Goodwood has announced that the 2012 Revival’s Grand Prix grid will include a comprehensive field of Silver Arrows. They have confirmed that in appearance and on track will be the Mercedes-Benz W25, W125, W154 and W165, and examples of the Auto Union Type C and Type D racing alongside other period GP cars. Seeing any one of these at speed would be an absolute thrill. That list right there is six of them. SIX! And there’s likely to be more than one of the Auto Unions.
Just stop and let that sink in for a moment. If you’re like me and keep saying, “maybe next year” each time the Revival rolls around. This might be the year to stop procrastinating.
At Spa-Francorchamps the reigning World Champion Jim Clark wins with his Lotus 25 with the Climax-V8 engine.
Drivers briefing in Belgium 1963 (left to right hand): Tony Maggs, Jo Siffert, Bruce McLaren, Lucien Bianchi, Jim Clark, Bob Anderson, Jim Hall, Innes Ireland.
This is what a lot of 1963 must have looked like for Jim Clark. His confident expression at the Spa drivers’ meeting before the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix says it all: He was about to own the rest of the year.
I’ve seen countless images of the Grand Prix legends of the 1960s with a bit of gaffers tape obscuring part of their goggles. I never really thought about it until I saw this rather extreme example of Graham Hill’s. Does anyone know why they did this? Was covering the top half of the goggles done to block out the sun? Was it to isolate the extreme motion of items in their peripheral vision? Was it simply to strengthen the goggles themselves?
Flickr user Biczzz has created this astoundingly nuanced sculpture of Ginther’s 1965 Honda RA272 from simple Lego. The level of detail Biczzz has managed to achieve here is really incredible. Sure, I’ve made my share of blocky Lego cars, but these gentle curves, the suspension bits, the windscreen! I’ve seen die-cast models with less detail.
Maybe with some practice, I could make a generic 60s F1 car from Lego. But this isn’t a generic 60s F1 car. You can plainly recognize it as the car that took Honda’s first victory in Mexico. Overcoming the constraints inherent in sculpting from Lego and still managing such a finely crafted result is absolutely fantastic!
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.
This video promoting the new F1 circuit in Austin Texas starts off expectedly enough: Shots of Texas; DC at the wheel of a Red Bull spinning around Austin’s empty city streets. Just as I was beginning to tire of it, Coulthard pulls off the road and onto a very under-construction track. Turns out contemporary F1 cars are tougher than I thought. Well done, Red Bull.
When you see Sebastian Vettel and Jensen battling, you just see the car. You don’t see any emotion on the track. Sometimes an angry arm will come up, but for the most part it’s a car and a helmet. It could almost be remote controlled (some would say it is too remote controlled—zing!).
This image of José Froilán González ahead of Ascari in their Ferraris though, smacked me upside the head with what we’ve lost by hiding the drivers. José and Alberto here could be a couple of kids in their go karts or BMX bikes. They look determined; but they also look like they’re having a hell of a good time. Even though their faces are obscured by shadow and photographic noise, their body language: leaning, elbows out, face poking around the windscreen. They really look like their minds, their hearts, their souls are out there on the race track. They look like they’re having an absolute blast.
The fact that Silverstone of 1951, in this photo anyway, looks like you could have assembled this course in a parking lot with some cones. It just accentuates the fact that this marvelous sport was once just a bunch of guys wanting to find out how fast she’ll go and got together to put on a race.
