If this photo of Graham Hill isn’t the original photograph, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to believe that this was just desaturated and cooled in Photoshop. I want to continue believing that this photo is the kind of thing Instagram strives to achieve with it’s technology, not the result of digital retouching.
The hues. The angles. The drama. I can’t reasonably articulate why it matters to me whether this shot was composed “in camera” or on a laptop. It just does.
Whenever I see these types of candid photos of racing drivers, my contemporary jadedness comes through and I initially dismiss it as a manufactured photo opp for the papers. But then I think back to everything I’ve read about the camaraderie of the Formula 1 community in the 50s and 60s and I become a believer again.
Seeing Jim Clark and Graham Hill in this off-track incident here just seems wonderful… and genuine. Can you imagine Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button grabbing their ladyfriends for a bit of impromptu bumper-car action?
This set seems appropriate as we all catch our breath from Cobra’s celebration at the Monterey Historics. I often wonder if precious racing artifacts like this body buck for the Daytona Coupe are sitting under a tarp in a forgotten corner of a forgotten warehouse.
Whenever I see the wooden grid of one of these body bucks, or even a clay blank for a fiberglass mold, I am overcome with the desire to learn how to do this. via The Henry Ford Museum’s Dave Friedman collection.
Update: In the comments, Fab says that some of these photos are of the body buck for the AC Coupe and not the Daytona Coupe. Looking at the rear end of the buck, I think he may be right. I hate when I do that.
I’ve given up on trying to cover the on-track events at the Monterey Historics, er… I mean… Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, from several time zones away, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t follow along on Instagram. Here’s a few favorites that attendees snapped this weekend.
Instagram’s desktop experience leaves much to be desired, but you can lose yourself by searching through the Instagram API for #carweek, #pebblebeach, #montereyhistorics, and #thequail. Beware, productivity loss ahead!
This marvelous trove of images from the 1960 Italian Grand Prix not only capture the atmosphere of Monza’s pits, but are a fantastic family heirloom from the photographer.
(Update: Tony Adriaensens points out in the comments that the photographer’s name, which was somehow missing from the Ten Tenths thread is Archie Smith and that CorsaResearch will be publishing a book of his photographs—Thanks Tony!)
On the Ten Tenths forums, Cub says: “My father is the photographer. He was and remains an enthusiast for all motor sports. My mother worked in a photography shop and had access to early colour film and bought him a Voigtlander 120 format camera. They embarked on many, many adventures to various locations across Europe at a time when few people choose to drive around the continent for holidays. All of his slides are glass mounted but with rapidly deteriorating and very sticky taped edges.”
Hans Herrmann’s Porsche gets a push. Monza, 1960.
And with that, he leads us through the fantastic images his father captured 50 years ago. That he’s scanning these images to preserve them is wonderful, but sharing them with us and the readers on the Ten Tenths forum is truly a public service to vintage racing fans—particularly when so many photographers are increasingly reluctant to share their photos online. Head on over to the thread for more.
Cindy sent in this photo belonging to a friend of hers looking for more information. The caption gives the vital details—“Wagner in 100 HP Darracq making a last turn at Krug’s Corner in the Vanderbilt Cup Race”. Well, that should make it easy enough. Minneola, New York’s Krug Hotel marked the 11th turn of the Vanderbilt Circuit in a few of the races. But which Vanderbilt was it? (I know that the circuit changed frequently so someone more knowledgeable on the Vanderbilt races might be able to pinpoint the year just based on the corner naming)
Louis Wagner competed in the 1905 and 1906 races for the Darracq team. He also had a handful of races in Europe with Darracq: He had class wins in 1903 and 1905 at the Circuit des Ardennes Race and Belgium; placed third among voiturettes at the deadly Paris-Madrid Race; and competed in the 1907 Targa Florio. It was the Targa that finally brought Wagner’s long relationship with Darracq to an end. After working as a mechanic for the maker in his teens and racing them in his twenties, Darracq claimed that the differential failure during the 1907 Targa was Wagner’s fault and he abruptly left the team.
Getting back to the photo though, even though we don’t clearly see the large #10s that adorned the grill of the 1906 car, this looks very like the Darracq that he won the 1906 Vanderbilt with alongside riding mechanician Louis Vivet.
Lotus slides through turn 3 at the 1959 Examiner Grand Prix at Pomona
I’m sure that, like me, you’ve found your time disappearing in the Dave Friedman collection at The Henry Ford Museum’s Flickr archive time hole. I’ll be highlighting some favorite sets from the archive over the next few weeks, and what better place to start than the feather in Pomona’s cap: The 1959 Los Angeles Examiner International Grand Prix.
Formula class at the 1959 Examiner Grand Prix at Pomona
The 150 mile March ’59 event was the largest race ever held at the LA County Fairgrounds circuit and was the first stop on the USAC championship that year. 40,000 spectators saw Ken Miles win the main event in his #50 Porsche 550 with Sam Weiss not far behind in an RSK, both finishing ahead of larger Ferraris, Maseratis, and Chuck Daigh in the Kurtis 500 Buick special.
Race winner Ken Miles at the 1959 Examiner Grand Prix at Pomona
Miles may have won the day with a 35 second margin but it wasn’t exactly a walk away win. Bill Krause blew a tire and spun his Maserati 450S on turn 4 of the 73rd lap of the 75 lap race, letting Ken Miles’ 550 make off with the $15,000 purse. Krause would ultimately limp home in 4th place—an impressive enough feat on its own. The race also might have been very different if Dan Gurney’s Ferrari 375 that he put on pole and led with for the first third of the race hadn’t had a camshaft failure.
More photos from the collection on The Henry Ford’s Flickr.
At first glance I thought it was sunny on the Monza banking, and cloudy on the straight—but of course that straight line separating the two shows how ridiculous I was. Then it occurred to me that this dramatic shift in color is the transition from the concrete surface of the banking to the asphalt surface of the start-finish straight. Quite an abrupt transition that must have been felt by the drivers coming out of the extreme suspension distress and jarring bumps between sections of the banking.
