Doug Nye says it best: “As 550 chassis 01 it can be described as being the first purpose built competition Porsche”.
Category: Video
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New Racing “Video” Game
Artist Malte Jehmlich’s created a physical world “video” game where a player sits in a console watching the POV camera mounted on an RC car driving around a cardboard track in the next room. The fact that he labeled the cabinet “Nürburgring Power-Slide” sealed the deal on me featuring it here.
via.
It’s been several months since we last wrote about the F1-67 project and their modern reproduction of a 1967 spec Formula 1 car (with cheap and plentiful smallblock Chevy power). I still love the idea, and hope that Stuart Taylor Motorsports sells the hell out of them. A spec series of these brilliant little machines would be endlessly entertaining—certainly more entertaining than modern Formula 1.
What I’ve missed in the interim are these videos that the development team have created during track days with the car. You can bet the other drivers on the track weren’t having as much fun as the driver of this wonderful car.
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Fangio v. Brabham
Just because you retire doesn’t mean your competitive spirit retires. What starts as a simple 4 lap demonstration at the 1978 Australian GP at Sandown quickly becomes a full on race as two drivers in two cars from two eras test their mettle. The 5-times world champion seems to strike first, pushing his W196 Mercedes Benz ahead of the 3-time world champion’s 12-years-newer Repco Brabham. The Benz seems to have the top speed, but the Brabham can outbrake it all day long. An astounding clip.
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A Spin Around Spa, circa 1958
Who wants to run a lap around Spa-Francorchamps during the 1958 Grand Prix d’Europe?
Birdcage and Lister and Corvette, oh my!
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1937 GP Season on Film
In the comments on the ’36 Monaco post, Miguel pointed out this 16 minute two-part film compilation of the 1937 GP season, which definitely deserves its own post. Thanks for finding this beauty, Miguel!
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Monaco Grand Prix 1936-37
Most of the prewar footage of Grands Prix that I come across are very short; a minute or two. The days of endlessly long recording time were still quite a ways off, particularly for cameras small enough to report trackside. As a result, we have precious little footage of Nuvolari or Caracciola. By these standards this wonderful clip is an epic film at 2 minutes and change.
It’s in clips like that that the legend of Monaco really shines. If this were any other track (except maybe Indianapolis) it would be so marred by change that this footage would be unrecognizable. Thankfully, the shots of the tunnel or Station Hairpin have meaning to us today. These aren’t simply clips of brave men careening through city streets, they’re the pioneers that allowed Jenson and Hamilton to round these same corners today. If not for these early GP giants, Monaco would have long since been replaced.
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Talbot-Lago T26 in Action
A marvelous clip of a different car than the ex-Grignard example coming up for auction that we saw earlier, complete with wonderful Talbot history from Richard Pilkington. He highlights another aspect of this era that is so appealing. Take this grand prix car, add motorcycle fenders and a pair of headlights and—presto!—sportscar racing eligible car. Imagine throwing a set of fenders on a modern F1 car and entering it in LeMans. Magnifique!
The swan song of the great Italian race bike makers, 1976 was in the middle of the transition to Japanese maker dominance. But let’s raise our glasses for the Guzzis, Agustas, and Gileras.