Elegant sporting. Sporting Elegance. Porsche.
Props to the advertising department for choosing a career woman rather than more stereotypical arm-candy. Perhaps he’s the arm-candy.
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Sportiva Elegante
Category: Porsche
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A Legend I Hope is True
Hans Herrmann’s bravery behind the wheel has never been questioned. It certainly wasn’t after the 1954 Mille Miglia when Hans was driving as a railroad crossing just outside of Brescia dropped it’s gate. Judging that there wasn’t sufficient time to stop, Herrmann signalled his navigator, Porsche engineer Herbert Linge, and they ducked their heads beneath the gate as they sped through. It’s almost too Hollywood to believe. Although my hope is that this artist’s interpretation of the event shows the train closer than it actually was, this is how I imagine it as well.
Motorsport is filled with undocumented moments of heroism. That there is no photograph of this unbelievable moment of bravery (or foolishness) is a great shame and makes me wonder what other unseen feats have not been as well remembered as this incident at the railroad crossing.
This was the year of The Flying Finn’s 33 minute 36 second lap. There’s something equally magical and heartbreaking about a record that cannot be broken—Leo Kinnunen’s 79.89 mph average lap of the Targa will never be beaten.
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Porsche Classic Restores a 911T
The team at Porsche Classic, in conjunction with the Porsche Club of America, are restoring a well worn patinaed beat to shit 1973 911T to be raffled off at the August 2011 Porsche Parade. Unlike their usual projects restoring vintage Porsches, they’re documenting the restoration and sharing it on porsche.com. The team recently posted some updates and this series of photos illustrating the gearbox spread out for rebuild are simply gorgeous. Gearboxes are notoriously fear-inducing, but when you lay everything out like this it looks like a manageable, albeit puzzling task.
via Things Organized Neatly
Imagine the nerves that a 17-year-old (!) Ricardo Rodriguez must have felt climbing into his Porsche RSK Spyder for round 3 of the USAC Road Racing Championship at Meadowdale Raceways on May 31, 1959. Imagine how you’d have felt at 17, waiting for the start of the race, thinking of the daunting nature of the track with it’s Monza-style banking and lack of runoff areas. Now realize that Ricardo probably didn’t feel any of that because he was Ricardo Rodriguez. Even after he rolled the Porsche near the silo turn, he attempted to enlist the help of corner workers to right the car so he could continue.
The race report at Chicagoland Sports Car Club Memories sums up the performance of the then relatively unknown Mexican driver nicely.
“That young Mexican we mentioned was 17-year-old Ricardo Rodriguez of Mexico City. His astonishing ability as a driver had almost every one cheering him along as the David chasing the Goliath. Certainly all we had heard about this lad’s ability was founded on fact. He certainly proved it here at Meadowdale. It was unfortunate that he ‘lost it’ coming through a turn at the northeast corner of the track. While he flipped and completely rolled over in the car, he was able to crawl out from under with only minor bruises. Rodriguez was a comfortable second place and challenging the leader when he went out of the race.”
Chicagoland Sportscar Club Race Report
From the brochure for the Porsche 917:
Porsche Approaches the Higher Limit of Cylinder Capacity.
Since 1967 the limit of the cylinder capacity for the World Championship Endurance races has been 3000 c.c. for sports prototypes and 5000 c.c. for homologated sports cars with a minimum production of 25 items in twelve consecutive months.
Previously, the cylinder capacity of 5000 c.c. was fully utilized only in sports cars with engines of American origin. At the 1969 Geneva Motor Show, Porsche will be the first European automobile factory to present a large-volume sports car, the type 917, which is to be homologated by the F.I.A. (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) at the beginning of the current racing season for the classic endurance races.
The 917 has the largest cylinder capacity and is the fastest Porsche which has ever been built. Particularly remarkable is the fact that it is not an experimental model but a real production car. This, because on March 31st 25 cars will be finished and ready to race.
With a top speed of over 320 KPH, a maximum performance of 520 HP, and a body designed in acoordance with the latest aerodynamic principles, the 917 ranks among the high points of the 1969 automobile year.
See the complete scans of Porsche’s 917 brochure at the Old Car Manual Project
TG-1514 as raced by Ernst “Hunter” Seiler in 1969.
Bob Tilton’s photo of TG-1514 on Werk Crew, and to be included in his upcoming Porschegasm text, Book One.
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Pinstripes and Porsches
While it may lack the enthusiasm and exuberance of our last look at fashion shoots with racing cars, I have to give Visvim credit for pairing this Carrera RS and 910 with their Spring collection which clearly draws inspiration from the era. The styling and fits are a little dainty for my tastes (I’d like to see these fellows try and climb into the 910 in pants this tight!), but the overall shoot is very nicely done—if a bit sterile. I don’t know when art directors decided that modernity and beauty were best illustrated through disaffected boredom.The 1967 Vogue drag strip shoot is all the more exciting and fun because it captures an atmosphere, it captures excitement, and it captures emotion.
That said, the collection itself has some very nice pieces that jibe well with the vintage racing aesthetic. Their take on a racing jacket meets Baracuta is quite nice in this photo. The highlight of the collection, for me, is the racing boot. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a driving shoe that isn’t in brash colors and heavily logoed, but still looks like a competition boot rather than a driving moccasin. I’d like them even more if they were a true driving shoe, what’s with this little heel and lack of tread on the heel?
The 1967 Vogue drag strip shoot is all the more exciting and fun because it captures an atmosphere, it captures excitement, and it captures emotion.
That said, the collection itself has some very nice pieces that jibe well with the vintage racing aesthetic. Their take on a racing jacket meets Baracuta is quite nice in this photo. The highlight of the collection, for me, is the racing boot. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a driving shoe that isn’t in brash colors and heavily logoed, but still looks like a competition boot rather than a driving moccasin. I’d like them even more if they were a true driving shoe, what’s with this little heel and lack of tread on the heel?
More images from this shoot at CadmusFamily.
I’m not the only one who doesn’t tire of Porsche 550 Spyder footage, am I?
This must be a fairly contemporary production as it features Porsche’s current voice-over talent, who I’ve always found to be a bit overly dramatic. But who am I to complain when the film footage is this good? Seeing the clay models of the 550 and the technicians crafting the 4-cam engine is a treat.
via Hell for Motors
Riding along with Andy Prill here is as close as I’m likely to come to taking hold of the wheel of a 550 for the revival. Wonderful!
While we’re at it, let’s have Andy give us a tour of 550-016, shall we?