Thankfully, more and more old home racing movies are being pushed onto YouTube. This time, it’s a double whammy of some early Road America laps and a hillclimb in Rockford, IL. We also get a little time under the hood with a favorite of mine, the Austin-Healey 100.
If this jacket didn’t have the modern Aston-Martin logo on it, I’d already be wearing it. It’s dead solid perfect. Even more than Shell’s Magic of Motoring collection, this year’s clothing collection that classic British menswear label Hackett has created for Aston Martin’s LeMans effort embodies the kind of vintage-racing inspired clothing I’d like to see more of. The Aston Martin Racing Motoplan Jacket is available from Hackett’s online store for £300 alongside the rest of their Aston-Martin line.
The 59 on the chest, of course, commemorates Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvatori’s surprise victory for Aston-Martin in 1959 behind the wheel of a DBR1. This year, Aston is hoping to take outright victory again, and with Audi heavily scaling back it’s racing effort this year, it’ll be their best chance yet.
Often when you say that a car is ex-racing driver it means that a driver of some note once piloted the machine. By that definition, this is certainly an Ex-Graham Hill. Very rarely however, can that same term be used to describe both the driver and the builder of a racing car. But that, amazingly, is the case with this very special Lotus 11. Graham Hill built this car with his own hands from a Colin Chapman supplied kit in April and May of 1956.
Hill was an employee of Chapman’s at the time, toiling by day at Lotus Engineering as a mechanic in order to stay close to the racing scene he loved so dearly. Hill had been racing for some time by ’56, but lacked the funds to keep a car together on his own. Taking a day job at Lotus was a great way to be in earshot of an opportunity at some seat time. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Old Colin Chapman kept Hill on for the very same reason.
Hill campaigned this Lotus 11 in the Autosport Production series as a works car. Chapman provided the kit, but maintained sufficient ownership of the car for her to run as a works machine: making this a very busy 11 indeed. Hill put her on the podium 9 times in ’56, winning 4 races (Hill must’ve loved Brands Hatch, it was the location of all of his wins in this car that year). The car’s work, however, wasn’t done there. Chassis #208 was also the factory’s show car and press mule. And, it is speculated, served as Hill’s road car for the drives to and from the races.
Ian Walker purchased #208 in 1957 and competed with a swapped engine. Eventually the car fell out of competition. Now, however, the car is reunited with her original 1,172cc side-valve and is fresh off a masterful Mike Brotherwood restoration and fantastic, patinad coachwork and paint by Sovereign Coachworks. Together they’ve done a tremendous job of making a complete restoration look lived in and not over-restored. Jan Lühn now offers the car. An amazing vehicle with fantastic history that will surely give the buyer entry in to the races of his choice.
Further reading:
Jan Lühn has photos, with more information to come.
Sovereign Coachworks also features a gallery of the bodywork. Wonderful.
Californians! Get up to Riverside this weekend (March 27-29) for the Legends of Riverside Film Festival. I’m quite envious and saddened that I won’t be able to attend what looks like a fantastic schedule of racing films; many of which I’ve never seen or even heard of.
It’s not all esoterics, of course, also on the schedule are the Canon of car nerd films, including LeMans, Winning, Death Race 2000, Thunder Road, and the Big Wheel. There will also be a special tribute to Paul Newman and his incredible history as a racer and actor.
Can-Am and F5000 cars will be featured on display and special guests include Pete Lyons, Bruce Kessler, and Dan Gurney. Holy smokes!
I may not be able to attend, but I’ll have to support by screening a few of my favorite flicks this weekend.
As we start to reassemble Paul’s Vee (hopefully) in time for this year’s Spring Brake, I realized that I didn’t have a good technique for safety wiring.
Jimmy’s Garage to the rescue.
Amazon offers a starter kit 
I’m really trying, but I can’t think of a good reason why there aren’t any airstrip races anymore. Think about it. They have fire departments on site, have long and flat paved surfaces designed for high speed, plenty of runoff room, have neighbors that are used to loud noise, and are insured up to their eyeballs. I know, I prefer a track with a bit of elevation changes myself, but beggars can’t be choosers.
The Santa Barbara airport hosted many sportscar races from 1953 to 1967. It’s proximity to Los Angeles meant that all of our favorite actor/racers drove there—many quite successfully. McQueen ran here, James Dean too..
Here’s some wonderful footage of the 1962 race. Check out Don Hulette’s Townsend Special Mk. II bearing race number 404.
A 1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe serial number CSX2601 finally gives Mecum Auctions a car worthy of the hilarious over-enthusiasm of their Ring Men. Seriously. Watch a single episode of Mecum Auto Auctions: Muscle and More. As far as I can tell, it’s a show about guys with over-gelled hair jumping up and down; with an occasional shot of a muscle car.
The car is a true treasure, especially for American enthusiasts. Bob Bondurant piloted CSX2601 to class victory at Rheims 12 Hours on July 4, 1965—fitting, eh? That class win clinched the Worlds Sportscar Championship for GT+2. The interwebs are all abuzz about the possibility that CSX2601 may bring in the highest ever price for a car at auction, with estimates in 8 figures. Of course, other web sources are speculating that Ferrari Testa Rossa chassis no. 0714TR, also being auctioned this May will be the top draw. I’ll leave that speculation to them.
The Shelby has the more important race history, clinching the World Sportscar title isn’t something to take lightly. The car was driven to 5 class wins and a 3rd overall finish at the 1965 Coppa Citta di Enna behind a pair of Ferrari 250 LMs. She was entered in 8 races, all of them World Championship events, finishing 6, taking class victory in 5. That’s a very good history in anyone’s book.
In contrast, the Ferrari was entered in 34 races, taking class victories in 4, with a highest result of 4th in her debut: the 1958 Argentina 1000km.
Only time will tell which of these remarkable cars will take the top money. I must admit that I have less interest than many online speculators on the actual dollar value these very different, but significant cars bring in.
Either way, I lose. I take consolation, however, that even without the 8 figure investment, I can still get my own. Sorta.
Update:
Rumor has it that CSX2601 failed to sell on Friday night, with bidding stalling out around $6.8Million; well below reserve. Mecum folks have said that they had several bidders with $10Million lines of credit that failed to bid at all. What kind of world do we live in when a handful of Ferraris can bring in much more money that this tremendous Daytona Coupe?
The narration isn’t so hot, but I’m not one to turn down footage of my beloved 550.
Update: Watching this again this morning, I particularly find hilarious the narrator’s insistance in saying “Five Hundred Fifty” and “Three Hundred Fifty-Six”. Does she refer to the 911 as the “Nine Hundred Eleven”?
Here in the midwest, we’ve just been hit with another battering of snow. At least I can comfort myself with the knowledge that British Colombia has been getting it worse. In a way though, they’re the lucky ones. At least they have the Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure to look forward to. May 1-3 should provide a snow-free (probably) path enough for a distance run through the beauty of British Colombia. If the photos of the byways in the pre-run planning trip are anything to judge by, the scenery will be tremendous. So get your pre-’79 ride ready and tuned up, head over to their Facebook event page and hit ‘confirm’. It looks like it’ll be a hell of a good time. Send me some photos, won’t you?
By the way, where’s the link to buy the poster? It looks fantastic.
Sports Car Digest posted a lovely series of photos from the ’67 Daytona race that look fantastic. What is it about 60’s color film processing that looks so romantic?
Here’s Lorenzo Bandini looking regal, poised over the #23 Ferrari 330 P3/4 that he and Chris Amon piloted to victory that year. Looks like Ferrari had the magic for Daytona in 1967. They brought home 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with the Porsche 910s & 906s, and Ford GT40s rounding out the rest of the top ten. Bandini and Amon repeated the feat at the following stop in the World Sportscar Championship, Monza. Despite the strong start, the rest of the season belonged to Ford and Porsche with the GT40 and 910 splitting victories for most of the rest of the season.
Take a look at the rest of the set, The shots of Piper & Attwood’s dull green Ferrari P2/3 alone is worth clicking over for. Maybe it’s the color shift of the film, but the years before TV-happy color shades make this era of motorsport color palettes my favorite. You would never see a car with a dull dark green, Semi-gloss navy blue, or less-than-TV-ready shines today. It makes the era feel all the more familial somehow.
Here’s the program cover for the race; handsome, don’t you think?