Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Beautifully Fast. The Austin Healey.

This is an unusual picture. It shows an Austin Healey at rest; and that is one thing this magnificent sports car rarely is. For when you think of an Austin Healey, you think of beauty in action. You think of an immensely powerful sports car going ahead like streak lightning. You think of a speedometer that goes 70… 80… 90…. 100 and more. You think of the sheer excitement and exhilaration of being at the wheel of a record-breaker.

But the Austin Healey is not only beautiful to watch and beautiful to drive. The car itself isa beautiful engineering and design job. Its surging power comes from a superb 2.5 litre O.H.V. engine. Its wonderfully finished body is build on aerodynamic lines for speed. Its controls (one of the results of racing experience) are handily placed for sports driving. Its boot is particularly large for this kind of car. One final word. The upholstery is real leather, the carpeting is luxurious, the accessories are part and parcel of the standard equipment. Considering all this and the class of the car, the price of the Austin Healey is remarkably reasonable: £806 plus £401.

Austin Healey

The Austin Motor Company Limited. Longbridge, Birmingham.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

A Rarin’ Reality with ACs

Dream-car performance… a rarin’ reality with ACs!

When advance engineers give the nod to a spark plug for their experimental babies it has to be the best. ACs are standard equipment on the experimental Shark. The same AC Fire-Ring Spark Plugs can soup up your starts and straightaways. One reason: AC’s tapered insulator tip — it heats faster, cools faster, cleans itself—no conking out due to fouling deposits. Regardless of what type of car you drive, ask for ACtion…ask for AC.

The XP-755 Chevrolet Corvette Shark: 102.1″ wheelbase, 192.2″ overall, 327 cubic-inch displacement, V-8 engine featuring Roots-type supercharger, 4 side-draft carburetors and developing over 400 horsepower.

That double-bubble roof on this ‘Vette concept is dead sexy.

Categories
Racing Ephemera Vintage Racing Advertising

Look! A Racer

Dinky Toy Race Car Ad

What a fine little model it is—a perfect miniature of the Cooper-Bristol racing car. There are many others as realistic and fascinating in the wide range of Dinky Toys. See the selection at your dealers.

—Always ready for more: Dinky Toys.

Made in England by Meccano LTD.

Via Jack Matthews at the Vintage Road Racing Archive.

Categories
Ferrari Vintage Racing Advertising

Champions du Monde 1958

This is a pretty casual look for Mike Hawthorn, who was known to race with a shirt and tie under his driving suit.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Quick Little Hotshot

You’re not likely to ever again see an ad that touts the 51 MPH performance of their racing machine.

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Austin-Healey 100 Available for Your Inspection

About once every twenty years a motor car appears that is truly exciting! The new Austin Healey 100, acclaimed “The Sports Car ofthe Year,” is just such a car. Now we have it for your inspection.
Consider these specifications: Speed: Capable of 110 miles per hour! Acceleration: 0-60 m.p.h. in 10.5 seconds! Mileage: Up to 25 miles per gallon. Record-breaking Austin A-90 overhead valve engine has twin S.U. carburetors. Synchromesh transmission has three forward speeds plus overdrive! Wire-spoke knock-on wheels. Adjustable windshield. Heater. Defroster. Tonneau Cover. Tachometer. And all these wonderful custom features cost you absolutely nothing extra!
Best of all – this magnificent motor car sells for only $2,985 including Federal taxes!

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Champion impulsaron dos victorias

This Carrera Panamericana Champion spark plugs ad doesn’t even require translating it from Spanish to recognize how fantastic it is. Advertising creatives take note: Sometimes illustration just works better than photography

Categories
Vintage Racing Advertising

Thanks for my Life

“Thanks for my life…” says Gordon MacKenzie: leading racing driver.
Gordon MacKenzie tells how his GenTex crash helmet saved his life!

GenTex helmets is still around, but mostly focused on military helmets.

Categories
Porsche Vintage Racing Advertising

A Friend is More than a Fiberglass Top

Our mid-engine car is a fair-weather friend that won’t let you down in foul weather. On sunny days, the top snaps off in less than a minute, stores under the rear trunk lid and takes up almost no room at all. On rainy days the top locks back on almost as fast. And because it’s fiberglass, it won’t leak or rip. Unlike fabric.
But a friend is more than a fiberglass top. First of all, it’s a two-seater in the classic sports car tradition.
And right behind the two seats is an engine in our race car tradition.
The mid-engine concept gives the Porsche 914 a whole bundle of advantages over ordinary cars.
It holds the road better because its centre of gravity is lower.
It corners better, because there’s no heavy frond end to steer and no heavy back end to slide out.
It brakes faster and saves tire life because all the wheels carry a more equal load.
It also comes with a built-in roll bar, electronic fuel injection, 5 speed synchromesh transmission and two trunks.
Best of all, you can get all of this for a whole lot less than you would expect to pay to own a Porsche. Really.
But don’t just settle for an impression from an ad. Test drive the Porsche 914 yourself. Swing it into a few corners. Pop off the fiberglass top.
You’ll see the light.

Categories
Ferrari Vintage Racing Advertising

Uninterrupted Strain of Instantaneous Acceleration

Enzo Ferrari for Champion
“Brilliant Italian Race Car Manufacturer Pays Tribute to Dependable Champion Spark Plugs
‘The victory /of Alberto Ascari in one of our Ferrari cars in the 22nd Grand Prix of Italy at 115.547 miles per hour average, established new all-time records for the Monza track, and also established the highest speed attained in European circuits. This 4½ litre 12-cylinder Grand Prix Ferrari was equipped with 24 Champion Spark Plugs which withstood perfectly the uninterrupted strain of instantaneous acceleration and equally instaneous deceleration demanded by European type of racing tracks. At Monza, as on most European race courses, sharp turns and severe braking alternate with straight stretches where flat out speed is possible. We attribute a great deal of the merit of our success in the Grand Prix of England, Grand Prix of Germany, Grand Prix of Italy and the Monza Pan-American Race to the magnificent performance and unfailing dependability of Champion Spark Plugs.’
—Enzo Ferrari
Follow the Experts
Demand Dependable Champions for your Car.”

Hard to imagine Enzo actually saying any of these things.
via Just A Car Guy.