Justin Lapriore has returned to Amelia Island for their 2014 concours and, just as in previous years, has created an absolutely stunning document of the event.

I can think of worse ways to start the day than rising before dawn with a Ferrari 330 P4. I love that the owner has that license plate. Hell, I love that he even has it plated.

You can really see that Justin’s reputation within the Amelia participants has grown alongside his growing video artistry. What used to be beautifully shot scenes of the cars simply passing by has expanded to give him a greater level of access: clipping a camera on the wing of Jochen Mass’ McLaren or going handheld inches off the bumper of Can-Am cars as they roll out of garages and along fairways. Wonderful, close detail shots with equally enthralling exhaust notes. Riding shotgun with Hurley Haywood ain’t bad either.

An aspect of the film that I enjoy is that the pure glory of these machines shares the stage with shots of the people that make these events happen. You start to get an idea of how much work a concours d’elegance truly is.

It’s one thing to gain this level of access, it’s another thing to do something with the opportunity. Justin Lapriore has delivered again on that front and many others. Great stuff, Justin.

It looks like you can get a LOT closer to the stars at the Maranello Ferrari Museum than I would have thought. Mattia Merli shot this remarkable collection of F-car details three years ago, so they might have come to their senses in the meantime. Then again, this footage looks like it pre-dates the newer architecturally marvelous facility. I’m not sure I’d be able to resist climbing into the pilot’s seat without at least a symbolic barrier between me and these gorgeous prancing horses.

From the Cinecetta soundtrack, so the gorgeous machines, to the charm of the man at the heart of this short documentary, “Porsche, Ferrari, Bizzarini and Other Fundamental Steps in Life” is beautiful and romantic.

Luciano Rupolo is absolutely inspiring. I envy those that were able to get into vintage racing in the 70’s; a time when you could buy a car like a Giannini 750 Sport as a teenager.

The man has built a hell of a garage in the years since. I love his admiration for his cars, his reverence for his cars, but also his more carefree attitude about them. I equally cringe and applaud when he spins donuts alongside a brick wall in his Iso Grif Competizione or sets his metal cornered briefcase on the bonnet of his Ferrari 250 GT/E. Be sure to watch through his story of finding and restoring what is arguably the oldest Porsche in the world.

Seeing vintage images from Goodwood really drives home how good a job the Goodwood organization has done in keeping the spirit of the old track very much alive. I can almost shift these photos to color in my mind thanks to the coverage and imagery from the contemporary Goodwood races.

Some of these photos (maybe all of them?) are by Alan Smith, who has prints available at Rosenstiel’s.

via Librarying.

Artist Fabian Oefner creates the illusion of beautifully exploding machines using a combination of modelmaking, sketching, photography, and digital manipulation. They’re almost balletic in how delicately they’re presented.

The results are still arrestingly beautiful, but part of me was disappointed to see that these are more Photoshop than sculptural. How fantastic would that exploded P4 look on your mantle as a physical object in the vein of a small scale version of Jonathan Schipper’s “Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle”? Time to break out the Testors.

via Top Gear.

24 minutes of Fangio footage… No clever title nor caption needed.

Stance Works photographers visited the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the results are magnificent. Somehow I think that photographers Mike Burroughs and Andrew Ritter made the slightly gloomy weather work to their advantage. Beautiful images. Click on over to Stance Works for the complete gallery.

This past weekend was the CSRG Charity Challenge race and was by all accounts a resounding success. With near record participation and incredible all-time record attendance by spectators, the event increased their charitable donation to Sonoma Chapter of the Speedway Childrens Charities by more than 40% over last year. Congratulations, CSRG!

Unfortunately, the weekend’s successes coincided with the passing of founding CSRG member David Love. His 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa has been a mainstay of west coast events for decades. The Charity Challenge was no exception. David always believed that the race weekends were about the cars, with the drivers taking a back seat. In a way, it’s beautiful that the car was there. There’s something haunting, though, about this image of the car paddocked for the weekend. It’s as though the car is serving as her own eulogy.

It really says something about David’s commitment to vintage racing that arrangements were made for the car to be a part of the event even though he could not. David’s remarkable spirit that he brought to vintage racing carries on.

More photos from the event below. I’m glad that CSRG’s communications of the event remain celebratory for the fantastic race weekend.

I’m continuing to wade through the box of slides and prints that Gary Mason sent in chronicling his lifelong love of photographing sportscar and formula racing (particularly Maseratis). In addition to these gorgeous images of the paddocks of the 1957 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, there is a large pile of shots that a then teenaged Gary was able to capture from the race itself (they’re coming, I promise). These particular shots of the Ferrari and Maserati paddocks really jump out at me though and are worth sharing on their own.

It’s been well covered here and elsewhere what a shame it is that spectators are all but barred from the paddocks of contemporary Formula 1. But it’s not just the level of access that strikes me about these photos. It isn’t just that Jean Behra’s Maserati 250F or Peter Collins Lancia Ferrari 801 is just sitting right there, a hair’s breadth away; begging you to casually extend a pinkie and touch it and prove to yourself that it’s real. What catches my eye is what surrounds these magnificent machines or, rather, what doesn’t. This isn’t just access to the paddock; it’s access to a nearly empty paddock. Empty of security to be sure, but also eerily empty of other spectators. Plenty of room to stand back and frame up a photo. Nearly impossible today even at club races.

Bonus Denis Jenkinson on the left there gathering notes and photos on the Ferraris for Motor Sport, no doubt. A nearly embarrassing charge of excitement leapt through me when this image slowly revealed itself line by line as the scanner worked its way through the slide: “Hey, that’s Jenks!”

As Gary pointed out in a comment on this similar photo taken a few years later, note the jump from garage 12 to garage 14. Can’t be too careful when you’re looking for luck on the track that day! No unlucky #13 garage for me, thank you.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Track photos of the main event and support races for the ’57 Italian GP to come as soon as I can get the images properly indexed and identified.

See more of the Gary Mason Archive.

It’s not just because it’s beautiful. Which it is. It’s not just because of it’s relationship with Ascari. Which it has. For me, part of its allure is because of what it represents as a nod to a time when racing teams wouldn’t let themselves be pushed around.

When the Formula 1 rulebook got too restrictive, constructors embraced Formula 2 as a means to really showcase their engineering prowess. Every few years, this notion pops up again: that Formula 1 is holding constructors back and so begins the threatening and posturing that the series will be abandoned and that constructors will start their own series. Every single time, part of me hopes that they will. This Ferrari 500 proves that racing teams can do just that… and do it brilliantly.