across the bridge and past a few more stalls, through the fog there they were. 935 Moby Dick and the amazing RSR in front of the Porsche Paddock on the asphalt. No ropes, no “do not touch” signs, just sitting there for anyone to touch, which I did. These and 54 other of Porsches finest steeds came directly from the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. That museum must have looked very empty during the week.

Could it possibly get any better than this? Hell yes it could. Just walking past the Brumos staging area nearly gave me an aneurysm. Hurley Hayward’s Daytona winning 914-6 was sitting there. At Canepa’s, multiple 917’s in Gulf livery. In the pit paddock, racing Porsches from every era, all in chronological order! In the “tent” there must’ve been no less than 8 550s a 356 Abarth Carrera, with Carrera Panamerica livery, a Martini 917, and a lot more I’ve leaving out. It was like walking into the history books of Porsche racing. Shortly after checking my pulse to see if I was really alive still or not, we discovered the Porsche Corkscrew shuttle. Porsche set up a free shuttle service with brand new Cayennes to the Corkscrew. Nice marketing.

At the Corkscrew the fog started rolling in. I feared they’d delay first practice session. I was wrong. First thing we saw was flashing lights of the pace car (Panamera Turbo) leading the group, and then the sound. The sound of wailing 4 Cam Carrera motors bombing down turn 7 and up throttling in before turn 8. RSK, RS60s, Abarth Carrera, Speedsters. I couldn’t talk at this point even if I tried. Next up Eifel Trophy: 908, 904, 914-6s, 911s. One car I did recognize in this group was Hurley Haywood’s Daytona winning 914-6, only to learn later who was driving this car. Hurley Haywood!

Now next group is really what I came to see. The Weissach Cup cars. I could nearly feel tears swelling up in my eyes hearing the flat 12s of the 917s, followed by 910s, and 906s screaming down the screw, spitting fire on the overrun. Oh look, there goes Brian Redman in the Gulf 908. Hi Jeff Zwart, I sure like that 906 you’re driving. It was that surreal to me. Still is.

I could go on and on about which cars we saw and which drivers I talked to, but the auto rags have done a much better summary than I possibly could. The most important thing I came away with from this event is Porsche has endurance racing DNA in spades. Nothing even comes close. My first memory of a Porsche was in 1976. I was six. We bought our first Mercedes that year. A 1976 240D. Mustard yellow. Slow as molasses, tough as iron. Next door was a Porsche dealership. I asked my parents, ‘why can’t we get one of those?’ ‘Because mom can’t drive stick’ was my dad’s answer. Super. So after years of growing up with Benzs, I still coveted Porsches. I still covet aircooled 911s and 33 years later I now have my first one. Rennsport Reunion confirmed I made the right decision. DNA really is everything in racing.

Thanks again for sending this in Steven. See more of Steven and Heather’s photos from the Reunion here.

Categories
Classic Sportscar Video

The Dream to Get #3 Back Home

The trailer for The Quest sure makes the film look worth a watch. I wasn’t familiar with the story of the 1960 LeMans class-winning Briggs Cunningham Corvette and it’s fall into obscurity. But this film’s look at Chip Miller’s discovery, restoration and his dream of returning her to La Sarthe for the 50th anniversary of the John Fitch/Bob Grossman victory is heartbreaking and inspiring. Take a peek.

More at QuestDocumentary.com

Categories
Ferrari Racing Ephemera Vintage Racing Advertising

Ferrari Presenta: 1953

Ferrari: Modena Italia presenta: 166 millemiglia. 250 millemiglia.


Love the high-contrast illustration style in this page from a 1953 Ferrari brochure. I’ve looked high and low for a higher resolution image with no luck, so I can’t read the listed specifications. Anyone have any idea what the olympic rings are doing here?

Update:I found another page from a 1955 Ferrari brochure that uses a graphical device similar to the olympic rings and discusses championship wins. Were the interlocking olympic-style rings used more generically to symbolize international competition in the years before the International Olympic Committee cracked down on unauthorized use?
Worth noting that the graphical device used in the ’55 brochure page bears a resemblance to the Auto Union/Audi rings. Curiouser and curiouser.

Categories
Porsche

How Many German Women Does it Take to Carry A Porsche Frame?

Two. It takes two. And that’s in heels.

Here, enjoy a couple more shots from very early 356 production at the Porsche factory… Really it was still more of the Porsche workshop at the time.

Categories
Porsche

Porsche 917s Are Tiny: Part 2

Yet again, I’m flabbergasted by how small this giant of a racing machine is. Its reputation, its power, its mystique all manage to make it something enormous in my mind. When we see it next to a car we know, however, it’s true diminutive stature reveals itself. It just seems so impossible to me that it’s really this small; particularly when it’s the wearing the livery of the Hans Herrmann/Richard Attwood 1970 LeMans winning example as shown here in the Porsche Museum’s workshop.

Categories
Classic Sportscar

We Can Build Them. We Have the Technology.

Gilco-Fiat 750 Frame

Whenever I find myself wandering open-jawed through the marvelous build threads over at the H.A.M.B. I wonder to myself what might happen if some of these incredibly talented fabricators drew more inspiration from the sports car. This is particularly true when I see something like flthd31’s remarkable thread about his scratch-built ’32 Ford frame rails from plate steel or WelderSeries’s photo essay on building a Model A frame from steel tubing.

Of course, here in the States it’s still possible to find 1930’s Ford bodies at swap meets or a particularly lucky trip to the right sorts of junk yards. But I see technical drawings of Ferrari or Maserati or Fiat racing car frames from the 1940’s and 1950’s and think to myself, “those dudes that make ’32 Ford Frames could just as easily be building this.”

The only thing I can imagine is that the lack of availability of Maserati A6GCS Monofaro bodywork just stops people from making “tributes” or “replicas” or “re-creations” or whatever the nomme d’jour is for these things. Otherwise, I have to think we could have a similar homebuilder community of vintage racing cars as we have for hot-rodders. I’m sure many sporting car purists out there will disagree and think my plea for inaccurate re-creations is tantamount to sacrilege, but I just want to see more of these cars out there, and Siata sure isn’t making more of them. For me, it’s as simple as that.

Maserati A6GCS Frame

Just look at these frame diagrams. This doesn’t look any harder (to this admittedly naive novice) than knocking together a frame for a street rod, and yet we almost never see a home-built barchetta. Occasionally we do see exceptionally accurate shop-build re-creations, but it’s specifically the garage builder I think of. Hell, the Maserati brothers were little more than garage builders themselves when they built these things in the first place.

Street rod masters, I humbly suggest considering that your next project be inspired by the Mille Miglia and not the Salt Flats. There are a whole lot of ’32 Fords out there and not so many Gilco-Fiats or Stanguellini Barchetta 1100s.

If you need me I’ll be ducking under my desk while I’m bombarded with emails calling me an idiot for suggesting people reproduce these things.

Categories
Lost Track Video

Unseen Racing Footage: Santa Ana Road Races, El Salvador, April 1959

Like our last look at the racing community of El Salvador, this footage from the Santa Ana races just stopped me in my tracks. We often see photographs of races with little barrier between the on-track action and the off-track spectators but this footage really demonstrates how very precarious the situation really was. It must have been incredibly nerve racking as a driver (particularly during the LeMans style starts shown here). It must have been spectacularly thrilling as a spectator, with those “lucky” few in the front rows equally stepping closer to the action and pushing back against the crowds behind that threatened to nudge you onto the track. The adrenaline must really have been coursing through the veins of these race fans.

Again, many thanks to George Kehler for providing this footage, shot by Dr. Carlos Alvarez when he was just a young teenager. Keep a sharp eye peeled for Pedro Rodriguez in the red green #24 Austin-Healey 100M (he DNFed with ignition problems). Ricardo was also in the race in an OSCA. The day was won by Mauricio Miranda in the #42 Jaguar D-type with 2nd going to Manfredo Schmid in the Mercedes-Benz.

Keep on digging those film cans out of the attics, people. We’d love to share them with readers.

Categories
Historic Racing Photos Lost Track

Reader Photos: Del Lance’s 1958 Put In Bay Races

I love this so much!

Not only did Del point out his #85FP MGA that ran in the F-Production race in the photos that William Goldman shot of the 1958 Put In Bay Road Races (that’s him with the front-row view of the crash into someone’s front tree), he sweetened the deal by sending along his photos from the event. Thanks, Del!

Categories
Ferrari

Factories at Work: The Ferrari Foundry

I’ve sat on this photo for a while now. Partially because I couldn’t identify when this was at Ferrari. If I was a better sportscar trainspotter, I could probably identify the era of this photograph based on the parts in the background. Hell, I’m sure some Ferrari Chat members can identify the technicians in this image. So it’s just been sitting on my hard drive. Were these guys casting 166MM engine cases? or 375 F1 transmission housings?
I don’t know. But this image kept being something I wanted to share, because despite how little I do know about this photo, there’s one thing I’m sure of: It wasn’t that long ago that there wasn’t much difference between a World Championship team and a bunch of SoCal hot rodders.