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Ferrari Historic Racing Photos Lost Track Track Maps of the Past

Track Map of the Past: Hansen Dam

Naturally, it’s a golf course today. Damnit.

In 1955, however, the Hansen Dam park hosted the 1st Los Angeles Sports Car Races. Ernie McAfee won the day in the #76 Ferrari 750 Monza; completing 67 laps at an average speed of 93mph.

I wonder what you had to do to gain access to the Guild Area VIP parking.

More of the racing program at FScheff’s.

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Classic Sportscar Ferrari

Vanity Fair Visits Ralph Lauren’s Garage

Ever the designer, it looks like Ralph Lauren organizes his collection by color. Awesome.
More at Vanity Fair.

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Video

Pacific Raceways 1963

What a tremendous shame that on-board sound recording wasn’t part of the package with 8mm film cameras. Oh to have the audio of the Cobras, GTOs, and Corvettes; not to mention the Lotuses (Lotii?) and Coopers in the sports racers group. I guess I shouldn’t complain, at least we have the images from this track, which has beaten the odds and is thankfully still with us.

I particularly love the shots starting at about 1:39 of that marvelous series of esses through the forested hills. It makes Seattle look like Nürburg.

Thanks to Matthew from Hell For Motors for pointing us to this video.

Categories
Grand Prix Racing Ephemera

The Real Championship

Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart take up their controllers. How great is this?

My favorite thing about this (and there are many) is the second picture. Stirling, Graham, and Jackie all look to be having a terrific time. Gurney is deadly serious. The competitive spirit just never lets up.

I wonder where that trophy is today.

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Classic Sportscar Historic Racing Photos

If One Belly Tank is Good…

I actually think this whole approach is quite clever. Why not balance the weight of the driver with the engine and fuel tanks? Although I imagine the handling characteristics must change radically as fuel is burned.

Oh for the days when radical experimentation was encouraged.

Carlo Mollino on the bisiluro frame

Via DesignBoom and The Nostaligia Forum

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Ferrari Grand Prix Historic Racing Photos

You’ll Never See a Photo This Good of Sebastian Vettel

I blame the tracks. Sure, you could zoom in nice and tight with a telephoto lens that you need 2 assistants to help you hold steady, but this shot of Von Tripps at the ’58 German GP must have been taken with the photographer’s toes on the track. You just can’t replicate the immediacy and drama that close proximity provides.

Being able to see his face sure helps too.

via Hell For Motors

Categories
Automotive Art Porsche

1:8 908

When I look through the images of Simon Dagless’ incredible scratch-build Porsche 908 model, I can’t help but wonder, “how much more effort would a 1:1 scale version be?”. It’s a truly astounding project; so amazing, in fact, that I’m linking over to his project discussion on Automotive Forums before it’s complete. Once it’s finished, it’ll be nice to see the photos of the finished product, but I think seeing it slowly take form over time is the greater joy. We’re over a year into the project, which just demonstrates that Simon’s patience is far greater than mine. I’m usually skipping through to the water-slide decals in the kit before I’ve even finished assembly.

Progress
This is BACK of the dashboard!

Here’s a few more photos. It’s almost easier to believe that a giant is holding real Porsche 908 parts. Click on over for the in-progress build discussion.

Categories
Track Maps of the Past

Track Map of the Past: LeMans 1955

Approximate translation: The facilities at the circuit Le Mans (13 km long) are improving year by year. The organizers have planned this time new facilities in the village, creating a tunnel 10 meters wide giving access on the road from Tours, speakers, fueling and a new garage for 2,000 cars. The Mulsanne Straight (which allows higher speeds) was also the subject of complete refurbishment.

(Feel free to correct my translation—this was mostly Google Translate)

Categories
Historic Racing Photos

Anyone Want to Build a Nürburgring?

When Gustav Eichler sat down at his drafting table at the Eichler Architekturbüro to consider the best method for replicating the spirit of the Targa Florio track in the Eifel mountains he might have hoped, but couldn’t have known, that we’d continue to celebrate his work all these decades later.

When these men took to their shovels in 1925, they couldn’t have known the impact their work would have 85 years later. Today we bemoan the lack of spirit and beauty and challenge in contemporary racetrack design. Eichler didn’t have to consider television angles, or jumbotron placement, or semi trailers, or spectator views, or access roads. He didn’t have to consider run-off areas or medical access either. Perhaps we’re just using the wrong inspirations. When you set out to please sanctioning bodies and television producers and spectators, rather than replicating the country roads that have always truly made the best racing courses, the compromise already creates a ceiling on what can be achieved.

Ready for tarmac.
Was this the first race on the ‘ring?

Seeing these photographs of men with hand shovels and pick-axes carving the world’s most celebrated racing course out of the mountains and forests surrounding the village of Nürburg almost makes the fantasy of gathering some friends, renting a bulldozer, and replicating their efforts seem possible. Just look at these people. The only heavy construction machinery I see is the steam roller—one that would probably be considered small today.

What do you say? Anyone have a large parcel of land—preferably forested, preferably in the low mountains—that they want to donate to the cause? Who’s got a pick-axe and some time on their hands?

Categories
Historic Racing Photos Reviews

Reviewed: Sports Car Racing in Camera 1950—59

With a title that includes the phrase “in Camera”, you would expect that a Paul Parker’s volume rises and falls with the quality of the photographs; perhaps relying on classic or iconic imagery to tell the familiar tales of post-war sports car racing. You know, playing it safe. The author almost apologetically points out that, by simple availability, color photography of the era wasn’t widely adopted enough to tell the tale only through color shots. The lack of color in the early years doesn’t hurt at all, and the photography is indeed marvelous. Even better, the author did not simply play it safe and instead edited away many of the overly familiar photos of cars and star hotshoes in favor of showcasing the breadth of cars and drivers competing in this glorious era. It is because of this that we see Skodas and Rileys and DB Panhards in marvelous representation here alongside the more familiar Ferraris and Astons and Jags. Damn, those OSCAs are beautiful, aren’t they?

With the photo selections smartly chosen and presented. How then, to best craft the story around these snapshots? The typical approach is to write statistic-filled prose that almost all readers will skip over and cut straight to the visuals. Here, however, is where Paul Parker’s book goes from good to great… Masterful, even. Virtually the entirety of the text is the captions of the photos. Rather than simply identify the driver, car, and race and move on. Parker points out in great detail the background story of the photo, the tale of the race, minor detail points of interest in the background. It is this detail and storytelling method that makes Sports Car Racing in Camera 1950—50 so bloody excellent. Observing small details in the photo, and inviting the reader into the story through them invested me in the story of the photo far more than I thought a simple photograph could. When Parker directs my attention to a can of tire black on the floor of the workshop, the unusual color of a drivers’ suit, the flurry of activity in the pits, I become a more active observer of the photograph, and I become more rooted in the time and place of the event.

This marvelous storytelling device makes Parker’s book feel very little like flipping through a coffee-table book and very like thumbing through the personal photo album of a knowledgeable friend regaling you with stories of great exploits from a personal perspective. It’s an odd sensation, but the feelings I got when reading through the book was much more like the sensation I have from reading well-crafted fiction than from what could have all too easily been just another reference book.

The book is not completely devoid of the facts and figures, each year closes with the major teams, drivers, and results of the year’s major events—usually centering around the world sportscar manufacturer championship, which was just forming in 1953. The balance, though, is such that the racing, as told through these photos and captions, is much more about the stories of the era than it is about who won or what their lap time was. This balance is usually a missed opportunity, with books either becoming an almanac of stats, or an author’s interpretation of the events. Parker has done a masterful job of giving just enough facts and figures to back up the photos’ captions.

I’ll just say it: Paul Parker’s Sports Car Racing in Camera 1950—59 is certainly my favorite automotive book of the year, and perhaps the past several years. I highly recommend it to even the most casual fan of vintage sports car racing. Exceedingly well worth picking up. Somebody will definitely thank you for this holiday gift.