Categories
Classic Sportscar

Lambo Curves on the Podium

Like our previous looks at car show podiums of the past, here’s more proof it’s not just automotive design that’s suffered—even the “booth babes” are less interesting than they used to be.

Of course the one-off Miura Roadster stole most of the attention at the ’68 Brussels Auto Salon. But it was a nice try, girls.

Categories
Classic Sportscar

Intrepid Bugatti Pilots

After last week’s video of the field of the Bugatti BP at Monterey, Bradley wrote in with these shots he snapped of the Bugatti session at Watkins Glen a few years ago. Bradley says it was rain, but these black and white shots make it look like snow to me, which makes the shots all the more fantastic. This is a dedicated group of drivers that push their gorgeous cars hard, without pushing into eachother. After all, what’s a little harsh weather between friends? Head on over to Automobiliac for the complete set.

Categories
Porsche Vintage Racing Advertising

Racing—The Ultimate Proof

“No proving ground can duplicate the elements which make competition the final test of a car’s performance. The rivalry of premier drivers, the unexpected moments, the constant stress on the entire machine, and the incentive to win are present only in racing.

Research, not publicity, has been the prime objective of Porsche’s competition program since the firm’s founding. Win or lose, Porsche races to prove our engineering and design concepts under the toughest of all possible conditions.
Take one example. The Sportomatic semi-automatic transmission was installed in a Porsche 911 and raced in the Marathon de la Route, 84 hours over the demanding Nürburgring course. It met the test. The car won.

Porsche prototype racers, last year, won the Daytona 24-hour, Sebring 12-hour, Targa Florio, Nürburgring 1000 kilometer and other major races. The earlier developments perfected in these unique cars brought victory to virtually stock Porsche sedans in the Trans-American championship and to hundreds of amateur owner-drivers who race their own Porsches.

Not all Porsches are raced, of course. But the Porsche you drive is raceworthy; able to take the punishment of high speed racing. Engine, brakes, suspension, electrical systems—the total design—are based on race-bred research and built to racing standards.

Can a car be built too good for everyday use? Porsche doesn’t think so.
If you’re serious about your driving, you can have a lot of fun driving a Porsche, the car that’s good enough to race.

Prices start at about $5,100, East Coast P.O.E. See your Porsche dealer or write to the Porche of America Corportation, 100 Galway Place, Teaneck, NJ 07666″

Categories
Racing Ephemera

Slot Cars are Serious Business

Dress codes will be enforced.

Categories
Historic Racing Photos Porsche

Porsche 904s at the Targa Florio

1964 Pucci-Davis 904
1964 Pucci – Davis Porsche 904 GTS

Was there ever a better marriage than the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS and the Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie?

Categories
Event

More Eye Candy from the Nürburgring Old-Timer GP

After sunset at the ‘Ring

Karsten Arndt (aka: Farbild) wrote in with a link to their great set of photos from the Nurburgring’s OldTimer GP. I think it continues to prove how photogenic the Nürburgring really is. What I particularly like about this set is when day turns to night. It’s incredibly rare (unheard of even?) to have a night vintage race in the States, with the Old-Timer GP, the Spa 6 Hours, and LeMans Classic, Europe definitely has a leg up on racing that’s more true to the origins of the endurance racers that only participate in sprints in the States. Accentuating the divide, many American vintage weekends have an “endurance” heat that is a 1 hour race. I suspect that fussy neighbors keep Lime Rock or Road America from hosting a night race, but what a marvel it would be. Click on over to Karsten’s site for the complete set.

Old Timer GP Wheel Lift
Bimmer at the Old Timer GP
Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Marchal pour vous

Translated (roughly): “The best in competition. The best for you. S.E.V. Marchal equipment. 35 times winner at Le Mans.

In so many ways the pre-photography era of print advertising ages so well. The bold graphics and colors in this Marchal ad hold up today so much better than today’s overly-flamed-and-chromed-and-checkered racing ads will in 30 years’ time.
Love that cat.

via

Categories
Classic Sportscar Historic Racing Photos

Reader Photos: More Young Scarabs

Call it a Scarab overload if you like, but the hits just keep coming. Richard Reventlow wrote in with this marvelous photo of his half-brother Lance in his Scarab. Palm Springs, maybe? (Richard says it’s Riverside). Thanks, Richard!

And Steve, who sent us his father, Alfred Cournoyer’s photos of the Scarabs last week, dug the rest of the shots out of the shoebox and sent them in. Thanks again, Steve!

Categories
Event Grand Prix Video

Monterey 2010′s Bugatti GP

John Kerridge wrote in with this clip he shot at Monterey. It’s the most astounding collection of Bugatti Grand Prix cars on track that I’ve ever seen. The clip’s rolling wave after wave of French racing blue is hypnotic, and you begin to forget how truly rare and precious each of these incredible machines truly is. Individually, each is a masterpiece; en masse, the collection transcends a mere field of racing cars and becomes a study of technical sophistication and sculptural grace.

But enough of my ramblings, John has the details on the session.

“The scene is Turn 3 at Laguna Seca on the opening lap of the Bugatti Grand Prix that was included in the program of vintage races at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, 12-15 August 2010. The first car to arrive is the Type 35B driven by Peter Giddings. He is closely followed by Charles McCabe in his Type 59 (that used to belong to Giddings!). In third place is Charles Dean, from London, England, in his Type 51. Although Dean is well known in the UK as a very quick driver with an extremely powerful car (reputedly delivering 260 HP from 2.3 liters — supercharged, of course), it’s my understanding that he was not familiar with the Laguna Seca track. So after getting past McCabe, he very sensibly followed Giddings for a few laps in order to learn the correct lines from the maestro. That task accomplished, the 260 horses were allowed to gallop, giving him a three-second per lap advantage over the Type 35B, and victory.
Further down the pack, seven cars lapped within a second or so of each other: Hubert Jaunin, from Switzerland, in a Type 51; Sandy Leith, from Dedham, MA, in a Type 37; Konig Jurg, also from Switzerland, in a Type 37A; George Davidson, from Louisville, KY, in a Type 35B; David Hands, from Great Britain, in a Type 39; Mike Cleary, from Carpinteria, CA, in a Type 57; and Richard Riddell, from Laguna Beach, CA, in a Type 35C. This group provided a splendid spectacle, with the honors going to Jaunin. Incidentally, Mike Cleary was responsible for arranging the Bugatti Grand Prix, so it’s pleasing that he got to enjoy it himself, as well.
In case the perspective from which the video was shot is not familiar to those used to Laguna Seca, it was taken from a second-story stand constructed as part of the temporary Drivers’ Lounge for the Motorsports Reunion. This afforded a much better view of Turn 3 than is usually available. I was fortunately able to take advantage of this as I was racing my 1926 Frazer Nash the next day in Group 1B.”

Thanks John. Now where’s the shots of your Frazer Nash?

Categories
Automotive Art

Tim Layzell Automotive Art

I really love this work from young British artist Tim Layzell.

Tim was born into a family with a passionate interest in historic motor sport. While still in the pram he was taken to Vintage Sports Car Club events at famous venues like Silverstone, Prescott and Shelsley Walsh. He showed an early interest in drawing what he saw – sketching Bugattis, ERAs and Alfa Romeos at the age of 3 – and with family encouragement gradually developed his skills, working first in pastel and pencils before moving on to oils and acrylic paints.

In 1995, at the age of 13, Tim entered and won the British Racing Driver’s Club’s prestigious Young Motoring Artist Award, open to artists up to the age of 23.

Part of his prize was to have his winning paintings – of the winning C Type Jaguar during a pit stop at the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours race, and Duncan Hamilton drifting through one of Silverstone’s fast corners in an HWM – exhibited alongside some of the World’s greatest motoring artists at that year’s Coys International Historic Festival at Silverstone.

This article was originally published on Motorsport Retro.