I’m not usually into “Crash Porn”, but this video of folks taking on the Nurburgring in their road cars demonstrates a few things: 1. road cars of the 60s and 70s were fragile and made an enormous mess when you rolled them (Except for Beetles, which look to be tough as Hell). 2. the Nurburgring’s reputation is no joke.
Green Hell, indeed.
And what’s more; the Adenauer Forest esses are still kicking people’s asses today.
Bandinis are too precious to waste, my friends. Thankfully, the crew at D&D Classics agrees. The car was quite a mess when the pulled it from an open shed in 2002. A weaker stomach would have just given up on her. The aluminum body panels were bad enough, but once they cracked the engine a gearbox, it just got worse and worse. Seriously, the photos of the gearbox internals are enough to make you ill.
This Bandini has an interesting history all it’s own. This very early single overhead cam Crosley powered version was imported to New York in ’56 and to be delivered to Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond. Sadly, Raymond was killed in a car crash before he was able to take delivery. The car sat for a year before being snatched up by Connecticut racer, George Tipsword who took the Bandini to a few podiums. The car changed hands several times before arriving in the service station of Larry Melsheimer, who held the car for 30 years waiting to restore it. Apparently, the car is still under restoration with her new owner in Germany. I’m looking forward to seeing it complete. I absolutely adore these little Bandinis.
For more on the marque, Etceterini is the definitive source.
Mark Evans hands over the restoration duties to the non-experts in the British show, Wreck Rescue. When 20 year old Lizzy takes on this absolute basket case Sprite for her first-ever restoration project, there wasn’t much to be optimistic about. She did a hell of a job though.
Let’s take a spin around La Sarthe with Jonathan Palmer in his 962, shall we?
This is probably from 1987, the year Jonathan Palmer shared a car with James Weaver and Price Cobb for team Liqui Moly Equipe. They DNFed after 112 laps.
Follow along with the brave restorers at Gunnar Racing as they tackle the restoration of a mystery 917. So far it looks like it might be 917-021, but apparently Gunnar took on this project without it’s serial number plate, so they’ll be relying on additional details to help establish it’s provenance. I’m willing to give the folks at Gunnar the benefit of the doubt, they’ve restored their share of 917s in the past, as well as examples of just about every other Porsche racing model. Perhaps the mystery is the reason they’ve chosen to document the hell out of their restoration. Whatever the motivation, I’m glad to see the frequent updates. They’re 12 releases into an ongoing YouTube video series documenting the process; everything from grinding down the paint to see the history of liveries, to suspension and transmission and my-word-that’s-scary-to-take-apart removals. Coupled with reams of photos on the restoration team’s blog, this is pure Stuttgart candy. They’re hoping to debut the restored car at this year’s Monterrey Historics, I can’t wait to see how it turns out. It’s nice to not have to wait until the debut to see the car, I’ll be following along closely on their YouTube channel.
You can also follow along on the 917 discussion forum at CKnet.
Some nice old Mini footage here. Was it the only front wheel drive racing car worth a damn?
Here’s more footage — Monte Carlo Rallye 1965
