Category: Ferrari
Over on the Angola Off Road forums, commenter Kadypress has been uploading his collection of photos and news clippings from several of the Grande Prémios de Angola of the early-mid 60s. It’s fantastic to see the Ferrari LMs and Porsche 904s and the occasional older machine on the streets of Luanda with the palm fronds whipping in a stiff coastal wind. These tropical settings make these amazing machines seem all the more exotic.
Grande Prémio de Angola 1964 Grid 
Willy Mairesse’s winning Ferrari 250 LM 
Willy Mairesse won the day completing 100 laps of the Circuito da Fortaleza street circuit in the Equipe National Belge Ferrari 250LM in 2 hours 31 minutes. Gerhard Koch took the GT class in his own privateer Porsche 904.
Click on over to the discussion thread for more.
Lovely snips shot by Roy Pagliacci of the 1969 Monza 1000km. Some from (what looks to me like) turn 8, and a few heatbreakingly brief glimpses of cars entering the banking for the final time. Bellissimo!
Keep digitizing those old film cans, people.
Luc Ghys’ photos from events around continental Europe are always magnificent, so you can imagine how pleased I was when an email from him popped up letting me know about his snaps from the Goodwood Revival. I was immediately drawn to this set he shot of Goodwood’s event remembering Fangio. Usually when I think of the Revival I inevitably immediately jump to all the imagery I can find of the legendary TT revival and the high-performance high-beauty high-dollar machines.
This eclectic mix of cars from El Meastro’s past, however, reminded me of something vitally important, and something I so love about the era: Variety. Just look at this mix of machines; and this is by no means a complete collection of Fangio’s racers. There’s everything here: from the Grand Prix cars for which he’s most known, to the Carrera Panamericana and Mille Miglia machines, to smaller voiturette racers. Almost more amazing than Fangio’s five Formula 1 World Championships is that while he was winning them, he was also competing in anything else he could find.
Just look at the buzz that gets generated today when Montoya moved to NASCAR, or Raikkonen hit the rally course (or NASCAR, himself). I applaud these drivers for attempting to take on the variety of racing opportunities available to these top-tier drivers. But that excitement wanes when I consider that this is newsworthy at all. Of course Kimi should want to rally! Of course JPM should want to turn left for two hours! These cravings for new races and racing cars still exist in every driver; it’s just a shame that contemporary racing teams seem to frown on these “unnecessary extra-curriculars”.
Not so in Fangio’s day. Thank you Goodwood for reminding us. Thank you Luc for sending along these images so we could all see.
More of Luc’s Goodwood Fangio Tribute and Revival photos at his (gigantic) gallery of racing photos.
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…And Everything in Its Place
If you’d told me a few months ago that I would lose three hours to digging through the archives of a blog about bags and wallets I’d have… Well, I’d have completely believed you because that’s exactly the kind of thing I nerd out over.
What I wasn’t expecting, was to find that the crew over at Carryology also featured an interesting dive into vintage motoring luggage with a particular focus on mid-century Mercedes luggage.
We’ve touched briefly on vintage sports car luggage before, but these guys actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to luggage construction and utility.
Even though these suitcases and trunks reek of impracticality today, I think they’re particularly remarkable examples of sports car ephemera even though they hint at the direction that the sports car industry would take.
At a time when the sporting car was a tool for driving, stripped of all unnecessary frivolity, the practical problem of transporting stuff was a problem. The solution was luggage custom crafted to fit the unusual contours of storage space in the little machines. Naturally the luggage was well made from fine materials—luxurious even. Unfortunately what the industry seemed to take away from this and other luxe add-ons is that they should merge the sports car with the luxury car.
In my opinion it’s a regrettable, but probably inevitable, move away from a purer sporting machine. It may even be one more reason why there’s such a wide difference between a “sports car” and a “race car” today.
Read more at Carryology’s post, which offers additional fascinating tidbits on the 300SL’s clever golf bag holder, and introduced me to Taris Charysyn, who make high quality reproductions of luggage for a dozen or more models of vintage sports car.
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Phil’s 212
For Sale
My 212 Ferrari… In perfect tune and in showroom condition
Top Speed… 130 mph • 0 to 60…7.5 sec. • 0 to 100 mph…16sec. • Perfectly behaved in city traffic (getting 20 mpg) • Road tested in Nov. ’52 issue of Road and Track • Price…$7,800.
Write or phone Phil Hill, 5670 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 28, HEmpstead 3165
I think Vic has the right idea. Friday is probably the day to visit The Revival, and for the right reason. Yes, it’s less crowded. Yes, it’s probably easier to compose that photo in the paddock without 50 folks gathered around the DB-2. But, more importantly, the feeling of aniticipation hanging in the air must be palpable and thrilling. More Friday shots on Super Ninety.
Great car. Great outfit. Couldn’t you find a period appropriate lawn chair?
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From One Transporter to Another
Fangio’s and Peter Collins’ Ferrari D50s and an additional 750 Monza return to Italy from the May 5th 1956 BRDC International Trophy of Silverstone with just enough time to prepare for May 13th’s Monaco GP.
The Nostalgia Forum knows all.
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1963 RAC Tourist Trophy
1963 RAC TT Poster 
Roy Salvadori pits in the E-Type Lightweight 
The start of the 1963 RAC Tourist Trophy at Goodwood 
RAC TT at Goodwood 63 
Graham Hill’s 250 GTO in the pits
More at IMCA Slot Racing.
This is an interesting moment for Ferrari in this shot. It captures the transition from the era of craftsmen hand-building the early F-cars to the technological sophistication that we think of when we see images of the current factory floor.
More than that though, I’m just glad that the ‘Dino’ moniker no longer seems to have the disregard that it once had. Which is a good thing, because It has to be one of Pininfarina’s most beautiful silhouettes. I know I’ll catch flak for this, but I think I’d rather have the 246 Dino in my garage than the Daytona Coupe it shared the factory floor with.
Stumbling across this photo in the Auto Clasico Flickr stream was particularly good timing because I saw an example of each of these cars this past weekend at Wheels of Italy; which was fun as always, but had an uncharacteristic lack of classic Italian scooters this year.