It’s only been a few short days since this year’s Mille Miglia and already videos are starting to trickle online. There’s aren’t just quick shoot and post phone-cam videos either. Some of these are quite lovely, like this first short video from Ricky Montalvo. He was able to stake out some of the more interesting areas the Mille passes through—the tiny villages that are ordinarily closed to automotive traffic. These picturesque little towns make for some lovely vantage-points to take in the amazing field of Mille Miglia participants and some excellent atmospheric shots of spectators. Take a look.
Category: Event
The mighty Bring a Trailer is along for the ride with the California Mille. I suspect these photos are just the tip of the iceberg and that coverage will continue over the next several days. Take a look.
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Waiting for the Thaw
Here in the midwest, we’ve just been hit with another battering of snow. At least I can comfort myself with the knowledge that British Colombia has been getting it worse. In a way though, they’re the lucky ones. At least they have the Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure to look forward to. May 1-3 should provide a snow-free (probably) path enough for a distance run through the beauty of British Colombia. If the photos of the byways in the pre-run planning trip are anything to judge by, the scenery will be tremendous. So get your pre-’79 ride ready and tuned up, head over to their Facebook event page and hit ‘confirm’. It looks like it’ll be a hell of a good time. Send me some photos, won’t you?
By the way, where’s the link to buy the poster? It looks fantastic.
This is interesting. I don’t really know the context here, but apparently there was a parade lap of the Goodwood Circuit last weekend of various period cars and trucks—mostly service vehicles. This is exactly the kind of footage you don’t expect to see, and one of the reasons I find the Goodwood event so compelling. Giving respect to the period, not just the racing cars of the period, is the kind of theatre that makes me keep saying to myself, ‘I’ll have to make it to Goodwood next year’.
Walking the paddock at any vintage race is half the fun of attending. There are scores of wonderful racing cars and dozens of friendly drivers happy to chat about them. At this year’s Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival, we did even more chatting with drivers than usual, as Paul is on the hunt for a vintage Formula Vee. One car this year, however, stopped me dead in my tracks—along with everyone else that passed—the Porsche 910.
Parked among some of the most arresting cars of the weekend, a Maserati 250 and a Cooper Formula car, it was the only car I can think of that could draw all attention away from these 2 other iconic cars. Immaculately restored in 2001, this car has competed recently in such estimable races at the 24 Hours Lemans Classic and the Monterrey Historics.
But of course the truly remarkable story of this prototype racer begins much earlier than that. The 910 series was originally conceived of as a hillclimb car, but quickly found success as an endurance racer. Think about that for a moment. Hillclimbs are short sprints up a mountainside. One way, one trip. The fact that this hillclimber was readily adaptable to endurance racing speaks volumes about Porsche’s late-60’s engineering. That a car designed for short bursts of speed could also run competitively for 24 hours is simply staggering.
910-25
This example ran the Targa Florio in ’67 (a race won by fellow works drivers Paul Hawkins and Rölf Stommelen in 910-08), and won the 1000km at the Circuit of Mugello with Gerhard Mitter and Udo Schuetz at the wheel. Sadly, 910-25 didn’t complete the Sunday race at Road America, dropping out of competition in the 1st lap. The car was hauled out of the track on a flatbed, but I didn’t see any signs of damage. Does anyone know what happened?
Update:
This article in Washington CEO Magazine shows that the current owner of Porsche 910-25 is AEI Music Founder and Real Estate developer Michael J. Malone. Congratulations, Mr. Malone, on one fine automobile.
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Thanks, Eric.
VSCDA and Monoposto Group driver and very, very dear friend Eric Dean was kind enough to let me take his ’72 Merlyn 20 Formula Ford for a spin at Road America this weekend during the Sunday touring session. Eric has been trying for ages to get me to buy a formula car to run alongside him in the FF or Formula Vee race groups. After this weekend’s run, I’m more tempted than ever to take his advice. Also, as this photo he took shows, It looks like it suits me—don’t you think?
I’ll have more photos and tales from last weekend’s Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival in the next few days. There were some outstanding cars, some excellent drives, and many, many Spotted Cows enjoyed at the Siebkens bar.
Sadly, I won’t be attending this year’s Goodwood Revival this weekend. But I’m resolved that I absolutely must drag myself across the pond eventually. Part of me is trepidatious about actually going to the event, because I’ve built it up in my head so much. On paper, I love everything about this event; every bit of footage I’ve seen of it shows spectators getting very close to the action, at an intimate venue, in period attire, amidst an almost Disney-esque recreation of postwar buildings. Could anything be more marvelous?
See how much fun these things can be when we all decide to put some effort into it. Not just the cars—which are immaculately prepared. Not just the drivers—which are often pulled from the rosters of the greatest drivers in history. Not just the venue—Lord March is a consummate host. Not even just the spectators—who take cosplay to the best possible conclusion. But the entire package seems absolutely magical. I hope this attention to detail spreads to the States.
Quickly.
To whet your appetite, here’s a lovely video from last year’s event.
Speaking of video, there’s a lovely introduction video on the official Goodwood site. If you make it out to the event, drop tips@thechicane.com a line with any photos or links to video you might shoot.
Growing up in the Detroit area, I spent a lot of Saturdays in the stands at Hilltop Turn with a polish sausage watching the races at Waterford Hills Road Racing circuit. In August each year, the track hosts a vintage race in conjunction with the Meadowbrook Coucours dé Elegance down the street in Rochester Hills. And while I’d seen many a vintage car wheeling around the corners at Waterford Hills, I’ve never given much thought to the history of the track itself – that is until a member of their discussion forum, Joe, pointed out that he’d uploaded some old film of the track to youtube.
Details were a bit sparse, just that the old 8mm film can had “1959-1964” written on it. Wonderful stuff.
Head on down to the track for their 50th Anniversary vintage race weekend August 1-3, 2008. If it’s anything like the many race weekends I’ve spent there, it’ll be a wonderful time at a wonderful little track.
Somehow Waterford Hills just keeps hanging on, despite the urban sprawl that has seen McMansions sprouting up around this once rural track. Thankfully they’re continuing to win the fight to shut down more and more small tracks around the country and keep us from featuring Waterford Hills in our “Lost Tracks” series. Got a favorite small-scale track you’d like us to feature, share it in the comments.
This is the great thing about the internet in general, and YouTube in particular. How else would you have seen this incredible home movie shot in Mishawaka, Indiana of the mall parking lot gymkhana? YouTube has it’s share of useless videos, but the service done by Wloring in preserving this absolute gem and sharing it with us makes up for a whole lot of the jack-assery on the site.
According to the uploader, the cars and some of the drivers are (probably) :
- Austin-Healey Sprite (Jeanne Ruble)
- MG-B (Jack Harrell?)
- MG-TD (Ed Steltner?)
- repeats of above.
- Formcar Formula Vee Jim Bell
- Formcar Formula Vee Bert Olson
- Mustang (note white sidewalls!)
- Arnolt Bristol (F. P. “Wedge” Rafferty?)
- Corvair coupe (Ray Hayes?)
- Ferrari? (Bob Tarwacki?)
- Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gull Wing Coupe (Carl Crowel)
- Porsche 356 Coupe (possibly Lloyd Loring)
- MG-A
- Austin-Healey 3000 (6 cyl)
- VW Bug
- Triumph TR-3 (F Production race car)
- Porsche 356 Roadster (Bob Runeman)
And while we’ve learned that YouTube comments can be among the dumbest thing on the internet, the discussion about this particular video actually uncovered new information on the cars and drivers in this event. These are things that make the internet truly astounding — no matter how obscure the information, somebody out there knows something about it.