How hard do you think that Alfonso de Portago would laugh if we could tell him that racing teams have models in the pit lane who’s job it is to shield the drivers from the sun? De Portago didn’t need someone to cover his head when it started to rain before the 1957 Cuban GP and he certainly didn’t need it for the sun. A Shell ad wedged in the windscreen of his Ferrari 860 does just fine, thank you very much.
I don’t know that the 1970 running of the LeMans 24 Hours race is particularly pivotal for the public at large, but that particular running is just so cemented in my mind. I’m sure the documentation of it in the form of McQueen’s LeMans is the key reason. Also significant for Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood’s victory that gave Porsche their first outright win at the race: A feat they’d repeat 15 more times and started Porsche down their road to winningest team in the event’s history.
These images from Flickr user ZANTAFIO56 only serve to further add to the importance and beauty of the race in my mind. He seems to have been all over the track, with some marvelous shots from several corners of La Sarthe and the pits as well. More of Zantafio56’s shots at his flickr set. Fantastic!
I just realized that this is my third 917-centric post in a week. I’ll take a break from her now. I promise.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll never have a 917. But man, I’d sure like one of these Shell Super oil cans—particularly in the condition seen in this marvelous shot in the pits at Spa by Rainer Schlegelmilch.
When I see images like this one of Rudolf Caracciola in his Mercedes-Benz W154 at the 1938 Copa Ciano, I am both energized by it and saddened.
Imagine the cacophony reverberating off the buildings of this narrow alley in Livorno, Italy. Imagine the show that this handful of people are having as they peer out from entryways and lean out of windows along the Montenero Circuit. It’s almost an intimate moment captured between driver and spectator as Rudolf glances up from his racing line and makes eye contact with a racing fan poking his head out of a doorway.
It’s most noticeable in the restrictions on pit access, but these opportunities for racing driver and enthusiast to connect are just as lost during the race as before and after. The farther and farther we push fans from the action—for good reasons, as Daytona recently pointed out—the more isolated the driver is from the fan.
I’ve always loved them for their boxy, quintessential, even rudimentary “car shaped” silhouette, but it wasn’t until I spent some time in my buddy Paul’s 2002 that I realized what a sensational little machine it is. Even my dream garage is getting crowded but there’ll always be room for one of these.
I’m in the market for a new car so I made my way through the Auto Show this winter. It didn’t have anything on this.
I’m trying to imagine a similar scenario with a contemporary racing car being given the full rotating platform treatment at an auto show.
Wireless microphone… Bad jokes… Inane listing of specs… “The only car in it’s class with [insert proprietary technology name here]”…
Every year we see a new collection from a fashion designer talking up his inspiration from Steve McQueen. My recommendation: Look to his countryman Masten Gregory. Dude was stylish. Seriously, when you can make two sets of goggles hanging around your neck look badass you’re doing something right.
Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.
I’m not entirely sure that Alberto Ascari would have loved Murray Walker’s introduction in this clip from Walker’s F1 Greats. Once the stats start rolling in I’m sure the mood would have lightened. Tremendous.
Not a terrible day at the office for Brabham, Surtees, Hill, and Clark.