“If you don’t come walking back to the pits every once in a while holding a steering wheel in your hands, you’re not trying hard enough”
Mario Andretti
Month: September 2012
From green flag to checkers (and more), Ben Adams lets us ride shotgun for the entirety of the Fordwater Trophy race as he pilots a lovely little Turner-Ford MKII. Ben started in 9th and finished 7th. After a very good start, he spent the bulk of the race between the leading pack and the much larger group a ways behind. I’m glad that he chose to let us see the unfiltered video, rather than editing out the warmup lap and gridding up. It lets us really be a part of the whole experience. This is as close as most of us are likely to get to a seat for the Revival, and I send a hearty thanks to Ben for letting us tag along.
Guts.
We lay it on the line. BMW builds the best sports sedans in the world.
Who says?
The drivers do. In poll after poll, men who know cars acknowledge BMW for what it is.
A car with an overhead-cam engine built around a combustion system so advanced that a BMW will cruise—cruise—at 110 mph.
A car with a suspensions system that gives you roadholding qualities that are simply incredible. So efficient that many racing cars have imitated it.
A car for all-out performance, for pure quality of construction, for right-down-to-it guts, has no equal.
Do you need only transportation? Then BMW is not for you. There are always the Swedish tractors, or one of those Oriental curiosities, and so on.
But if you want the best sports sedan money can buy, if you want a car that makes driving a joy, then visit your BMW dealer.
Has he got a car for you!
Swedish tractors and Oriental curiosities? They sure don’t write ads like this anymore…
Thanks, Stance.
The bad news: Joe Colasacco’s rather non-dramatic spin in Lawrence Auriana’s Maserati 151 at Goodwood banged her up pretty badly.
The good news: It probably won’t be cheap, but she looks pretty repairable.
I can’t imagine how nerve racking it must be to drive someone else’s £10Million car in these events and how overcome with guilt I would feel if I followed Joe’s line here.
There’s not too much to fault him for either (although on replay it looks like overcooked it a bit—he can’t really have been trying to pass on the outside here, can he?).
It was a wet (JJ and Automobiliac have said in the comments that it was dry despite the gloomy appearance) race and he just nudges the rear onto the grass, spinning immediately. In a lot of tracks, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. It’s part of what makes Goodwood so precious, but it also illustrates why the rest of the tracks in the world have changed so much in the meantime.
It’s become a bit of a tradition here to feature some of Stefan Marjoram’s sketches in the days following the Goodwood Revival. I just popped over to his sketch blog to see if he made the rounds this year.
Did he ever.
The volume of amazing racers at Goodwood might prove overwhelming for anyone; particularly for someone trying to take it all in. The temptation to take a few quick snapshots and run to the next GTO or GT40 or insert-amazingly-iconic-racecar-name-here, must be strong indeed. That’s why I so appreciate Stefan’s patience to sit down for 10 or 15 or 30 minutes and focus on a single machine from a single view and pull out a sketchbook.
Click on through for more of Stefan Marjoram’s Silver Arrows studies.
Categories
A Field of Cobras at Goodwood
With more and more video from last weekend’s Goodwood Revival showing up on the YouTubes, don’t be surprised to see a handful of them here as a sort of self-medication for the depression I’m experiencing for not going.
GoodwoodRRClub says:
To celebrate Carroll Shelby’s magnificent Ferrari beating Cobra’s fiftieth anniversary, the 2012 Goodwood Revival played host to an inspiring one-make race of his fabulous creations. Lasting forty five minutes for two drivers, crowds were wowed by the sound of the biggest gathering of such machines ever in the UK. Victory was taken by the Hall brothers ahead of the Dutch pairing ofTom Colonel and David Hart in second and Ludovic Caron and Anthony Reid in Third.
Now I feel a bit better about my use of starter fluid. It must not be the crutch I thought it was if it’s good enough for a Silver Arrow at this year’s Goodwood Revival.
Majestic sound.
Categories
Fit Race-Proved
Ferodo First
British Grand Prix
1st Lotus-Climax J. Clark
2nd Lola-Climax J. Surtees
3rd Cooper-Climax B. McLaren
Touring Car Race
1st Jaguar 3.8 J. Sears
Fit race-proved Ferodo Anti-Fade Brake Linings. Disc Brake Pads.
Ferodo Limited · Chapel-en-le-Frith · A Member of the Turner & Newell Group
“I am not restoring this car, its a REAL time capsule race car from the 50’s and 60’s. Restoring this car would be like erasing and restoring a Monet… it wouldn’t be the same. It will not be modified with new parts. It will find its way back to the track but not to compete. I’ll let other the guys destroy 750F’s… this one will stay a barn fresh nostalgic racer.
Phil Knudsen
A car can only look its age and experience once.”
And with those words, I turned from casual browser of Phil Knudsen’s AlfaBB thread on his ’58 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce Spider Race car into an enthusiastic fan.
It started commonly enough, Phil had sourced this retired racer from the John Murphy collection in Atlanta. The engine was out of her and he was looking for more stories and photos of her time as a frequent racer up and down the East Coast.
Naturally, I assumed he was trying to establish provenance while he tore the body down and started restoration. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that he’s decided to keep her bodywork and even paint as she was when she went into storage. Only newly painted (but beautifully aged looking) new numbers were added to bring her back to her old racing livery.
Of course, there were those that disagreed. Suggesting that not fixing the paint was tantamount to neglect. Keep the rust away, sure, but no top-shelf restoration can possibly make her any more beautiful than she is today.
Keep fighting the good fight, Phil. That patina is priceless and she’s only original once.
Click on over to Phil’s build thread on AlfaBB for more.
An eye for the better things in life
Triumph
For BETTER Performance
For BETTER Economy of Operation
For BETTER Handling and Braking
For BETTER Value and Service
For BETTER Times and More Fun
YOU had BETTER see your nearest TRIUMPH Dealer Today!
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