Here’s something you aren’t likely to see again: A team owner and his pit crew rebuilding a gearbox in pit lane.
Just because Colin Chapman was in a shirt and tie doesn’t mean he couldn’t get his hands dirty in a Hewland from time to time.
Category: Historic Racing Photos
Man, it’s been a rough few months for vintage motoring enthusiasts.
Salvadori is perhaps best known for his 1959 LeMans victory sharing an Aston with Caroll Shelby but his long career included races in all manner of cars. From Formula cars to Touring, to Sports Racing, to… Hell… anything with wheels, “Salvo” was an intimidating competitor and well liked racer.
The BRDC’s notice summarizes his career in concise terms, which might seem incongruous with the enormous variety of successes that he achieved: “He established outright or Class records for every circuit he raced on in England and won 98 races during his career, including the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour race in an Aston Martin DBR1, co-driving with Carroll Shelby.”
Not many drivers from those days make it to 90, and Roy was nearly one of those statistics. He had two serious crashes at Silverstone 4 years apart. After a roll at Stowe Corner in 1951, Salvo suffered a severe head injury which resulted in lifelong hearing loss in one ear and tinnitus in the other. Again at Stowe, this time behind the wheel of a Maserati 250F in 1955, Roy’s crash was so gruesome and his prognosis so poor he was administered last rites.
In today’s racing environment when drivers are so specialized, it’s difficult to comprehend Roy Salvadori’s variety. Again from the BRDC notice: “At the Goodwood International Easter Meeting in 1955 he won the F1 Glover Trophy race in a Maserati 250F, the Chichester Cup for F2 cars in a Connaught and the Sports Car race in an Aston Martin. Furthermore, he was second in the other two races that he entered that day.”
Truly a great racing driver, and a truly great loss.
Here’s an interview Roy did with Cars for the Connoisseur in 2003.
Categories
Formula Vee. Nassau. 1964.
Usually when I can’t identify much in a photo, it languishes on my hard drive waiting for the day that I can turn up something meaningful to share about it. This one, though, I haven’t been able to bring myself to just let it sit.
I’ve rummaged through race results, searched on the Googles for anything I can dig up… It haunts me for some reason. I think it’s because I just love this notion of waking up in the morning in a seaside hotel, hopping in the Vee and driving her across town to the pits to get ready for the afternoon’s main event.
It’s a simple enough scenario, but this idea of racing cars on the street among everyday traffic is just so foreign and thrilling to my contemporary eyes that it conjures a romantic sentiment that I can’t easily shake.
I’ve had no luck finding Formula Vee results from any of the Bahamas Speed Weeks. This photo from the Henry Ford Museum Flickr stream says it was 1964. Anyone recognize the driver?
Categories
Just Park Her Anywhere
Check out the spectator parking on the outside of a turn at the ’73 Targa Florio. With safety standards like this, it’s little wonder that this was the last proper Targa.
Race winning Martini entry piloted by Herbert Müller/Gijs van Lennep wiggles around this parking lot in their 911RSR with little effort, but even this minor inconvenience in the Sicilian mountains would test my nerve.
Just look at the track’s edge in this clip from the Targa of the same year (and from the wheel of another 911RSR: #113).
Hat tip to That911 for the photo.
Categories
$7,000 Well Spent
Sign me up.
From yesterday’s shots of the ’67 LeMans—perhaps the biggest sportscar race in the world—to today’s snaps from a regional track in the midwest; there’s virtually no end to the historic images and stories that drive our sickness passion for vintage racing.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Waterford Hills Road Racing course. This was my home track growing up. It was where I saw my first club racing and my first vintage racing. I vividly remember 911s and even VW Golfs lifting a wheel at the crest of Hilltop Turn; and seeing more than a few cars lift 2 and sometimes 4 wheels if they overcooked it. That was it. I was hooked. So when Cliff pointed me to these Jerry Melton photographs from the June, 1968 SCCA Regionals at my beloved Waterford, I couldn’t just keep them to myself—could I?
I can’t resist sharing one more: Many of us know Garret Van Camp through his dominance in Formula Vee. It’s marvelous to see him in his earlier incarnation racing a Porsche Speedster. Check out that strap to the roll bar holding the door shut!
I’d seen Formula 1 cars thunder down the closed city streets of Detroit, their cacophonous engine notes echoing off the windows of the Pontchartrain Hotel and reverberating through Atwater Tunnel. But it was these smaller club events at local tracks that made me a lifelong racing fan. Even today, it’s these regional events that give me the greater thrill. A thrill that Jerry has managed to capture beautifully in these images from the June ’68 SCCA Regionals. Check out more of Jerry Melton’s archives on Etceterini.
With the Ford/Ferrari wars in full swing, it was already bound to be a fantastic June day—and night. Add Jim Hall’s newfangled adjustable wing and air-damn equipped Chaparral 2F and a “throw ’em all in there” 906/907/910 field from Team Porsche and who knows what could happen?
JYHelbe was all over Le Sarthe, and found a handful of choice angles to capture the action. This is but a taste; check out the complete set for more.
Maybe it’s because I’ve seen too many Noire movies; or read too many detective novels; or played too much LA Noire on Playstation; but I love the notion of Downtown Los Angeles being the epicenter of the city’s life. There’s a certain amount of wonder in old photos of Downtown LA thronged with people and streetcars and traffic. It makes LA feel like more of a city-city, which is something that occurs to almost no one today (with the possible exception of some Angelenos).
The caption on this photo said 1927, but that can’t be right, can it? This parade of racing machines running through town—perhaps to publicize the weekend’s dirt track race—seems more like early to mid 30’s. Those look to my eyes to be ’31—’34 roadster rear ends. I’ve scoured the Marquees along the streetside for some clue that might narrow in on a date, but I’ve turned up nothing. What do you think?
I’ve visited LA many times, but I don’t think I’ve ever crossed into downtown. Perhaps I’m missing out.
Photo via this incredible LA Photographic history thread on Skyscraper City.
Seeing the mighty Daytona Coupe in her bare aluminum bodywork in these Shelby American publicity photos from 1964 makes me sympathize with these engineers and mechanics. They must have been filled with trepidation for the coming season. This being Shelby American, I’m sure they didn’t show it. But although their heads must have been dancing with the possibility, they couldn’t have known that this intoxicating machine they were assembling were about to become a legend.
Presumably this is CSX2287—the prototype—being gingerly pieced together at Shelby’s Venice workshop. If I’m right, it wouldn’t be long before this machine would the piloted by Phil Hill, by Dave MacDonald, by Bob Holbert, by Innes Ireland…. and the list goes on.
If this is indeed the prototype, Wikipedia says that this gorgeous piece of American muscle exited her career with a little vacation that earned her 25 USAC/FIA world records on the Bonneville Salt Flats. That, my friends, is a proper retirement party for a racing car; particularly an American racing car.
Regardless, it’s marvelous to see things humming inside the Shelby Workshops.
via Nigel Smuckatelli’s brilliant Flickr Stream.
This sequence of images of a Porsche 718 RSK going shiny side down is the kind of thing we don’t often see. Not because there weren’t horrific crashes in the era—quite the opposite—but because there simply wasn’t the kind of camera coverage we’ve come to expect today. Even the most popular events had spotty photographic coverage, nevermind film. The only reason we can see these harrowing sequence of photos from Spa today is that this event was being shot for the 1960 film L’ennemi dans l’ombre.
Take special note of the last photo. Can you believe that this driver just stood up and dusted himself off after this series of acrobatics?
More commentary on the film and this photo sequence on the Internet Movie Cars Database. From that discussion, a commenter named Dodo seems to have identified the race as the May 3, 1959 running of the Grand Prix de Spa, where Christian Heins crashed one of the three RSKs entered. Another RSK piloted by Carel Godin de Beaufort went on to win.