Paring iconic racing cars back to a simple illustration of their roofline silhouette and best known liveries makes for a wonderful poster execution by designer Dean Walton. Click on through to his store to browse the complete series.
More from the Topps World on Wheels bubblegum card collection. This time, Connaught.
From the card’s reverse:
Horsepower: 107 A tiny factory in England, producing only about two cars per week, makes the Connaught. The body is very light and is built for speed. It has cycle fenders, outside exhaust pipes, bucket seats and a good finish. The price of the Connaught is $5,500! the basis for this car is a Lea-Francis engine. Under the cowl is a two and one half gallon gas tank.
You don’t have to be able to read French to enjoy Marvano’s Grand Prix series of graphic novels. These images speak for themselves and should probably work their way onto your bookshelf. I’m afraid I suffer from that dreaded affliction of believing that color was invented somewhere around 1959 so seeing the vibrance in these renderings of the French Gran Prix and Tripoli Grand Prix and Brooklands is a wonderful treat.
Marvano’s vibrant and wonderfully realized ligne claire illustrations naturally bring to mind fellow Belgian Hergé and—like Hergé’s Tintin–the characters surrounding the Silver Arrows in the 1930’s take us to marvelously exotic locations and stirring drama. And that’s all without being able to read a word of it. Reviews say, and Marzano appears to have confirmed, that while the people and locations are true, the story is somewhat fictionalized. As the author puts it: “The ingredients are historical but the dishes are fictitious.”
I suspect that this doesn’t diminish the work in the slightest but race historians may cry fowl as they see cars that crashed out early in Avus continuing to circle the track. I will not be among them and quite enjoyed the first volume of the three part series, which is currently available on Amazon (Grand prix, Tome 1 : Renaissance) with a forward by Jackie Ickx.