These images from a wonderful thread on Pasion a la Velocidad reminds me that road racing in the Americas was so much larger than we typically remember today. For every Sebring or Paramount Ranch or Bahamas Speed Week or Argentine GP, there were countless communities that closed off a few blocks and made a weekend of it.
Again, I’m struck by the beauty of these tropical racing venues. These vistas from the Circuito Cuidad Satelite la Trinidad prove that the views from the countryside surrounding Caracas, Venezuela were every bit as majestic as those from Sicily or Brescia.
See the full thread for even more photos and remembrances from the Venezuelan road racing community.
Ferrari: Modena Italia presenta: 166 millemiglia. 250 millemiglia.
Love the high-contrast illustration style in this page from a 1953 Ferrari brochure. I’ve looked high and low for a higher resolution image with no luck, so I can’t read the listed specifications. Anyone have any idea what the olympic rings are doing here?
Update: I found another page from a 1955 Ferrari brochure that uses a graphical device similar to the olympic rings and discusses championship wins. Were the interlocking olympic-style rings used more generically to symbolize international competition in the years before the International Olympic Committee cracked down on unauthorized use?
Worth noting that the graphical device used in the ’55 brochure page bears a resemblance to the Auto Union/Audi rings. Curiouser and curiouser.
October 12th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Ferrari
I’ve sat on this photo for a while now. Partially because I couldn’t identify when this was at Ferrari. If I was a better sportscar trainspotter, I could probably identify the era of this photograph based on the parts in the background. Hell, I’m sure some Ferrari Chat members can identify the technicians in this image. So it’s just been sitting on my hard drive. Were these guys casting 166MM engine cases? or 375 F1 transmission housings?
I don’t know. But this image kept being something I wanted to share, because despite how little I do know about this photo, there’s one thing I’m sure of: It wasn’t that long ago that there wasn’t much difference between a World Championship team and a bunch of SoCal hot rodders.
Over on the Angola Off Road forums, commenter Kadypress has been uploading his collection of photos and news clippings from several of the Grande Prémios de Angola of the early-mid 60s. It’s fantastic to see the Ferrari LMs and Porsche 904s and the occasional older machine on the streets of Luanda with the palm fronds whipping in a stiff coastal wind. These tropical settings make these amazing machines seem all the more exotic.
Willy Mairesse won the day completing 100 laps of the Circuito da Fortaleza street circuit in the Equipe National Belge Ferrari 250LM in 2 hours 31 minutes. Gerhard Koch took the GT class in his own privateer Porsche 904.
Lovely snips shot by Roy Pagliacci of the 1969 Monza 1000km. Some from (what looks to me like) turn 8, and a few heatbreakingly brief glimpses of cars entering the banking for the final time. Bellissimo!
Luc Ghys’ photos from events around continental Europe are always magnificent, so you can imagine how pleased I was when an email from him popped up letting me know about his snaps from the Goodwood Revival. I was immediately drawn to this set he shot of Goodwood’s event remembering Fangio. Usually when I think of the Revival I inevitably immediately jump to all the imagery I can find of the legendary TT revival and the high-performance high-beauty high-dollar machines.
This eclectic mix of cars from El Meastro’s past, however, reminded me of something vitally important, and something I so love about the era: Variety. Just look at this mix of machines; and this is by no means a complete collection of Fangio’s racers. There’s everything here: from the Grand Prix cars for which he’s most known, to the Carrera Panamericana and Mille Miglia machines, to smaller voiturette racers. Almost more amazing than Fangio’s five Formula 1 World Championships is that while he was winning them, he was also competing in anything else he could find.
Just look at the buzz that gets generated today when Montoya moved to NASCAR, or Raikkonen hit the rally course (or NASCAR, himself). I applaud these drivers for attempting to take on the variety of racing opportunities available to these top-tier drivers. But that excitement wanes when I consider that this is newsworthy at all. Of course Kimi should want to rally! Of course JPM should want to turn left for two hours! These cravings for new races and racing cars still exist in every driver; it’s just a shame that contemporary racing teams seem to frown on these “unnecessary extra-curriculars”.
Not so in Fangio’s day. Thank you Goodwood for reminding us. Thank you Luc for sending along these images so we could all see.
If you’d told me a few months ago that I would lose three hours to digging through the archives of a blog about bags and wallets I’d have… Well, I’d have completely believed you because that’s exactly the kind of thing I nerd out over.
What I wasn’t expecting, was to find that the crew over at Carryology also featured an interesting dive into vintage motoring luggage with a particular focus on mid-century Mercedes luggage.
We’ve touched briefly on vintage sports car luggage before, but these guys actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to luggage construction and utility.
Even though these suitcases and trunks reek of impracticality today, I think they’re particularly remarkable examples of sports car ephemera even though they hint at the direction that the sports car industry would take.
At a time when the sporting car was a tool for driving, stripped of all unnecessary frivolity, the practical problem of transporting stuff was a problem. The solution was luggage custom crafted to fit the unusual contours of storage space in the little machines. Naturally the luggage was well made from fine materials—luxurious even. Unfortunately what the industry seemed to take away from this and other luxe add-ons is that they should merge the sports car with the luxury car.
In my opinion it’s a regrettable, but probably inevitable, move away from a purer sporting machine. It may even be one more reason why there’s such a wide difference between a “sports car” and a “race car” today.
Read more at Carryology’s post, which offers additional fascinating tidbits on the 300SL’s clever golf bag holder, and introduced me to Taris Charysyn, who make high quality reproductions of luggage for a dozen or more models of vintage sports car.
My 212 Ferrari… In perfect tune and in showroom condition
Top Speed… 130 mph • 0 to 60…7.5 sec. • 0 to 100 mph…16sec. • Perfectly behaved in city traffic (getting 20 mpg) • Road tested in Nov. ’52 issue of Road and Track • Price…$7,800.
Write or phone Phil Hill, 5670 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 28, HEmpstead 3165
