This video could have stopped at the handheld footage of the corners from an airplane passing slowly overhead and it still would have been worth sharing. But then the tours of the pits with some of the most beautiful cars ever made, including a whole suite of various Ferrari 250s and their shirtless pilots. Then they prepared for the LeMans start… and I’m hooked—all before the action even starts. Somehow even though I have such a deep love for vintage racing, the atmosphere of the pits and spectators in these old films draws me in just as much.
7 replies on “Charade 1958”
A little surprised that a Lotus 11 won it. The good old days.
Was this the first ever race meeting at Clermont-Ferrand? The circuit and surrounds look very new.
[…] One of the first runnings of the Charade circuit in France was captured in this 16-minute video from 1958 showing plenty of Ferraris Porsches, Lotii, and other interesting cars in their natural habitat – at speed and on the track. Even if you don’t understand French, you’ll understand the common language of competition. (via) […]
love all thèse archives my first race ever was working for Roland TOUZOT, at the “4heures du Forez” race in the Auvergne region next to Charade, that was 1954!
I think Innes Ireland in the Lotus took the handicap, which the French always regard as most important. “Le Petoulet”–Trintignant in the 250 GT won overall. I think.
The results show the Lotus as having covered most miles, and it is listed as number one in the table. Perhaps that was supposed to be the Index and not miles. Ferrari makes more sense.
The Lotus was first overal, no index, the Ferrari,s sufferd from tyreproblems because of threre weight and the brandnew asfalt, also to mutch power for this circuit with 51 corners for 5 miles
asfalt