December 20th, 2008 | Published in Film, Video
In theory, this video has a lot stacked against it. Rheims was never the most popular track on the calendar, and Formula 1 fans objected to the 1.5 liter engine requirement imposed for the 1961 season. Even so, this looks a lot more exciting than the current season of F1.
December 10th, 2008 | Published in Automotive Art, Film, Grand Prix, Racing Ephemera, Racing Gear
It’s that time of year again, friends. While I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding a special gift for the vintage racing enthusiast in your life, it seemed like a good time to collect some of our, and probably someone on your list’s, favorites. Perfect for anyone snuggled in bed, while visions of racing cars dance in their heads.
It seems that gearheads never have too many bookshelves. Every year another hundred or so racing books are published; these are a few of our favorites.
I would hope that the racer on your shopping list would have these films in their collection already. If they don’t, they’re mandatory.
I’m sure there’s still some small piece of bare wall somewhere. No? Not even in the garage? Maybe the master bathroom.
It’s winter. Chances are, the racer on your list can’t take their car to the local track until spring. These should tide them over until then.
December 2nd, 2008 | Published in Classic Sportscar, Film, Video
George Lucas’ early love affair with racing cars is well known. As a young teenager, he aspired to become a racing driver himself. Until a near-fatal crash on a public road in his race-prepped Bianchina made him reconsider. Of course, that passion for auto racing comes through in his films, particularly American Graffitti, and several sequences of the Star Wars movies.
Here’s a nugget in the Lucas works that I hadn’t seen before Jalopnik posted about it today: A student film Lucas directed at USC in 1966. Filmed with a 14 person crew of students at Willow Springs, 1:42:08 features Peter Brock behind the wheel of a borrowed Lotus 23. Apparently George made such a pest of himself at Shelby’s shop that Brock finally agreed to take part in the film.
It’s beautifully shot, wonderfully minimal, and lacks any dialogue at all—Just let that Lotus do the talking.
April 25th, 2008 | Published in Audio, Film, Video
If you’ve been following our series on this wonderful album of audio recorded during research for John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix, you know what a joy it is to hear Phil Hill lead us through some of the stops of the ‘66 season. This time, it’s Monaco.
We start with 30 seconds or so of the the full grid of 16 drivers revving in preparation for the start of the GP. This could have well been the inspiration for the marvelous opening credits/overture sequence at the start of the film. Then we take a spin around the track with Graham Hill. A thrilling drive indeed.
It’s also interesting to hear Phil describe the technical details of the engine and transmissions of Formula 1 cars, followed by audio of drivers really pushing their engines and transmissions hard in several portions: hard on the brakes through Gasometre Hairpin and head up towards the pits, through the tunnel towards the chicane, and as heard by the spectators. As always, fantastic audio.
Follow along with this track map, pulled from the back of the record jacket.
Here’s the Monaco sequence from the film. Just these few minutes would have been a masterpiece even without the rest of the movie.
March 5th, 2008 | Published in Classic Sportscar, Event, Film, Video
This is the great thing about the internet in general, and YouTube in particular. How else would you have seen this incredible home movie shot in Mishawaka, Indiana of the mall parking lot gymkhana? YouTube has it’s share of useless videos, but the service done by Wloring in preserving this absolute gem and sharing it with us makes up for a whole lot of the jack-assery on the site.
According to the uploader, the cars and some of the drivers are (probably) :
Austin-Healey Sprite (Jeanne Ruble)
MG-B (Jack Harrell?)
MG-TD (Ed Steltner?)
repeats of above.
Formcar Formula Vee Jim Bell
Formcar Formula Vee Bert Olson
Mustang (note white sidewalls!)
Arnolt Bristol (F. P. “Wedge” Rafferty?)
Corvair coupe (Ray Hayes?)
Ferrari? (Bob Tarwacki?)
Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gull Wing Coupe (Carl Crowel)
Porsche 356 Coupe (possibly Lloyd Loring)
MG-A
Austin-Healey 3000 (6 cyl)
VW Bug
Triumph TR-3 (F Production race car)
Porsche 356 Roadster (Bob Runeman)
And while we’ve learned that YouTube comments can be among the dumbest thing on the internet, the discussion about this particular video actually uncovered new information on the cars and drivers in this event. These are things that make the internet truly astounding — no matter how obscure the information, somebody out there knows something about it.
March 4th, 2008 | Published in Classic Sportscar, Film, Porsche, Video
I’m an unapologetic Porschephile. So in celebration of Porsche taking control of over 50% of Volkswagen, here’s a lovely video I stumbled across on YouTube. By “stumbled on”, I mean “found during my regular several hours a week of combing through YouTube for historic motorsport video”.
This incredible film from 1948 shows the first 356 roadster test drive with Ferdinand Porsche alongside an MG TC.
Magic.
February 29th, 2008 | Published in Audio, Film, Grand Prix
We started our series celebrating this wonderful LP made during Frankenheimer’s filming of the epic Grand Prix by taking a tour of Monza. Let’s take a step back and get the basics with our host, Phil Hill. John Frankenheimer gives a wonderful description of the basics of F1 of the 60’s. Then Phil talks to Graham Hill about the differences between Grand Prix racing and sportscars. Hearing these voices speak with passion about their sport makes me wish for these attitudes to come back to the international motor racing community.
I particularly like the segment with Frankenheimer where he describes some of the motivations for making the movie. Later, Graham Hill describes the differences between Grand Prix driving and competing in the Indianapolis 500. Outstanding.
Have a listen.
February 27th, 2008 | Published in Classic Sportscar, Film, Video
The crew up at Dream Car Garage did a segment on the recent Allard recreations - here’s a youtube video of it.
February 21st, 2008 | Published in Audio, Film, Grand Prix
In preparation for his masterpiece 1966 film Grand Prix, John Frankenheimer undertook a series of audio recordings to help capture the spirit, mood, and excitement of the Formula 1 season. This LP is the glorious result of that research. Hosted by Phil Hill and featuring interviews with Graham Hill and Frankenheimer, this record takes us through the sounds of the Grand Prix season of 1966.
Grand Prix is the best racing movie ever made. Frankenheimer puts us in the cockpit, the pits, and in the stands. He developed camera mounting techniques that are still in use today. Some people will tell you that McQueen’s film LeMans is the better racing movie — Those people are wrong.
But enough about the movie (I’m sure I’ll be writing much more on that in the future). This LP was something that I didn’t know about until recently. And over the next couple of weeks I’ll post up tracks from the album. This first bit cuts straight to the chase and puts us right on the start finish line of Monza. This, of course differs from the banked track of the movie — which stopped being used after the ‘61 season (here’s a 2003 photo of the banking). We’ll hear the engine note of Jack Brabham’s Repco V8, Jim Clark’s Coventry-Climax, Ginther’s Honda V12, and Surtee’s Cooper Maserati. Then we’ll take a tour of the circuit aboard Michael Parkes’ Ferrari (Parkes sat on pole and ended up 2nd in the race that year).
Listen carefully and you can follow along on the track map.