Now I feel a bit better about my use of starter fluid. It must not be the crutch I thought it was if it’s good enough for a Silver Arrow at this year’s Goodwood Revival.
Majestic sound.
Categories
Fit Race-Proved
Ferodo First
British Grand Prix
1st Lotus-Climax J. Clark
2nd Lola-Climax J. Surtees
3rd Cooper-Climax B. McLaren
Touring Car Race
1st Jaguar 3.8 J. Sears
Fit race-proved Ferodo Anti-Fade Brake Linings. Disc Brake Pads.
Ferodo Limited · Chapel-en-le-Frith · A Member of the Turner & Newell Group
“I am not restoring this car, its a REAL time capsule race car from the 50’s and 60’s. Restoring this car would be like erasing and restoring a Monet… it wouldn’t be the same. It will not be modified with new parts. It will find its way back to the track but not to compete. I’ll let other the guys destroy 750F’s… this one will stay a barn fresh nostalgic racer.
Phil Knudsen
A car can only look its age and experience once.”
And with those words, I turned from casual browser of Phil Knudsen’s AlfaBB thread on his ’58 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce Spider Race car into an enthusiastic fan.
It started commonly enough, Phil had sourced this retired racer from the John Murphy collection in Atlanta. The engine was out of her and he was looking for more stories and photos of her time as a frequent racer up and down the East Coast.
Naturally, I assumed he was trying to establish provenance while he tore the body down and started restoration. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that he’s decided to keep her bodywork and even paint as she was when she went into storage. Only newly painted (but beautifully aged looking) new numbers were added to bring her back to her old racing livery.
Of course, there were those that disagreed. Suggesting that not fixing the paint was tantamount to neglect. Keep the rust away, sure, but no top-shelf restoration can possibly make her any more beautiful than she is today.
Keep fighting the good fight, Phil. That patina is priceless and she’s only original once.
Click on over to Phil’s build thread on AlfaBB for more.
An eye for the better things in life
Triumph
For BETTER Performance
For BETTER Economy of Operation
For BETTER Handling and Braking
For BETTER Value and Service
For BETTER Times and More Fun
YOU had BETTER see your nearest TRIUMPH Dealer Today!
Cal Sales, Inc.
Western U.S. Distributors
1957 @. 144th Street
Gardena, California
Categories
A Weekend in the North Woods
I spent part of Labor Day weekend at Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway for their Jack Pines Sprints racing weekend. Fans of CanAm racing will better recognize the Donnybrooke Speedway name as host to several events in 1970-72 where Denny Hulme, Peter Revson, and Francois Cevert took home victories.
The weekend also featured the Muscle Car Shootout on the drag strip that forms part of the main straight in the track’s 3.1 mile configuration. Thankfully, 2009’s addition of a 2.5 mile configuration of the track means that road racing and drag racing can happen at the same time.
Wandering back and forth between these two very different motorsport events is a great way to gain a greater appreciation for the variety within out sport. Seeing that there were many spectators trying to follow both the drags and the several road racing events of the weekend makes me realize that there’s less division between race fans than many motorsports outlets would have you believe.
This event was also a major personal milestone in that it was my 2-year-old son’s first vintage race weekend. Having him perched on my shoulders for much of the day didn’t make photography any easier, but here are some of the snapshots that I was able to grab in my now standard one-handed-phone-cam-while-steadying-a-squirmy-toddler photographic method.
Vintage sportscars on the twisty bits. Vintage Detroit iron on the drags. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, eh?
Whenever I see these types of candid photos of racing drivers, my contemporary jadedness comes through and I initially dismiss it as a manufactured photo opp for the papers. But then I think back to everything I’ve read about the camaraderie of the Formula 1 community in the 50s and 60s and I become a believer again.
Seeing Jim Clark and Graham Hill in this off-track incident here just seems wonderful… and genuine. Can you imagine Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button grabbing their ladyfriends for a bit of impromptu bumper-car action?
Me neither.
Categories
Champion
Champion
This is Phil Hill — current World Champion Racing Driver and the first American to hold this honor.
He drove as a member of the Ferrari team, and he used exclusively Supershell with I.C.A. and Shell X-100 Moto Oil — as most good drivers do.
Shell products are chosen by champions all over the world.
It’s got to be good to be Shell.
Categories
Add a Little Luxury
Can you imagine buying a center console for your contemporary car as an aftermarket accessory? I also wish Moto-Litas were still this cheap.
This set seems appropriate as we all catch our breath from Cobra’s celebration at the Monterey Historics. I often wonder if precious racing artifacts like this body buck for the Daytona Coupe are sitting under a tarp in a forgotten corner of a forgotten warehouse.
Whenever I see the wooden grid of one of these body bucks, or even a clay blank for a fiberglass mold, I am overcome with the desire to learn how to do this.
via The Henry Ford Museum’s Dave Friedman collection.
Update: In the comments, Fab says that some of these photos are of the body buck for the AC Coupe and not the Daytona Coupe. Looking at the rear end of the buck, I think he may be right. I hate when I do that.
Categories
Instagramming Car Week
I’ve given up on trying to cover the on-track events at the Monterey Historics, er… I mean… Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, from several time zones away, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t follow along on Instagram. Here’s a few favorites that attendees snapped this weekend.
Instagram’s desktop experience leaves much to be desired, but you can lose yourself by searching through the Instagram API for #carweek, #pebblebeach, #montereyhistorics, and #thequail. Beware, productivity loss ahead!