Categories
Automotive Art Racing Ephemera

Topps World on Wheels: Healey Silverstone

Let’s see how shrewd we can be with our trades. Pull out your shoebox of Topps World on Wheels cards and let’s get down to business.

From the card’s reverse:

“The Healey is an extremely light, very rugged car… build for competition. It is designed to stand racing abuse, and provide with moderate power a performance that cannot be equalled in its class. In seven seconds, this car can reach fifty miles per hour from a standing start!”

That zero-to-fifty time might not sound impressive today, but I guarantee you look better doing it in this Healey Silverstone than you would in any of the contemporary production sports cars that can achieve 60 in half this time.

More Topps World on Wheels in the archives.

Categories
Automotive Art

Martin Squires’ Automotive Illustrations


Illustrator Martin Squires’ sketches from the car, motorcycle, and vintage machinery shows he attends are absolutely delightful. I’ve tried many times to capture this kind of quick gestural linework and trust me when I say it isn’t easy. You might think that this quick sketch aesthetic isn’t as challenging as pouring over an illustration table for hours or days but I’d suggest that it’s even more difficult to do well.

Just try nailing the proper contours of a Cooper 500’s bodywork in one quick, confident swash of an ink pen; or conveying the correct proportions of the wheels to the exposed engine to the suspension bits of a hillclimbing special (particular one that you may just be seeing for the first time). These things are not easy. I’d rather have some time to pencil it in, adjust, erase, re-draw, adjust, erase. I’m continually impressed by this kind of rapid freehand work.


Check out Martin’s site for more. Prints and sketch books are available at his shop.

Categories
Porsche Reviews

Reviewed: SportErfolge

There aren’t a lot of people that own just one Porsche book. Just like there aren’t a lot of people that own only one Ferrari book.

That’s the thing about automotive books in general. People who buy them tend to buy a lot of them. And don’t think for a minute that publishers don’t capitalize on our habit every chance they get. The problem with a lot of books, particularly books that focus on a single make, is that they start to get repetitive in a hurry. Nowhere is this more evident than at the photo editor’s desk. We tend to start seeing the same iconic images again and again.

You are not going to have that problem with SportErfolge.

Tony Adriaensens’ work with his Corsa Research imprint has, in my opinion, brought a sense of discovery back to the world of sports and racing book publishing. His commitment to sourcing amateur and largely previously unpublished photography is remarkable. It gives a fresh new perspective on not just eras of motorsport, but individual races that we’ve read about for years and thought we knew.
This moment from early in the book captures that sentiment well and also gives some insight into both the process of producing SportErfolge and the philosophical approach of the author:

“My decision to make this book came about when I found the Kodachrome slide opposite, out of the late Bob Lytle’s collection from Phoenix, AZ. Bob drove his Jaguar XK120 from California all the way up to the Tuxtla Gutierrez on the Mexican border with Guatemala to see the start of the Carrera in 1953 and 1954. In ’53 however, when returning to his hotel room after dinner, he found all his equipment stolen; cameras, films .. all gone. He only had one single roll of exposed Kodachrome film left in his pocket. This was the last film he had shot and he had captured José Herrarte’s class winning Porsche after the finish of the Carrera.”

Tony Adriaensens

That quote does a few things that I think are central to why SportErfolge is so successful as a work of early Porsche racing storytelling. It gives us some perspective on why this topic begged to be covered—after all, let’s be honest; there’s no shortage of Porsche books out there. More importantly though, it highlights in a very real way how precious these photographs and the stories that they tell truly are. In this case, Bob’s photograph is a rare survivor when he lost the bulk of his captures of the event. How many other photos from this era are metaphorically stolen as they languish away forgotten in closets or attics—slowly deteriorating in their albums? Are they not just as lost? This is why I so admire Tony’s efforts to source amateur photography for his work. It is the same motivation that has prompted me to find these kinds of forgotten amateur archives for this site. It is so much more arduous a task than phoning up the major photo houses and having them send over the usuals. It’s a task that pays off again and again in SportErfolge.

Corsa Research calls SportErfolge a “photo essay” and I think the description is apt. The captions that accompany each photograph (the vast bulk of which are presented in full-page glory) are as vital as the book’s main narrative in telling the story of Porsche’s racing efforts starting with the 1951 Coupe du Salon at Montlhéry through the effort at the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours Race.

SportErfolge also excells at highlighting some of the races you haven’t read much about. It would be easy to just rely on major international events and championships to tell the story of Porsche’s racing heritage. It’s the lesser known events like Switzerland’s National Slalom of May, 1956 or the Flying Kilometer of Antwerp in July, 1959 that are just as pivotal to Porsche’s early racing heritage as the Mille Miglia. These amateur events, presented alongside the biggies in chronological order, do a great deal to show how Porsche entered, astonished onlookers, and established itself as central to global sports car racing. I also appreciate that this puts the privateer and gentleman entries right up there with the factory efforts in the story of Porsche’s rise to the international stage. That’s not to say that iconic Porsche-centric events like the Carrera Panamerica and Targa Florio are neglected—they are decidedly not. It is refreshing, though, to see these much-storied and gloried races (and drivers) have to give up a little spotlight to regional events like the Santa Barbara Road Races and Grand Prix of Léopoldville, Congo.

Reproduced graphic details increase the charm and evoke the era.

In addition to the photography, the inclusion of small graphic details like the specific race logos that adorn the slipcover or the inset Liège-Rome-Liège rally stamps are a welcome glimpse into the visual ephemera of the era. This does not give the book a scrapbook aesthetic, but are presented as a tasteful graphic that enhances the typography and overall design. That level of detail makes me believe that Tony’s choice of photos to bookend the piece is deliberate. Within the foreward for the book and among the first photos in the volume is a 3/4 rear shot of Carrera Abarth #1010 in the pits at LeMans in 1962. The very last photo of the book is a shot of Carrera Abarth #1009 at the 1000 km of Paris. Taken under different circumstances at virtually the same angle. Whether the author intended to let this juxtaposition reflect Porsche’s stability and permanence in sports car racing, or whether he just likes the Abarth’s rear (who doesn’t?); I don’t know. But it’s little touches like this that make SportErfolge such a joy to repeatedly dig into and find new details to absorb.

Tony’s books ain’t cheap, but I think they’re worth much more than their cover price. More information at Corsa Research. SportErfolge is an absolutely beautiful, well researched, masterfully photo-edited book.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

124 MPH Under Riverside's Champion Bridge

Datsun Ad
via Chromjuwelen.

Categories
Video

Goodwood Revival Sunday Live Stream is Up and Running

Edit: Feeds are down. I’m leaving these links here on the off chance that the Goodwood team archives the all-day feeds at these address. Dear Goodwood team, please archive the raw film dumps at these addresses.

Thanks again to Goodwood Revival and Forty One Six for bringing this to us this year.

Update: Archived for your viewing pleasure.

Categories
Video

Goodwood Goodies: GT40 Onboard

The live stream may be done for the day, but we can still enjoy some of the on-track action at this year’s running of the mighty Goodwood Revival. Let’s ride along with Kenny Brack in what looks to be a quite slippery session with and entire field of Ford GT40s. This is what a whole lot of power with not a whole lot of grip looks like. Kenny has fast hands.

Brave.

Thanks, Goodwood.

Categories
Video

Onboard for the Formula Vee 50th Anniversary Race at Road America


The Vintage Sports Car Drivers Association always has a fantastic grid for their Formula Vee group. With 20 or more racers, it has to be one of the most densely packed Formula Vee grids in the States. Last weekend’s Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival, though, brought even more out to the track to celebrate Formula Vee’s 50th anniversary together with a FV-only feature race. (Edit: Paul just wrote in to tell me that the event drew 34 Formula Vees for the weekend. Yowza!)
What I like most about Jeffrey Tschiltsch’s onboard footage here is that it really showcases one of my favorite aspects of the group: they manage to run really tight. Even towards the end of this video, there’s still five or six cars within a few seconds of each other; never more than a turn apart. Keeping together as a pack and drafting one another in the long straights at Road America makes these little 1200cc powered racers an exercise in true racecraft. After all, there’s not a lot of horsepower to rely on when you make even the smallest mistakes. Sure, taking advantage of every newton of momemtum and using every aerodynamic advantage to try and win is true for every race group, but this particular formula really manages to deliver on similar performance and racing characteristics across a variety of builders. It’s just such a joy to watch.
I have to also give kudos to Jeffrey for actually using YouTube’s usually annoying commenting tools to give some honest commentary for the video, pointing out some hairier moments, some near misses, and even his own mistakes to give us some insight into the on-track thoughts and analysis of the moments that defined the race for him. Thanks for sharing these, Jeffery.
Man, I love Road America.

Categories
Event

Goodwood to Live Stream the Revival

Ford GT40 grid
Welp, my weekend just filled up. For the first time, Goodwood will be live streaming the Revival all weekend long. Now you’ll be well-placed to take in all the events at a level of breadth that the highlight shows simply can’t cover. I’m particularly looking forward to the Whitsun Trophy race featuring an entire field of GT40s. I am so so, so, so very excited for this.

Categories
Video

Birdcage on the Track

Here it is, the best reason you’ll see today for having quality speakers attached to your computer. This… This is why you don’t put a soundtrack over racing car footage. Just listen to that Maserati hum.

Categories
Historic Racing Photos

Rest & Be Thankful

Cooper at Rest & Be Thankful, 1964


Over on Motorsport in the 60’s, Kent has dug up a marvelous series of photos of the 1964 running of the Rest & Be Thankful hillclimb.

Peter Garnet at the Rest & Be Thankful hillclimb, 1964

I’m happy for Kent for this post that he had one of a blogger’s favorite experiences: Peter Garnet commented on his post identifying himself in one of the photos as a young driver on his way to beating the track record. That’s him in the red and yellow crash helmet. I’ve had a few of those moments of connection here on The Chicane and it’s absolutely invaluable.

Head on over to Motorsport in the 60’s for the rest of the photos.