Categories
Classic Sportscar

Reader Mystery: Who Knows this Fiberglass Racer?

Darren wrote in trying to track down this fiberglass-bodied, Ford Flathead V8-powered special that his father build when Darren was a child. Anyone know anything about this beauty? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Update: Locke wrote in with a tantalizing clue.

“An Australian by the name of Nat Buchanan made fiberglass bodies to put on MGs, TR2s, Healeys, etc. One of the bodies was based on the Aston Martin DB3S & that’s what your photo is. A flathead wasn’t a typical engine choice for an MG in Australia, but it was fairly common in the U.S., so I would guess that this was a U.S. built car—assuming the frame is an MG. This was 1957.”

Locke
Categories
Video

In the Can-Am Pits: Road Atlanta 1972

Let’s walk among the trumpets and crazy wide slicks of the 1972 Can-Am paddock at Road Atlanta. Maybe I over-romanticize the history of motor racing—okay, definitely—but wandering among the teams here looks much more like any amateur vintage race happening this weekend than the velvet-rope, VIP charade of top-shelf racing in the modern era. You can argue safety and engineering advances, but you’ll never make me believe that fan access is better now.
More at Mac’s Motor City Garage.

Categories
Automotive Art Track Maps of the Past

1952 Palm Springs Road Races Track Map

I think we can all generally agree that the rapid increase in technology—particularly the desktop computer—has made society better in almost every way. Sure, maybe we’re all too buried in our phone screens, but the societal benefits of all that increased computation have made our medicine, our education, our entertainment, our jobs.. on the whole: faster, easier, more enjoyable. I have yet to find, however, a single example of a contemporary track map that is better designed or more engaging than those created by draftsmen hunched over a table with a pencil and a bottle of ink.
This example of the track map for the Palm Springs road races of 1952 is an excellent example. Would a contemporary track map designer sketch in these gorgeous little illustrations of the cars lined up on the track? Would a contemporary designer playfully wrap the typography of the turns around the contours of the map? I doubt it. I’m glad that Stan Parker signed his name to this masterpiece so we can thank someone specific. Thanks, Stan.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Bare Shell with High Surface Finish

The Microbond Fibreglass Body Shell £49!!!
Dimensions: Wheelbase…….. 6ft. 9in.
Front body width…………. 4ft. 9in.
Rear body width………….. 4ft. 4in.
Suitable for Austin Specials.
Inspection invited at our works, Mondays to Fridays and Saturday mornings up to 1 p.m.
Bare shell with high surface finish, untrimmed, in the following colours: Red, Green, White, Black or Blue — £49.
Extras available include interior wheel arches, mounting tubes, doors, etc. Send for details. Other models in the course of preparation.
Kits for experimental work or bodywork repairs: 12/6, 17/6, 28/6, and 45/-.
Bulk material prices on application. Trade supplied.
Micron Plastics (Dept. MS 4).
Harefield Road, Rickmansworth, Herts
Tel.: 3312

Categories
Video

1963 Highlands Rally

We frequently bemoan the fact that the modern reinterpretations of classic road races have reduced these once thrilling spectacles to timed rallies. But the timed rally has its own rich history as demonstrated here by this remarkable document of the 1963 Atlantic Sports Car Club Rally. If you prescribe to the theory that sports car clubs fundamentally transformed from casual social clubs that had fairly inclusive low-key timed events and gymkhanas, to racing clubs that focused solely on competition; then that return to the more social events is perhaps a welcome return to the roots of sports cars clubs. If those events look a lot more like this Nova Scotian rally, I’m for it.