“No one really owns a vintage car. You’re a caretaker for a certain period of time.”
Andy Greene
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Category: Video
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Racing Simulators Are Getting Pretty Crazy
Maybe not exactly vintage, but if you can sim-race a Nürburgring this realistic in a GTR, you can do it in a DB3. This is seriously great.
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Ingenuity in Action
I’ll admit it. I was already copying the embed code for this clip before the opening credits were through.
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1952 Watkins Glen
As precious and rare as it is for these types of videos to surface, it makes it all the more disheartening when they’re pulled from YouTube. Looking back through the archives, I was saddened to see the marvelous footage of the 1951 Watkins Glen GP that we featured in a post earlier in the year has been pulled.
In the interests of maintaining a consistent level of Watkins Glen video on the site, I felt compelled to dig into the YouTubes to find a suitable replacement. This home-movie of the ’52 race should fit the bill nicely.
John McFarland says, “Here is some really cool video shot back in 1952 (nearest I can figure from cars/numbers vs. program) by my Grandfather at the Watkins Glen Grand prix. The number 54 car at the end of the video is a Cunningham (sick!). The races were held on September 19-20 and my Grandfather was filming with experimental color film from Kodak. Color home movie footage of the racing in 1952 is extremely rare.”
Might want to consider hitting mute on this one as the 1952 footage and the 1979 soundtrack don’t exactly fit perfectly.
A half-hour of 1959 Road America footage? Yes, please.
With all the changes that happened to America’s great racing courses over the years, I am reminded what a treasure Road America remains. Riding onboard this Porsche in the opening minutes of this clip, it’s plain to see how much of the course is virtually unchanged. Turn 5 is still harrowing, complete with a little wiggle as we close the gap on another driver. We need some radical correction as we overcook it into the always tricky Turn 6, half-obscured as it is by the crest of the hill up under the Toyota Pepsi bridge.
Be sure to stick with the video until the main event, watching the Alfas of William Wuesthoff and Chuck Stoddard mix it up with the dominating Porsche Carrera GTs of Blanchard, Rickert, Collins, and Jennings might be one of the best things you do today.
We’ll go back onboard late in this video, and start overcooking it again through 5 and 6… well, at least it’s an accurate depiction of my own lines on Road America.
I still don’t know why this staccato rhythm of voiceover hasn’t make a tremendous comeback—even just for the kitsch factor.
Finishing order and more for the June 1959 Class F/G/H/I/J race at Racing Sports Cars.
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A Racing Mini Reborn
Here’s something we can all get behind. Gary Snider last raced “Old Red” 30 years ago. Now, this lovely Mini is moving under her own power for the first time since. I’m so glad when these kinds of videos found they’re way online. There’s nothing like seeing a racing machine take her first ginger steps; like a newborn deer hinting at the mighty stag she’ll become. Looks to my eye like she’ll be ready to run with the rest of the VSCR next season.
Found via VSCR’s Facebook feed.
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TR3 Ragtime
Something tells me that Steve Belfer has had the engine in and out of his dad’s old vintage racing prepped Triumph TR3 a time or two.
Thanks for sending this in, Steve!
As always, please share your restorations, videos, photos, or other vintage racing stuff with us: harlo@thechicane.com.
Bugatti Design Chief, Achim Anscheidt makes a strong case for the similarities between a Porsche 911 and a fixed-gear bicycle. I’m not a fixie rider but I know more than a few and I have to agree with the man. Each of them love fixed-gear because they feel so connected to it; that the bike becomes an extension of themselves. Anscheidt’s comments suggest that it’s not just performance they’re talking about. Each bicycle is a design expression of the rider/builder. That motivation is part of what is behind this marvelous little 911R-ish lightweight hot rod.
In the past ten or fifteen years, I’ve noticed a lot of VW Beetle builders adopting the techniques and even the visual aesthetic of American hot-rodders. It’s only natural that the Porsche 911 become the next platform for this kind of experimentation. I can imagine the R Gruppe peeps among you telling me that this is nothing new, and I agree. But with Singer and Magnus and projects like Achim Anscheidt’s 911 gaining wider exposure, it is definitely on the rise.
Bonus: Anscheidt’s method for finding a tape line on a set of Fuchs is fantastic. I don’t know that I’d have thought of it but it’s such an obvious little technique. I love these kinds of restoration and customization tips.
It was supposed to be the Porsche 908s and 907s vs the new Ferrari 312P. But what are Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver doing with that old Ford?