Tell us about the greatest track in the world won’t you, Sir Jackie.
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Category: Video
285 Horses! I’m impressed.
Maybe I’m feeling a little nostalgic in the approaching Holiday season. I was about 7 or 8 years old and sitting at the south side of Hart Plaza with my fingers in my ears. If only I’d understood. It wasn’t until years later that punk rock taught me that loud = good. For engines too.
After the race weekend, my dad was able to grab one of those Renault Elf banners you see lining the track. It hung for a couple of years from my ceiling, eventually tearing. It’s near the top of my list of things I wish I’d kept from childhood.
Here’s an even earlier glimpse at the Porsche factory, this time from the 356 era. When did TV announcers stop having that voice?
The barchetta equation (small displacement + light weight = good fun) works for motorcycles too.
This video of the 1966 Can Am race at the Vegas Stardust track starts off with a bang, showing onboard footage of the track from a variety of the competitors’ cars.
Sadly, the rapid expansion of the Las Vegas area in the decades since means that the Stardust raceway has been razed and the land is now a housing development. At least the videos still survive.
And the cars.
I’ll always have an appreciation for Chaparral’s gigantic winged beasts, but the Lolas in this clip really do it for me.
Here you are, perched on the dash of Cameron Healy’s Porsche 908 for a few laps around Daytona at the 2007 Rennsport Reunion. This example, 908-010, has a short, but storied history with the factory. It competed in only one race; but it was a very wet Spa 1000km. It finished only 34 laps in that race; but Vic Elford drove 32 of them. After handing off the car to co-driver Jochen Neerpasch, the car quickly met with a telephone pole.
Here’s what Quick Vic tells us about the ’68 Spa race:
“The weather invariably plays a part at Spa; it is almost guaranteed to rain at some time during a race weekend. And this weekend was no exception.
After mixed weather for two days of practice and qualifying, Sunday dawned with rain. It would last all day. I drove the first stint and then handed over to Jochen as the rain continued bucketing down. After just a couple of laps he didn’t pass the pits. Since communications in those days were minimal, it was a while before we learned what had happened. On the very fast, sweeping downhill esses at Malmedy, Jachen had slid off the road and knocked down a telegraph pole, part of which then came in through the passenger side window and hit his crash helmet, knocking him out. Fortunately, the car stopped safely at the edge of the road. Jochen was removed and spent the night in the hospital with a slight concussion but no other injuries”
From that afternoon in 1968 until the late 1990’s, the car was stored in Porsche’s warehouse until sold to a US buyer and restored in time for the 2004 Rennsport. It’s now made its way out to Portland and competes along the West Coast.
More info and photos of 908-010 here and here.
Mexican road racing offered more than just the Panamericana, my friends. This is the temporary street course created for the 1968 Tijuana Internaccional races. The program included Formula Ford and Vee races, as well as production based classes – and even featured a LeMans style running start. ¡Me Gusta!
Hand drawn is almost always best, don’t you think? And when in doubt, add some Speed Racer-esque accent illustrations.
Here’s some video from the same venue a few years later. Fabulous projected 8mm film cans, complete with projector fan noise and voice commentary from the driver.
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LeMans 1966 as Told by the Drivers
This clip of 1966 LeMans highlights, which looks to have been pulled from an episode of Legends of Motorsport (where’s a Legends of Motorsport DVD box set, Speed Channel?) has some very nice details, including voice over narration from Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, John Surtees, and Carroll Shelby.
The absolute highlight, though, has to be the footage of the go-kart racing on the carnival midway starting about 3.5 minutes in. Excellent footage of some 9 or 10 year old boys sprinting and leaping into their sportscar bodied karts complete with bucket crash helmets and miniature Dunlop blues. The voice over by John Wyer, while they race is describing the race at LeMans, but meshes very well with the karting action. Great stuff.
Whew. That’s a lot of supercharged horses getting ready for the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Imagine the feeling of the vibration in the air standing this close to it.
Just fantastic.