Well, the much-hyped 1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe CSX2601 failed to sell at this weekend’s Mecum auction (bidding stalled at $6.8Million), but that’s no reason not to check out AutoBlog’s wonderful photo gallery of the machine on the track and off.
I’m not usually into “Crash Porn”, but this video of folks taking on the Nurburgring in their road cars demonstrates a few things: 1. road cars of the 60s and 70s were fragile and made an enormous mess when you rolled them (Except for Beetles, which look to
Green Hell, indeed.
And what’s more; the Adenauer Forest esses are still kicking people’s asses today.
Bandinis are too precious to waste, my friends. Thankfully, the crew at D&D Classics agrees. The car was quite a mess when the pulled it from an open shed in 2002. A weaker stomach would have just given up on her. The aluminum body panels were bad enough, but once they cracked the engine and gearbox, it just got worse and worse. Seriously, the photos of the gearbox internals are enough to make you ill.
This Bandini has an interesting history all it’s own. This very early single overhead cam Crosley powered version was imported to New York in ’56 and to be delivered to Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond. Sadly, Raymond was killed in a car crash before he was able to take delivery. The car sat for a year before being snatched up by Connecticut racer, George Tipsword who took the Bandini to a few podiums. The car changed hands several times before arriving in the service station of Larry Melsheimer, who held the car for 30 years waiting to restore it. Apparently, the car is still under restoration with her new owner in Germany. I’m looking forward to seeing it complete. I absolutely adore these little Bandinis.
For more on the marque, Etceterini is the definitive source.
Mark Evans hands over the restoration duties to the non-experts in the British show, Wreck Rescue. When 20 year old Lizzy takes on this absolute basket case Sprite for her first-ever restoration project, there wasn’t much to be optimistic about. She did a hell of a job though.
Part 2
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Part 5
Let’s take a spin around La Sarthe with Jonathan Palmer in his 962, shall we?
This is probably from 1987, the year Jonathan Palmer shared a car with James Weaver and Price Cobb for team Liqui Moly Equipe. They DNFed after 112 laps.
Follow along with the brave restorers at Gunnar Racing as they tackle the restoration of a mystery 917. So far it looks like it might be 917-021, but apparently Gunnar took on this project without it’s serial number plate, so they’ll be relying on additional details to help establish it’s provenance. I’m willing to give the folks at Gunnar the benefit of the doubt, they’ve restored their share of 917s in the past, as well as examples of just about every other Porsche racing model. Perhaps the mystery is the reason they’ve chosen to document the hell out of their restoration. Whatever the motivation, I’m glad to see the frequent updates. They’re 12 releases into an ongoing YouTube video series documenting the process; everything from grinding down the paint to see the history of liveries, to suspension and transmission and my-word-that’s-scary-to-take-apart removals. Coupled with reams of photos on the restoration team’s blog, this is pure Stuttgart candy. They’re hoping to debut the restored car at this year’s Monterrey Historics, I can’t wait to see how it turns out. It’s nice to not have to wait until the debut to see the car, I’ll be following along closely on their YouTube channel.
You can also follow along on the 917 discussion forum at CKnet.
Some nice old Mini footage here. Was it the only front wheel drive racing car worth a damn?
Here’s more footage — Monte Carlo Rallye 1965
This video of a Lotus 11 at VIR equipped with a Traqmate data acquisition unit is fascinating. The Traqmate system relies on a couple of core modules to provide fairly sophisticated data for your lapping. The heart of the system is a high-accuracy GPS receiver that records your vehicle’s position 4 times per second. Coupled with an accelerometer to measure speed and G-forces, the system paints a picture of your performance throughout the race. Back at your computer, mate the data to the Traqview analysis application to visualize this data overlaid on a map of the track, or when attached to a video camera, watch a video game-esque playback of your race. If your race group has several members using the system, it can marry the data from all of the participants to show the entire racing group’s performance; allowing you to swap notes with your friends on the track. The system allows you to ‘see’ your race from a completely different perspective. Neat stuff.
They also offer a variety of accessories such as bullet cameras to get good camera positioning on the car, and a module to attach your tachometer to the system to record RPM over the course of the race (as seen in the playback video above). Fantastic stuff.
The mighty Bring a Trailer is along for the ride with the California Mille. I suspect these photos are just the tip of the iceberg and that coverage will continue over the next several days. Take a look.
I’m afraid it’s true. My car sickness extends beyond the cars themselves; beyond the posters and the slot cars and the models and books. Now I’m sick with places to keep it all. I’m sure this isn’t news to most of you. This is practically a support-group for people with automotive illness.
As a result, I find myself from time to time wading through the projects at the Garage Journal forums. Most of the garages are the stuff of pure fantasy. Pole barns and hangars and “Garage Mahals” of endless square footage. Recently a call was put out on the forum for a return to normalcy—or at least a reduction in envy. “Let’s see your 2 car garage”, seems like a normal enough request.
Jack Olsen stepped up with a fantastic space to house his marvelous track car: a ’73 911 RSR tribute. The car is a beauty; built on a ’72 911 chassis, the engine bay hides a 993 power plant mated to a ’77 transaxle. She’s light too, with fiberglass bodywork and Lexan windows. Plus I’m just a sucker for the duck tail. He’s done a wonderful job on it. Especially after a decent smashup with the tire wall forced him to rethink things a bit (see the link above for the grisly photos).
But let’s look again at this great little 440 square foot car hole. I love the color palette and it’s a smart use of the space. These colors and cabinets remind me a lot of hanging out with my grandfather in his lawnmower repair shop. Does it seem like everything used to be that shade of Stanley Thermos meets Dickies coveralls green?
I also like John’s clever use of reclaimed cabinets, folding workspaces, and the idea of isolating the air compressor in the crawlspace probably helps conversations in the space. Mostly though, I like that this garage feels homemade and not like a swarm of garage contractors breezed in and manufactured perfection on the spot. It looks cared for and crafted.
Finally I can reset my garage fantasies to come back to reality a bit. Good job, Jack.