This looks to me like £255 well spent. From MotorSport Magazine April, 1932.
Category: Vintage Racing Advertising
Come on down to Ernie McAfee’s for everything you need for the races. Helmets, just like the pros use: $30. Add a visor to that for a sawbuck. Or perhaps you’re in the market for something bigger. Why not test drive the brand new Siata V8. It’s sure to impress the ladies and only $4995. Motor on down to 8363 Sunset, and tell ’em The Chicane sent ya.
(Naturally this location is now a Starbucks.. typical)
Another brilliant argument for the benefits of body-on-frame building. Are you bored with your Austin-7 or compact Ford? Why not just drop a new fiberglass body on that frame and have a sweet little racing special to take to the track or just cruise around town. See how easy it used to be to become the coolest kid on the block?
These were all from a single 1958 issue of MotorSport. The possibilities were endless, and cheap. Guess what you do if you’re bored with your compact Ford today… You deal with it. Or you glue a horrifically ugly wing on it. Yay! a big stupid wing!
Here’s another shot of Stirling Moss from a late 60s issue of Playboy, this time in an advertisement for AT&T. Naturally, Moss is a giant in the racing world, but I never realized that he was a well known enough figure in the States that he would be in a non-automotive ad in a mass-market magazine. Good Stuff.
Price as advertised (1955): £750
Adjusted for inflation (2008): £15,120 (US $24,169.32)
What that buys today: Mini Cooper S, Volkswagen GTI, well equipped Mazda Miata
Knowing where to place your pressure sensitive labels is an important part of your slot racing team strategy. Now you won’t be in the dark when you’re assembling your GTO or DB5.
Revell Corvette Stingray Assembly Instructions 
Revell Slot Car Bodies Ad 
Revell Chaparral Assembly Instructions 
Revell Aston Martin DB5 Assembly Instructions 
Revell Cobra Slot Car Assembly Instructions
Remember slot racers, magnets are for wimps; and me.
via.
What I think I like most about this ad for Dunlop R5 Racing tires is the photograph of a formula car wheel. No tire manufacturer today would have anything less than the very top-end wheels showcasing their products. They would be highly polished, and the photo retouched to absolutely scream “shiny and expensive”.
For this racing tire ad though, it’s just a simple stamped wheel with dull, dirty paint — looks like a Lotus “wobbly web” to me. Fantastic.
Old racing ads are just better, aren’t they? I also love that they focus on a variety of racing types, not just NASCAR like contemporary racing advertising does.
The Lotus Elan was one of the early wave of Lotus’ chassis innovation: the backbone chassis. This ad for the Elan is from 1964, but this platform still looks reasonably modern.
Look how easily this chassis could be adapted to fit any number of one-off or series built fiberglass rebodies. A few years ago, General Motors’ “skateboard chassis” touched on many of the same principles. Alas, it was just a concept.
A major reason for the sad lack of modern racing specials is the unibody chassis. If the tubular frame is indeed a thing of the past, can’t more modern manufacturers consider the backbone chassis as an alternative? We have to work together if we want to preserve the future, not just the past, of racing specials.
Think this address would work if I sent them a check for £550? It’s worth a try, don’t you think?