Tag: Vintage Racing

Categories
Classic Sportscar For Sale

Bandini-Maserati 1500: 1 of 1

I woke up late on Sunday and turned on Spike TV’s “Powerblock” of automotive shows for a few minutes while I got up and around. During the episode of Muscle Cars, there was a brief spotlight on the early 60’s Pontiac GTO variant, the Catalina. The Catalina was a 2+2 (a designation borrowed from Ferraris of the period), and was available with beefier horsepower than even the coveted GTO. During the segment, they cut to a Catalina owner who commented that, “you never see these at car shows, and never on the street, they’re very rare”. Compared to the GTO perhaps they’re rare, but in the 61-67 era the show focused on, Pontiac kicked over 25,000 Catalinas out the factory doors. Rare, eh?

Now this; this is rare. This Maserati powered 1953 Bandini 1500 is on offer from Digit Motorsport in Arizona. It wasn’t uncommon for Bandini importer, Tony Pampeo, to bring rolling Bandini chassis into the United States and then add a engine, typically a Siata, Alfa, Fiat, MG or Offy. This time, however, Tony dropped a Mille Miglia stalwart Maserati A6 in the Bandini. Bellissimo!

The Mille Miglia eligible car looks immaculate following her €90,000 bare chassis restoration. The sale includes the documentation of the restoration, and certification from Dino Bandini as to this gorgeous barchetta’s authenticity. Remarkable. Now this, my friend, is something you never see at car shows. This is rare.

More photos and information is available at the dealer’s info page.

As always, if its Bandini, then Cliff has photos and information on it at Etceterini’s Bandini page.

Categories
Grand Prix

Life Archives: GP Drivers at the Indy 500

Invasion at Full Throttle!Google Books’ archive of Life Magazine has turned up another wonderful bit of racing history in this ominously titled article about the arrival of Grand Prix cars and drivers at the Brickyard.
“Invasion at Full Throttle” may have been a year or two early, but the prediction about the impending dominance of the rear-engined menace from across the pond was fairly accurate. It wouldn’t be long before Jim Clark would indeed be enjoying a bottle of milk at the end of the Indianapolis 500. Of course the author of this particular article would have been in a good position to know a thing or two about the funny little cars heading to the 500; Stirling Moss penned this piece. I’m sure Mr. Moss wasn’t to worried about ruffling a feather or two when he wrote, “I have a hunch that the U.S. will be shocked by what happens. In effect, the race will be an international showdown between our all-purpose, all-weather cars and drivers and your closed-circuit specialists who steer only to the left in beautifully built, overdeveloped, unsophisticated cars that belong to the past.” Overdeveloped AND unsophisticated? Ok, Stirling.
I can just imagine a midwestern race fan not finishing the article once he reached that passage and throwing the crumpled magazine across the living room. But Moss does backtrack a bit, describing his own experience behind an Indy Roadster at the Monza-napolis 500 several years earlier. It’s a wonderful read, especially with the knowledge of hindsight of the Indy at the front/rear engine transition and the impact of the European GP drivers on this most American of races.

Categories
Event

Es el Momento de la Carrera Panamericana

'63 Nova - Carrera ReadyLa Carrera Panamericana 2009 is set to start in a few short days. While most of us won’t be making the trip, Coop will be photoblogging from the road. He’s already begun with photos of the trip down to Huatulco for the start. Head on over to his blog for updates over the next several days. Have a great race, Coop.
Coop’s a veteran of a few Carreras. Check out his photos from his previous races.
Update: Coop made it safely back and has hundreds of photos on his Flickr stream.

Categories
Grand Prix Video

Around Rouen with Graham Hill

With a first row start and fastest lap in the race, the 1962 French Grand Prix really should have belonged to Graham Hill. But a minor bump with a privateer and later engine problems forced Graham to finish 10 laps off the pace. This race was made famous, of course, by Gurney’s win in a Porsche — the first Formula 1 win for both. Let’s take a spin around the forests of Normandy with Graham Hill at the wheel of his unlucky BRM, shall we?

Categories
Event

Cars and Boats and Planes, Oh My!

Photo from The Orlando Sentinel, who puts Roar 'n Soar in their list of 10 best festivals in Florida.
Photo from The Orlando Sentinel, who puts Roar’n Soar in their list of 10 best festivals in Florida.

As the vintage racing season starts to wind down in the North half of the US, it’s easy for us to forget that those of you in warmer climates can just keep on going. Scheduling of this interesting event that combines vintage aircraft and boating displays with a historic autocross in November sounds like pure folly to this Mid-Westerner. Which is, of course, the benefit of hosting the 2009 Roar ‘n’ Soar in Polk City Florida.

The Roar ‘n’ Soar weekend looks like a great day out for every variety of gearhead and vintage enthusiast. Vintage aircraft from the Fantasy of Flight Collection will be on display, with aerial demonstrations on their little brothers: hang gliders, paragliders, and RC planes. A display of vintage racing boats will pepper Lake Agnes in conjunction with the Classic Race Boat Association. Photos of a previous year’s event show show a large contingent of hot air balloons as well, but I don’t know if that’s continuing this year.

Of particular interest to Chicane readers though, is the adjoining autocross sponsored by the Jaguar Club of Florida. I’ve been to my share of autocrosses, and I’ve never before considered them particularly good spectator events. A great deal of fun to participate in, to be sure. But with no overtaking, it simply pales in comparison to wheel-to-wheel action. I think the team behind the Roar ‘n’ Soar has found a way to change all that. The simple overload of vintage machines at every angle make the autocross part competition, part high-speed car show. This is one autocross I would definitely attend as a spectator. Better yet, bring your vintage machine.
Any vintage machine, apparently.

Categories
Classic Sportscar For Sale

Ex-McQueen Siata Available in California

Hoo Boy! This one leaves me almost speechless. I do love a Siata 208. I love any Siata 208; but a Siata once owned by Steve McQueen — now that’s a show stopper. This Siata was the sportscar that McQueen bought himself shortly after his film career began to take off. This was in Hollywood’s studio era, and when studio management saw it, they forced him to sell it. They said it was too flashy. You know a car is something very, very special when it’s too flashy for a movie star to drive around in. I can’t image what would be more eye-catching, seeing this little grey barchetta (before it’s respray) bombing through Topanga Canyon, or seeing “The Cooler King” behind the wheel. Today, Fantasy Junction in Emeryville, CA has this stunner sitting in their showroom.

Famous ownership aside, it’s impossible to not fall in love with the details of the car. Everything from the braided leather door strap and hinge, to the chrome door jams, the original Ernie McAfee Foreign Cars sticker in the window, the Heuer clock and chronograph on the dash, the recessed door handles — you can get lost in every square inch of this magnificent machine.

There were some small sacrifices made for reliability when the engine was rebuilt in 2008, opting for a modern distributor and generator (the original parts come with the car). These modern upgrades certainly won’t keep you from entering this car in any event I can think of. Even the notoriously difficult to enter Mille Miglia would certainly accept a Siata 208S of any provenance. At 137hp, there aren’t a lot of places you can’t drive this car. 137 is a huge number for horsepower in 1953; a ’53 Cadillac had 210hp, and weighted 4800 lbs. This little Siata 208S weighs less than half that.

There’s no question that this is a tremendous car. Sure it’s $1.3Million, but then modern Ferrari Enzo’s have been known to trade at those kinds of prices, and I know which I’d rather have. Don’t worry though, popping over to the dealer’s detail page and basking in the photos is free. You can also read more about this Siata 208S in the marvelous book, McQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon, which I highly recommend.

Wow.

Just, wow.

Categories
Lost Track Video

1951 Bridgehampton Road Race Film

Our love for the Bridgehampton road race is well known. We even love the later purpose-built race course that has since suffered the ultimate humility—becoming a golf course.

But now is not the time to dwell on these tragedies, for some lovely footage of the 1951 Road Race has surfaced. Not seen in over 25 years, this fantastic film provided by Walter McCarthy and the Long Island Old Car Club showcases such competitors as Briggs Cunningham and John Fitch pushing their mighty Ferrari and Jaguar through a field of Cad-Allards, Healeys, Cisitalias, and MGs on city streets and county roads. This is absolutely marvelous!

Categories
Racing Ephemera Track Maps of the Past

Track Map of the Past

Karlskoga, Gelleråsen

Track maps have sure taken a turn for the worse since this illustration of the Swedish track Karlskoga, Gelleråsen. It’s absolutely fantastic. Dig the illustrated saloon cars racing around the front straight. Perfect.

Compare with the modern official map, and mourn the passing of elegance and style.

Categories
Video

Sebring 1967

I know I’ve said it before, but the recent increase of people digitizing their old 8mm home-movies and uploading them to YouTube continues to be a major source of delight. This time, it’s footage from the 1967 12 Hours race at Sebring. It looks like our cameraman picked a good corner to stakeout, lots of overtaking and a few harrowing spins here.

Mario Andretti and Bruce McLaren brought home the checkers from pole in their Mk IV Ford GT40 by a whopping 12 laps. Their Ford teammates A.J. Foyt and Lloyd Ruby were second; with the Mitter/Patrick Porsche 910 in third.

The program cover artist was pretty insightful when he crafted this cover, it shows 2 GT40s and a 910. Nice call on the podium finish!

Racing Sports Cars has photos and race details.

Categories
Historic Racing Photos

Vintage Minnesota Club Racing Photography

1957 Club Race

Racing photographer Tom Moran has uploaded some scans of photos of Minnesota’s racing past. There are dozens of painfully fantastic shots of the action and cars (and a few bikini-clad spectators) from the heydays of Donnybrooke Raceway (now Brainerd International Speedway). There are a handful of photos from a 1957 SCCA Land O’ Lakes region event that looks to have been an airstrip race. The set also includes a lush green (maybe that’s the Kodachrome) racing afternoon in the mid-60’s.

  • Yowza!
  • Minnesota Racing 1966
  • The Crowd Likes This Alfa

Of course, no Minnesota racing gallery is complete without some ice racing action. The sun sets mighty early up here in the north woods, so these racers aren’t just hitting the ice and trying to keep it from spinning, they’re doing it after dark. Impressive.

70’s Ice Racing

The entire gallery is definitely worth checking out. Thanks for sharing these shots, Tom.