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Grand Prix Bordino
I should spend more time in little Italian towns.
This Class 11 Beetle is gorgeous and I’d love to see more people racing their Bugs. I still wholeheartedly believe that the VW Type 1 engine is the best engine ever made. There are very few engines that you could tear down and rebuild on the side of the road with hand tools. It’ll run on anything—You could probably pour a bottle of Whiskey in the tank if you were desperate. Just a perfect embodiment of my appreciation for simplicity.
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… And We're Back
Sorry for the recent Chicane downtime. A bad case of malware infected my web server and all of my sites were offline for almost two weeks. Thankfully I’ve been able to clean the server and we should be back up and running. I don’t need to explain any of this to you though because, just like an old racecar, web sites are sometimes high maintenance machines. 🙂
I guess it just never occurred to me that a good deal of the Nürburgring’s Sudschleife survived after it fell into disuse in the early 70s and was (largely) demolished to make way for the GP circuit. How about a pleasantly leisurely drive around what remains?
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!
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
She may have never finished higher than 37th place (in a Chrysler Saratoga in 1952), but I have huge respect for anyone that attempted to tackle the mighty Carrera Panamericana. Jacqueline Evans, however, was not content to just do the race once. Ms. Evans was a piloto at every year of the Carreras running—from 1950 to 1954.
Arguably it was the 1953 race with her behind the wheel of the Eva Peron tribute Porsche 356 for which she’s most remembered. The car is certainly among the most famous liveries of the period. With its vibrantly painted portrait of the recently deceased First Lady of Argentina. Although she ran overtime which resulted in her disqualification in the race she is among the most photographed racers that year. Whether it was because of the exotic livery, the relative novelty of a woman racer, or because she just looked so very cool is anyone’s guess… but I’m sure glad she was.
En representacion de las mujeres del mundo indeed.
These are amazing. Sure. I guess I like Piloti Racing Shoes as much as the next guy, but their aesthetics are a far cry from the simple honesty of these deadstock 1960’s Les Leston Grand Prix vintage racing boots. Les Leston was a racer himself that started a popular car accessory shop on London’s High Holborn street and outfitted racers with custom steering wheels, fire suits, helmets, and the like. But these boots are just on another level.
I’m sure they’re not fire safe. I’m sure they won’t stand up to much abuse outside of the car. I’m sure they’re gorgeous. Now if only I could find a way to cram my 10½ EE feet into this pair of 7½ boots.
Available on eBay at a price appropriate to their amazingness.
Thanks for alerting us to this one, Paul!
Originally intended as a commemorative gift for Jimmy himself, modelmaker Henri Baigent’s work took on an additional weight of importance in the wake of Clark’s death. Whenever I see these kinds of amazing artifacts being built I can’t help but wonder where this little marvel is today. At the time, Ford and Firestone provided Henri with technical drawings and even the appropriate rubber compound to create the model in 1:12 scale. Now if he’d just built 12 of them we could be driving it around Silverstone: That’s how this works, right? When the models are this exact I can’t be sure.
Via Motorsport Magazine [the best]