I’m still buried under a foot of snow and I’ve been able to keep the cabin fever from setting in too hard… until No Braking posted their snapshots from the Classic Sports Racing Group’s event opening their 46th(!) season.
The April 5 race weekend drew 150 vintage cars to Sonoma Raceway which looks like it offers some excellent views. Some of these grids look a bit odd, but may have been an enduro or other cross-racing group sessions. Plus I like a mixed racing group—It’s always fun to see a smaller bore Alfa on the track with a Mustang. Fantastic stuff. More photos on NoBraking.com, and check the Vintage Racing Calendar for their next event.
Monaco Cufflinks. Named for Graham Hill’s victory at the 1965 Monaco Grand Prix
All too often when men’s accessory makers attempt to introduce elements of racing into their lines the results are ham-fisted and clunky. We’ve all seen examples of wristwatches or bracelets that are overtly bedazzled with checkered flags or racing stripes or Von Dutchian flames. Eyesores, the lot of ’em.
Monza Cufflinks. Named for John Surtees’ victory at the 1964 Italian Grand Prix
When I come across a line of vintage racing-inspired accessories that are truly well designed, meticulously executed, and beautifully made, I can just feel my wallet screaming for mercy. In spite of the fact that I have almost no use at all for these gorgeous cufflinks from London silversmiths One Bond Street, I’m just such a sucker for wonderful examples of tasteful nods to historic motorsport.
Parabolica Cufflinks. Named for John Surtees’ victory at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix
I’ve struggled to tastefully showcase my own love for vintage racing in the work environment—and I work in an ad agency, where it’s perfectly fine wearing a t-shirt and ripped jeans. I can only imagine how difficult it would be for those that need to wear suits daily. Here’s where those with whiter collars than mine have one up on me. A set of cufflinks with graphics inspired by Graham Hill’s BRM, or Jim Clark’s Lotus 49, or John Surtees’ Honda RA300 are going to look much better when coupled with Hugo Boss than with Levi’s.
Silverstone Cufflinks. Named for Jim Clark’s victory at the 1967 British Grand Prix
When I conjure a Jaguar C-Type in my mind it’s always surrounded by verdant rolling hills of Spa or the green pastures of Goodwood. For some reason it never even occurred to me to imagine her in the brown and dusty roads of the Piccolo Circuito delle Madonie.
The Sicilian mountains seem to suit her though, don’t you think? Tommy Wisdom sure thought so when he took a C-Type to finish 17th at the 1953 running of the Targa Florio. You might think that 17th is nothing to brag about, but even finishing the Targa is a proud accomplishment.
Even if it weren’t chock full of fantastic Alfas, this video from Petrolicious would be worth watching just for Manuel’s story of his father catching him taking a turn with a bit too much verve.
Our earlier post about the ex-Team Tyrell championship winning 1961 Cooper T56 for sale had me wanting to see her in action. If you can find Tony Maggs’ Cooper in this very brief clip of a 1961 Monaco Formula Junior race, then you have better eyes than me. The car would have been wearing number 126 for the event.
Let’s take a moment to set aside the provenance of Steve McQueen’s car collection and the fervor that the mere mention of his name seems to send rippling through the racing community. Let’s ignore that baggage for a moment: that baggage that makes people spend one-and-a-quarter million dollars on a bone stock 911S; that baggage that makes people spend 150K on a well-worn old husky 400. Let’s ignore all that… Just for a moment. Let’s simply look at this beautiful little Cooper T56 and let her hold her own without the Hollywood associations.
Steve McQueen in his 1961 Cooper T56 Formula Junior
Let’s just look at it for what it is, because—like the 1970 911S and the 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross—this Cooper is a piece of motoring perfection that stands on its own just fine, thank you very much. Iconic design and racing lineage? Yep. There aren’t many machines with as close a familial tie to the rear-engined revolution and the Owen Maddock-designed T43 that shook open-wheeled racing to its very core when Jack Brabham took her to the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix.
Imagine the joy you would get walking up to this little piece of fantastic in your garage. Walking past that little ridge that flows along the engine cover that harkens to it’s larger cousin on the D-Type Jag and certainly to the mighty T51 that gave Cooper the constructor’s championship in 1959. Sure, you might not beat Jack Brabham’s 1959 Monaco GP fastest lap time of 1:40.4 with a 994cc BMC formula junior engine in place of the T51’s Cooper Climax. Then again, with the better tires you’d be running today, you might get close.
Steve McQueen and his 1961 Cooper T56 Formula Junior
Ok. Let’s face the inevitable and bring Mr. McQueen back into the discussion. The truth is that this example of the T56 has a remarkable history even without the Cooler King. The car was one of the two Cooper Works cars campaigned by Team Tyrell in 1961. With Tony Maggs winning at Goodwood, Magny-Cours, Monza, Kalskoga, Rouen, Zandvoort, Oulton Park, and Montlhery this car won Tony and Team Tyrell the European Formula Junior Championship for the season. After the season, the car was returned to Cooper and subsequently snatched up by McQueen while Steve was in Europe pickup up a Mini Cooper and attending John Cooper’s racing school. After taking the T56 back to the States, Steve captured a few wins with her in California. Indeed, this may be the car and the string of races that finally alerted the studio to Steve’s dangerous extracurriculars that famously resulted in the ultimatum that continuing to race would be the end of his acting career. The bastards.
After Steve and this Cooper parted ways, the car continued on to greater successes stateside with Al ‘Buster’ Brizzard winning SCCA championships with this car (fitted alternately with the BMC, Alfa, or Cosworth engine). The car eventually made its way back to Steve McQueen’s racing mechanic, Skip McLaughlin, for many years before its magnificent restoration by Hardy Hall. Today the car is on offer from the Canepa Collection and looks ready to grid up at the Goodwood Revival. Not bad. Not bad at all.
If the trailer is anything to go on, Ron Howard has taken his look at the rivalry between Hunt and Lauda very seriously. Even better, there are darn few obvious uses of CGI racing in these clips. I don’t know why Hollywood can make perfectly realistic dinosaurs or Gollum, but every instance of CGI auto chases plows straight into uncanny valley and looks like crap.
These weren’t little GoPros hanging off of the Maestro’s Lancia. Each of these cameras had to be loaded with film, started up, and run a few laps. Then they had to do it again and again so that you don’t see the giant camera in the other angles. It’s easy to dismiss the complexity of these earlier onboard films when we can easily toss a half-dozen or more digital video cameras on a car at every possible angle. It’s part of what makes early onboard footage so precious.
Looking through the slow motion montages in this clip, I have to believe it was part of the inspiration for Saul Bass’s racing sequences in Grand Prix.
With the future of the Nürburgring in some doubt, I think it’s worth celebrating how much of this master class from Hermann Lang (with voice over from Graham Hill) still applies today. Let’s hope that Mr. Lang’s example is applicable for at least another 50 years. Save the Ring!
