This is a big day for The Chicane. We finally get to let you in on something that we’ve been dying to share on the blog for some time.
After months of work, we’re finally ready to debut the first pieces of a line of vintage racing inspired clothing. Chicane Trackwear will ultimately include a variety of garments and accessories inspired by our love of vintage racing: everything from our favorite racing models, marques, teams, races, and eras of auto racing history.
The first items are two t-shirts from two very different parts of our vintage racing heritage. The Riverside International Raceway t-shirt is inspired by the early races held at the track in 1957. There are a lot of tracks that we’d like to feature on t-shirt graphics. But for our first, we though it was important to celebrate one of America’s great Lost Tracks. It would be obvious to have a Green Hell shirt, or a Circuito Palermo (and I suspect we’ll have one of each eventually), but celebrating America’s sportscar racing heritage has always been an important part of The Chicane, and there’s not many tracks more missed than Riverside.
The Yamura Motors t-shirt is our way of showing appreciation for the fictional Formula 1 team at the heart of John Frankenheimer’s legendary film, Grand Prix. In a few frames of the movie, you can see the Yamura pit crews gathering around Pete Aron’s machine wearing coveralls with a graphic very like this one. Most people might not understand it; but when someone does, it’s magic.
Available exclusively from the newly launched—and soon to expand—Chicane Shop.
After you’ve finished restoring your vintage sportscar, after you’ve accessorized it in period options, after you’ve carefully placed your “Last Open Road” decal on the rear window, you’re ebay searches are likely to turn to some of the rarer accessories for your ride; the factory luggage. Manufacturers continue the tradition today and everyone from Ferrari to Porsche to Mercedes offers, at prices to match the cars, custom luggage designed to fit precisely in the diminutive trunk.
Don’t fret if you can’t find the original Triumph dealer bag to fit under the bonnet of your TR3. Austrian specialty luggage maker Jochen 70 has released a line of bags designed to fit in your classic, and look appropriate doing it. You can even order with your choice of colored racing stripes to match your livery. Following in the tradition of specialty motoring luggage, sadly, is the expense. Their launch bag, available only to participants of this year’s Mille Miglia and customized with the driver’s name and car number, are available for €1,000. Yeesh.
Let’s hope the expense is simply the Mille Miglia Driver tax and that once the final line is available, it’ll be so at a variety of price points.
This video of a Lotus 11 at VIR equipped with a Traqmate data acquisition unit is fascinating. The Traqmate system relies on a couple of core modules to provide fairly sophisticated data for your lapping. The heart of the system is a high-accuracy GPS receiver that records your vehicle’s position 4 times per second. Coupled with an accelerometer to measure speed and G-forces, the system paints a picture of your performance throughout the race. Back at your computer, mate the data to the Traqview analysis application to visualize this data overlaid on a map of the track, or when attached to a video camera, watch a video game-esque playback of your race. If your race group has several members using the system, it can marry the data from all of the participants to show the entire racing group’s performance; allowing you to swap notes with your friends on the track. The system allows you to ’see’ your race from a completely different perspective. Neat stuff.
They also offer a variety of accessories such as bullet cameras to get good camera positioning on the car, and a module to attach your tachometer to the system to record RPM over the course of the race (as seen in the playback video above). Fantastic stuff.
It looks like there are more and more options for the vintage racer that doesn’t want to look like a NASCAR driver in the pits. OMP has renewed their vintage offerings with a line of excellent FIA compliant, fire-resistant garments worthy of your vintage racing car. They look absolutely brilliant and offer another good alternative to Dunlop Blues (always a good choice).
Their Vintage Superleggera one piece suit is three layers of, as the name suggests, very lightweight knitted material weighing only 280 grams per square meter. Race suits that look tasteful are always hard to find. And always expensive. I’m glad to see more companies entering the vintage market. It was only a few years ago that the only option for vintage-styled race suits were small boutique tailors that made suits of excellent quality, but at extremely high prices. While I’m a bit mixed on yielding the entire market to the mass producers of the world, I am glad to see some price competition from the likes of larger producers like OMP and Sparco.
The boots in the new line are, arguably, the real highlight of the group. Although we’ve looked at vintage-styled offerings from Puma in the past, and Piloti offers race boots that don’t interfere too much with a vintage aesthetic, these Carrera boots look almost as if Jim Clark just kicked them off.
I find it amazing (and disappointing) that ’super obnoxious colors’ has become such a shorthand for “racing” that we have to commend racewear makers for their restraint in choosing the simple, streamlined, unadorned lines that have been the hallmark or motosport since its inception. That’s always been the point, strip away the unnecessary; yank off the bumpers, remove the chrome strips — this is the defining characteristic of racing aesthetic. The Carrera boots are an excellent example of extending this philosophy.
As we start to reassemble Paul’s Vee (hopefully) in time for this year’s Spring Brake, I realized that I didn’t have a good technique for safety wiring.
Jimmy’s Garage to the rescue.
Amazon offers a starter kit , and also this monster SK Hand Tool version with a spring-powered return. Keep those twists tight, people!
Shell has picked up the flag planted by Grand Prix Originals in offering a wide series of garments and accessories that evoke the history of Shell’s racing effort (in particular, their sponsorship of Jochen Rindt) under the name Magic of Motoring. Perhaps the standout of the collection is this LM Jacket, named for the Ferrari 275 LM that Jochen Rindt brilliantly piloted to victory in the 1965 24 Hours of LeMans.
It’s damn-near perfectly executed and if your friends don’t know any better, they’d believe it was dead-stock vintage sewn in ‘66. The details are what really make it, from the small X-100 racing fuel patch on the breast, to the vintage Shell logo, to the “5 cans” graphic on the lining; it’s truly a splendid jacket. Unfortunately it’s not on my immediate purchase list for 2 reasons. 1: £160 is a touch steep for a cotton jacket. More importantly in my case is reason 2; it’s white, which means it would be stained about 20 minutes after I put it on for the first time. That being said, it’s a spectacularly realized version of the type of garments I’d like to see more of: Garments that not only commemorate vintage racing, but look period-appropriate. No airbrushed or heavily Photoshop filtered racecar shirts for me, thank you.
While the price on that jacket is a touch high, it’s not so high that I wouldn’t still consider it. An easier sell, though, is a very nice series of T-shirts. Certainly more affordable, they’re well designed and, like the jacket, look fairly period-appropriate. Although T-shirts as anything but undershirt weren’t popular at the time, the graphic and print method employed on these shirts look like it could have come from the ’60s. Naturally, my affinity for 500cc Formula 3 cars is coming through as I pick this shirt honoring the 1950 500cc International Race as my favorite. Each is inspired by the photography and illustrations that made up the series of “Shell Successes” booklets published in the ’60s to commemorate victories by competitors in all series of motorsport using Shell fuel. Good Stuff.
I would be remiss if I also didn’t point out the one thing that makes this series particularly appealing to vintage racers. They also offer a fully FIA compliant race suit in an equally appealing vintage style. Similar to the LM Jacket, it features a small X-100 breast patch, shell logo, and red stripes down the arms. It is also available with custom embroidered name panel on the opposite breast. It looks every bit as authentic as Dunlop Blues for your race weekends.
Ok, ordinarily we don’t put Sir Stirling at the top of the Best Dressed list. Trackside, however, many vintage racers could use the inspiration. Look at this photo. Dunlop blues and a non-airbrushed helmet tucked under his arm, as the racing gods intended. If you have a BRDC patch for the breast, all the better.
Technically, yes, you could wear your Team M&Ms race suit. And I’m sure it’s fireproof and everything. But then you’d be wearing a Team M&Ms race suit. You’ve spared no expense making your vintage racer period-correct where possible. You’ve probably retained the original color, placed your racing number and sponsor stickers with care. Begrudgingly increased the height of that roll-bar, mumbling about authenticity under your breath no doubt. It’s not a big leap to take that same attention to detail and apply it to the car’s single most important component—the driver.
Of course the racing drivers of old never worried about pesky things like fire. They just straightened their ties and got on with it, just like our fried Mike Hawthorne here. Thankfully, Racewear.co.uk manufacturers and sells a fully FIA compliant race suit in Dunlop Blue. They demonstrate exactly the kind of restraint that modern motorsport has been unable to.
That being said, they’re a bit expensive. For the more budget-minded driver Sparco’s vintage stripe racing suit from last year can be found on sale through many retailers and makes a great substitute.
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.
Racing Books
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.
Movies
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.
For The Walls
I’m sure there’s still some small piece of bare wall somewhere. No? Not even in the garage? Maybe the master bathroom.
Video Gaming
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.
A post on the Make magazine blog this morning regarding using the factory tow-hook mount on modern cars as a camera mounting point led me to this product from GoPro. The Motorsports Hero camera mount package offers options for mounting video cameras in a variety of ways on your car or helmet. I often see cars at the track with cameras mounted to the rollbar, but I know that many monoposto drivers have had trouble coming up with mounting options for their cars. The GoPro site shows cameras mounted on helmets, windscreens, suspension components or bodywork… certainly you’ll be able to find a spot on your racing car.
Video over your shoulder can be a one-step method for improving your track times, especially if your racing group compares videos. You can study the corners you hesitate in, your racing line, and road surface to help your times from day to day, or from race weekend to race weekend.
I think the real possibility for benefit within the historic racing community here is to compile these videos in a central location to help study-up on new tracks, or improve your own times by observing the laps of your fellow drivers in one place you’ve never been able to—the drivers’ seat. So let’s start seeing these videos you’ve been shooting on the web somewhere. Start loading them up, drivers—we want to see them too.
These leather satchels from Caracalla Bagaglio stir the soul. Big enough to carry your helmet and race suit and boots.. or as carry-on luggage for a weekend away, the Commemorative Motorsport collection are handsome and look purposeful. I’ve been seeing these advertised in Octane and elsewhere for quite some time now, but I haven’t been able to put my finger on why I like them so much until recently. Taken as a single piece, they are quite attractive. But in comparison to other racing attire and accessories, they really shine. The vast bulk of racewear is a gaudy mess of logos, bright colors, and other nonsense, with a checkered flag thrown in for good measure. The restraint practiced by Caracalla in designing these bags makes them all the more sophisticated and classic. And desirable. Well done.
It was a difficult task to pick a favorite to show today. The porschefile in me wants to showcase the 550 Spyder inspired #37 commemorating Porsche’s first class win at the 24 Hour of LeMans, but the sheer beauty of this Birdcage Maserati inspired #5 bag won me over. Reliability plagued the team that year at LeMans and the Argentina 1000, but Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney piloted the #5 Birdcage to a win at the Nürburgring 1000km in 1960, despite a broken oil line early in the race. The Maserati repeated the feat the following year. A truly marvelous car, truly marvelous drivers, and a lovely bag.
Take a look at the complete collection. Even better, Caracalla will custom build a bag for you in your race colors with your racing number. Now that’ll look sharp in the pits.
This is a big day for The Chicane. We finally get to let you in on something that we’ve been dying to share on the blog for some time.
The Yamura Motors t-shirt is our way of showing appreciation for the fictional Formula 1 team at the heart of John Frankenheimer’s legendary film, Grand Prix. In a few frames of the movie, you can see the Yamura pit crews gathering around Pete Aron’s machine wearing coveralls with a graphic very like this one. Most people might not understand it; but when someone does, it’s magic.
, and also this monster 
version with a spring-powered return. Keep those twists tight, people!
Ok, ordinarily we don’t put Sir Stirling at the top of the Best Dressed list. Trackside, however, many vintage racers could use the inspiration. Look at this photo. Dunlop blues and a non-airbrushed helmet tucked under his arm, as the racing gods intended. If you have a 
These leather satchels from Caracalla Bagaglio stir the soul. Big enough to carry your helmet and race suit and boots.. or as carry-on luggage for a weekend away, the Commemorative Motorsport collection are handsome and look purposeful. I’ve been seeing these advertised in Octane and elsewhere for quite some time now, but I haven’t been able to put my finger on why I like them so much until recently. Taken as a single piece, they are quite attractive. But in comparison to other racing attire and accessories, they really shine. The vast bulk of racewear is a gaudy mess of logos, bright colors, and other nonsense, with a checkered flag thrown in for good measure. The restraint practiced by Caracalla in designing these bags makes them all the more sophisticated and classic. And desirable. Well done.
